First Day of the Internship

Monday was the first day of the internship and the first time I really got the chance to talk to all but one of the interns.

We were supposed to come prepared with research project ideas to propose at the meeting.  And of course I waited till the last minute to start drafting ideas.  My plan for that day was to head out at around 10am and go to a cafe near the office that we were supposed to meet at and come up with a rough plan of my LAPD idea.  There was just one problem.  Monday was the Lakers' parade and the cafe I had chosen to go to was in downtown.  When I came up to my exit on the freeway, it was closed.  "No worries" I thought to myself I can just take the next exit and reroute on my iPhone.  I exited the freeway among swarms of Laker fans in yellow and purple, traffic was jammed and when I arrived at the street I needed to be on, that was closed too!  Very annoyed, I headed over to the meeting place and found a Starbucks where I quickly sketched out my ideas in my notebook. Little did I know that this would turn out to be a colossal waste of time.

The place where we were meeting really surprised me. It was right in the heart of an industrial area and probably the most run down place I have been in awhile. I parked my car and started wandering around with my camera.


I love graffiti.



As I was taking pictures I heard somebody call out "Jonathan!" and when I turned around there was this girl in a purple Honda Fit behind me smiling and waving. Barely recognizing her as one of the interns I smiled and waved back all the while trying to remember her name (I never did).


The head of our non-profit owns a toy company.
We were both an hour and half early so we toured the building a little. Inside was the biggest collection of cheap Chinese toys that I had ever seen. Row after row of shelves were filled with brands that I had never heard of. The toys reminded me of the ones that you find in Chinatown or the flea market.


Once we got bored with the toys, I suggested that we go to a cafe nearby that I had spotted on my iPhone. She agreed and we walked into a small charming cafe complete with white table clothes and waiters that was located at the end of a pretty sketchy looking alley.  I am saddened by the fact that I do not have any of the cafe.

The chair of the non-profit opened up our first internship meeting with suggestions on how to deal with the press.  He advised us to always ask what newspaper the reporter was from, what story they were doing and to always answer in complete positive sentences so that the reporter would not be able to take things out of context.  I found the whole guide to the press very interesting and above all else very cool because I took it as a sign that I would be talking to the press throughout the internship.

During our introductions, I mentioned that I had helped start a social media marketing program at the TV station that I worked at during my time at UCSD.  Upon hearing this, the chair said to me, remind me to ask you to help us with our social media stuff.  Just like that I am now back in the social media marketing scene.  They handed me the login details for all their social media accounts and basically told me that if I helped get them into the top 200 organizations for the Chase Community Giving Event (Help Me!) that I would be their hero (not in those words).

When we got to the ideas for the research project, a few things became clear.  First, was the fact that my LAPD idea sounded cool but that was about as much interest as I got.  Everybody liked the idea of going on a ride along, but besides that nothing about my idea interested them.  Second, it was obvious that the hot topics for this group of interns was education and social media, especially since we had one girl who aspired to be a principal and another who wanted to be an educator.  Lastly, nobody had a plan about how they were going to execute their idea.  I had sketched out an action plan to examine the relationship between the LAPD and Asian community that included ride alongs, interviews with officers and community leaders, social media surveys and analysis of statistics.  When I pressed the other interns for their action plans, it became apparent that they did not have one.  They just wanted to do something about the ideas that they had.  I was sort of skeptical about the education idea from the beginning due to the large scope of the topic and when I heard that no one even had a plan as to how to tackle the subject, I rejected education as a viable topic.

After the meeting and the rejection of the LAPD idea, I thought about it and decided that I would throw my weight behind the social media idea.  Think of it as a return to my roots.

-muffinman