Article by Grace Curl, PR Intern at Sage Communications

Hear what former public relations intern and current account coordinator, Dana Parker, has to say about her experience as a Sager.

George Mason University classmate, Dana Parker, started her communications journey as a PR intern at Sage in the summer of 2022. We sat down with Dana to talk about her experience, key takeaways and lessons learned.

Q. How would you describe the Sage culture and environment – how does the firm invest in and empower its interns?

A. The environment is incredibly supportive; everyone who has a hand in the intern program is there to strengthen skills, answer questions, and genuinely wants interns to learn. If you ask a question, there will always be somebody to answer it, and they’ll be happy to walk through anything you're interested in or confused about. Sage team members value contributions from every individual at the company and want to hear new perspectives. I felt heard at Sage and that played a huge role in my past and current experience.

Q. Did you learn anything about yourself throughout your Sage internship? How did you grow from the experience?

A. I learned that when you start any new position, you’re going to have to truly learn how to do the job, and the “why” behind all your actions – especially how our work supports the full picture. It’s not going to be easy at first. It might not make sense in the moment and it’s going to be overwhelming, but through teamwork and by focusing on applying yourself, you’ll learn how to organize, take notes, connect with reporters, create media lists and so much more.

I also learned a lot about agency life in general – there are days where you run around like a chicken with your head cut off with action items popping up everywhere, while other moments provide you more time to really focus on larger projects. It's all about adapting to each situation and learning how to strategically support your clients.

Q. What challenges did you run into during your internship, and how did you overcome them?

A. It was my initial lack of knowledge that shocked me; I thought it would be easier to pick up tasks and understand my responsibilities, but it was a challenge. With any new position, it was a learning process, and I got through that by taking a step back and letting myself rely on the people around me. Having those conversations with leadership and listening to how they overcame challenges really gave me the confidence to continue putting in the work and ask for help when I needed it.

Dana is now a marketing account coordinator and has found success in her position. With various skills and advice, she’s been kind enough to be an active resource to the current class of interns. Dana’s parting advice to future interns is this: Approach every situation with an open mind because you aren’t going to know how to do everything right away. In fact, sometimes you'll have to forget what you learned for a new and better way of doing things. In that sense, the experience of the internship itself is just as important as the skills you learn while doing it.