Internship Spotlight: Kyra Collins, D.O.V.E.S. Network

What was the process for getting this internship, job, or summer experience: 

I found this internship on Handshake and was contacted for an interview after applying. I did a Zoom interview with Tiffany (executive director of the company) and learned about D.O.V.E.S. before being offered the internship. After accepting the position, I did my training and onboarding and then began working in June.

What was a typical day like? 

Every week I had a specific number of videos and projects due by Friday. On a typical day, I would divide my work for the week and edit videos on Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Rush. Two days of the week I had meetings either with interns in other departments, with Tiffany the executive director, or with the other video editing intern. Before the other video editing intern joined, I was mainly creating and editing TikToks explaining healing pathways or signs of domestic violence. Eventually, the other video editing intern and I worked together on a video project that was being presented at a donor panel. We would work together each day dividing up parts of the video and checking in with each other on progress. After I did some editing or meetings each day, I would find stock footage for future projects or edit changes that were requested in the review. From there I would upload the final footage to be posted by the other interns.

What was your favorite part of the experience? 

My favorite part of the internship was what we called "Intern Incubators" where I was able to collaborate with interns in other departments, work on company projects outside of video editing, and learn about various tasks in a non-profit. I enjoyed that the internship was remote and I could work at my own pace for videos but that I was able to also work with others and learn from different departments. Tiffany was very flexible with our goals in the internship and helped whenever she could, teaching us everything we wanted to learn.

If you worked on a big project, please describe it: 

The other video editing intern and I collaborated on a larger video for a panel of donors, sponsors, and other supporters. The video was called "Impact" and we divided up the work into sections. I worked on the intro and prevention pathway of the final project while my teammate worked on the remaining two pathways. We were tasked with the video in just over a week and were able to meet the deadline while working together. This video was then presented at the panel and eventually posted in sections to social media as well.

What did you find most challenging? 

Interns were given a lot of creative freedom and I found it challenging to think of new videos or fresh ideas for TikToks. This was the most enriching part of the internship though because I was able to think creatively and learn which of my videos were the most engaging for social media. Additionally, we had to use stock-free footage and it was difficult to find the perfect clip that was both stock-free and free of charge. This limited my creativity slightly and I had to adjust to these guidelines while creating videos. Because I was working in the summer, there wasn't new video footage of the organization or its events to edit, so I was editing informational videos with stock footage and voice-overs instead.