Ciao! I'm Sydney
I am going to be a senior at Elon University in North Carolina. I am a Strategic Communications major and Professional Selling minor. At the Sant'Anna Institute, I will be completing a communications internship by creating social media content for both Art Hotel Villa Fiorella and Antico Palazzo Scala. Through this internship experience abroad I was able to further my understanding of the importance of communications at a global level. My professional goal is to work for a global public relations company and incorporate effective marketing and communication strategies which would appeal to a culturally diverse audience.
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Sydney Mahon
COMMUNICATIONS INTERN
Phone:
908-547-9196
Email:
Date of Birth:
December 8th, 1999
RESUME
INTERNATIONAL INTERNSHIP
For this internship I assisted the manager and owner, Alberto Colonna and his staff at the hotel in Massa Lubrense, Art Hotel Villa Fiorella, and the apartment building in Sorrento, Antico Palazzo Scala. At the hotel, I worked with Allumeuse PR and Communications agency to create content via email and Zoom calls. At the apartments, I worked directly with Giusy D'Orso to create an online communications strategy for Antico Palazzo Scala's multiple social media platforms.
DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY AND VIDEO
ART HOTEL VILLA FIORELLA
@art.hotelvillafiorella
Coordinated with Allumeuse PR and Communications agency on creating digital and video content intended to be used on the hotels social media platforms.
TIK TOK
ART HOTEL VILLA FIORELLA
@art.hotelvillafiorella
Created a Tik Tok account for the hotel, along with highlight reels of all of its attractions. The "for you page" and hashtags like #traveltiktok makes this recently popular social media platform a good place to advertise content.
ANTICO PALAZZO SCALA
@anticopalazzoscalasorrento
Contacted Facebook in order to delete the outdated 2015 Facebook page that was not active due to loss of password. Created a new Facebook page for the apartments and actively post on it.
ANTICO PALAZZO SCALA
@anticopalazzoscala
Posted pictures, stories, and highlight reels of the apartment and its local attractions on the current Instagram account. Prepared 20 posts through Planoly that will automatically post every 2 to 3 times a week until September.
REFLECTION
PROJECTS
Skills
1. Manage time & multiple tasks
When dealing with social media content, I had to use multiple different platforms and work on different tasks for each. I created a calendar to help me focus on what task to do on what day. I also made a list of certain attractions and events I wanted to highlight for both locations. Additionally, I was able to use resources such as Planoly to help me create a schedule for Instagram posts.
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2. Adapt to new environments
At the start of this internship experience, I was supposed to be working only at Art Hotel Villa Fiorella. After the first week, Alberto wanted me to do two days there, and two at Antico Palazzo Scala since they were struggling on their social media. I had to become familiar with two different locations, as well as a bus commute to Massa Lubrense. I ended up really enjoying having a schedule that changed locations and times each day. Massa Lubrense is much less of a tourist town than Sorrento, so it was a nice place to travel to.
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3. Capacity to ask for & receive help
Working internationally made me realize how important it is to utilize good communication skills. I was unfamiliar with the hotel and apartments, as well as the area and its culture. The language barrier did not make it easy, but it was necessary to ask my coworkers for help on certain tasks. I realized that people want to help you learn and grow in a work setting, therefore it is necessary to feel confident when asking questions.
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Challenges
At Art Hotel Villa Fiorella, most of the workers knew very minimal english. This made planning out events, becoming familiar with the hotel's background, and even little things such as eating lunch all together difficult. They were also on busy schedules, so I often got nervous to bother them with creating content like food and drinks for me. The staff and I got along very well despite the language barrier, and we were able to teach other certain phrases as well. I also enjoyed working with the guests of both the apartment and the hotel and learning about where they came from.
At Antico Palazzo Scala, I was given the tough task to delete the old Facebook page, without a given username or password. Facebook is difficult to communicate with, so it took a while to see results until weeks later. I was successful in deleting the outdated page and created a new one.
Lastly, at both locations I had a constant fear of not having good enough posts. I am not used to posting content on others behalf, so this took time and confidence to get used to.
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Covid-19
Before Covid-19, I was supposed to take classes abroad my Junior fall of college in Florence, Italy. When that got cancelled, I then was interested and got accepted into an Elon study abroad program to do an internship in Australia this summer. Then when that got cancelled, I switched the Elon program to Sorrento and worked with Sant'Anna to finalize this internship experience. I can truly say all of those cancellations were the best thing to happen to me, since I am so grateful for this opportunity to stay at Sant'Anna. I am very happy that the internship was in-person in Italy, since that was one of my biggest concerns.
Since being here, I never once felt in danger of Covid-19 or anything else. Although it's unfortunate for Italy, I really enjoyed how it was not too busy with tourists, since Covid-19 has turned people away from traveling. This made my bus commute to work faster, lines at attractions like Pompeii shorter, and overall allowed me to embrace the culture of Sorrento more.
Future
This internship was the opportunity of a lifetime and I will be talking about it very often in the future- whether that is in a professional, personal or academic setting. I feel much more confident in my social media and communications skills, and am excited to implement this new knowledge into my final year as a Strategic Communications major at Elon. Since I will be competing in an increasingly global marketplace, the advantages of having international exposure and maintaining a network of connections from the Sant’Anna Institute would broaden my prospects and make me an attractive candidate to employers. Not only did I successfully complete an international internship, and all of the difficulties and educational factors that comes along with one, but doing it during a pandemic is also very beneficial.