Field Notes: The Media School Travel Blog

In my remote workplace with The Leprosy Mission, I noticed a few cultural differences right off the bat, with the main difference being little words and phrases not commonly used in the United States. After this difference, I noticed that the British use a different grammar from the United States.

The British use the Queen’s English or British English, which has some subtle differences to American English. For example, where we put the letter “z” in words like “organization,” they use the letter “s,” and in the word “color,” they add a “u” to the spelling: “colour.” These slight differences were important for me to learn because I am helping review newsletters and pages on the organization’s website. If I was not aware of the different type of English used, I would have incorrectly edited multiple pieces. 

I have not had an in-person internship before; however, I think a con to a remote internship is that it is more difficult to connect with coworkers and get a feel for the work environment. A pro to a remote internship is the flexibility you have to work anywhere in the world. Personally, I have learned that if I do not schedule time out of my day to work specifically on my internship, I will not get the hours required for this course. To make this work, when I wake up in the morning I plan out my work day. I find this to be the most productive way to keep me on track with meeting the hour requirements. 

A recent project I’ve worked on was editing The Leprosy Mission’s new website. The only problem I’ve run into so far with my remote internship is the time difference and having to coordinate meetings and meet deadlines on London time. I learned how to use new programs like Mailchimp and website designing software, which will be useful in the future because I now have familiarity with a marketing and web design program.  

My Strategic Content Development, Writing for Electronic Media and Consumer Behavior courses at IU have helped me understand what I’m working on better. For example, lately I’ve been doing a lot of copywriting, and my Writing for Electronic Media course taught me how to write most effectively to get a message across to your audience.

Overall, my internship experience has changed what I was I thought my career would look like and what tasks I would be doing. I think now I know that I want to do something that involves writing but also allows me to be creative with content.