A Summer of Growth: Reflections on My Fellowship at Greenough

Whenever my friends and I talk about our internships, one thing always seemed to come up. They'd tell me that most days, they’d finish everything on their to-do list by early afternoon and spend the rest of the day waiting for the next project, or for five o'clock to finally roll around. I remember my eyebrows scrunching up, thinking, Really? Because my experience at Greenough was very much the opposite.

Learning Something New Every Day

Walking into Greenough this summer as their Foster the Future Communications Fellow, I expected to learn a lot, but didn’t expect that I'd never run out of things to learn. One of the biggest surprises about working here was how much I was trusted to do.

Instead of watching from the sidelines, I was encouraged to jump in whenever possible, whether that meant writing and sending media pitches, building media lists, conducting competitor audits and news scans, researching analysts, drafting briefing documents, working on executive social content, outlining influencer opportunities, or digging into award research. Trust me, the list goes on. Over the course of these two months, I found myself learning something new every single day.

But it wasn't just the variety of the work that made this experience so memorable. It was the people behind it. Everyone at Greenough was willing to carve time out of their busy schedules to explain a new task, answer my endless questions, review a draft, and then trust me with something new to tackle again.

There was never a sense that I was "just the intern."

They wanted me to learn and succeed, and they backed that up by giving me meaningful work that challenged me. I was even given the opportunity to branch out beyond traditional PR, where I explored marketing and SEO.

A Culture That Made Me Feel at Home

What stood out most about my time at Greenough though was the culture. As the only fellow there this summer, I could've easily imagined feeling disconnected from everyone else. Instead, every single person welcomed me with open arms and made me feel like part of the team from day one. Over the course of my fellowship, I found myself throwing punches alongside coworkers in a boxing class, walking through Seaport on a sunny afternoon for the Jimmy Fund Scooper Bowl, unwinding over drinks after work, and debating the motives of the main character in Yesteryear with the agency book club.

Coming into this summer, the prospect of graduating college felt intimidating. But my time at Greenough showed me that work can be challenging without feeling exhausting and that the right team can make even the busiest days fun.

More importantly, it reminded me that asking questions and taking initiative aren't things to shy away from. They're how you grow.

As a Foster the Future fellow, I couldn't have asked for a better place to spend my summer. Foster the Future exists to create more opportunities for students from underrepresented backgrounds to enter the PR industry. Greenough didn't just participate in that mission, they lived it. Every opportunity and every person I met reinforced that this fellowship is about more than opening doors. It's about making sure the people who walk through them have the support to thrive.

I don't know exactly where my career will take me after graduation, but I know I'll carry everything I learned, and the people who taught me, with me wherever I go next.

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