A communications internship turned into the ideal summer job for a recent STU graduate.
Victoria Blakely interned with the New Brunswick department of agriculture, aquaculture and fisheries for a class in order to complete her program last year.
Once the internship finished and she graduated, they hired her on as communications officer for the department. Blakely was at the head of the buy local initiative that included a summer tour around the province.
The program focused on box programs such as farmers markets and locally sourced restaurants. She spent her summer travelling across New Brunswick to visit each of the different relevant events that fell into the initiative.
Blakely said the best part of her job was getting to make the initiatives van.
To create the final look for it, she presented the designer with a list of locally grown products. It was a series of back and forth emails ensuring that everything featured on the locally bought van was available in the province.
“I had about a hundred emails between myself, the designer and the team,” Blakely said. “I had to ensure all the vegetables on the photo are grown in New Brunswick.”
She also acted as spokesperson for the Minister if he wasn’t available.
“It was awesome, I learned a lot and it was a great opportunity,” she said. “It really fit my skills.”
Blakely said she was lucky she needed the 12 credit hours in a foreign language to graduate in international relations. She chose French because it was the most ideal and useful language in her eyes for working in Canada. It also helped her to excel in her summer job.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’m at an event [where] I have to do social media and I need to do it in both languages,” she said. “[In] communications you almost absolutely need a second language.”
STU recently opened The Frank McKenna Centre for Communications and Public Policy. The program was created with the help of Frank McKennas $1 million donation to focus on areas such as politics, law and justice, social policy and social justice, technology, the environment and international relations. The program plans on offering a number of courses in French and English to ensure the possibility of graduates with skills in both official languages, according to a press release on the university’s website.
Blakely says this new program is key for those that are as passionate about international relations and especially agriculture as she is.
“I wish the program was here when I was here,” she says.
Blakely hopes to build on her education from STU by teaching English in France in a few weeks. She recently accepted a job as a English Language Assistant at a school in order to hopefully become fluently bilingual.
