Adelaide University Internships - Rhea Rao
Welcome Rhea!
Rhea Rao joined our Media and Communications Team as part of her internship course, Media Industry Transitions at the University of Adelaide for Semester 2, 2023 21 March 2023 - 10 May 2023.
She is completing a 100-hour internship onsite at the Connecting Up Office, 22.5 hours a week for about 8 weeks around her university classes: (7.5 hours/ 3 hours, 7.5 hours, 7.5 hours each week to complete her internship). Rhea Rao's Portfolio of articles for the SAcommunity Team is >>here.
Total Hours 102 Joined 21 March 2023 Final check-in 10 May 2023
Total Hours 102 Joined 21 March 2023 Final check-in 10 May 2023
Personal Biography
Rhea is in her final year of her Bachelor’s degree in Media with a specialization in Visual Design from the University of Adelaide. She has completed different internships in social media marketing and graphic design since 2019 and aims to complete a Master’s degree in Media. She has a passion for volunteering, working at Angel Xpress, an NGO in Mumbai, India to teach math and science to young children from 2016-2018. Rhea has also worked as the coordinator of a non-profit organization called SERVE in the United States and hosted volunteering opportunities for students in 2019.
Currently interning in SAcommunity at Connecting Up, a service of Infoxchange to obtain more work experience in the industry, Rhea aims to enhance her leadership, communication, and content writing abilities as well as her artistic and design abilities. By taking on different projects, moving beyond her comfort zone and finding new communities, and even taking time out to guide her fellow interns and coworkers about the work being done at Connecting Up, she frequently likes to challenge herself. Her commitment to learning new things and coming up with creative concepts helped her develop her leadership, teamwork, and communication abilities.
After graduating with her bachelor’s degree in June 2023, she will return to India to work in media and graphic design before moving abroad once again to finish her Master’s degree in Media in the United States.
Welcome Rhea, we are glad to have you!
Interns: Nada Soldo (Media and Communications), Rhea Rao (Media and Communications), Sarthak Jain (Data Analytics) and Putri Kamaluddin (Data Analytics)
Community Services Storytelling Project and Work Experience
Rhea has been working on the SAcommunity Media project which involves writing news stories about various South Australian community organizations, charities, and not-for-profits through SAcommunity media channels, website blog, eNewsletter, and social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Rhea has also been using a variety of media-related programs and tools, including BEEPro, Canva, and Microsoft Teams, to organise the eNewsletter, conduct interviews with organisations, write storytelling articles for community organisations, and produce works of art and design as needed. Using the BEEPro design suite, she designed the eNewsletter for the SAcommunity April 2023 eNews >> here.
On April 17, 2023, Rhea attended the monthly Connecting Up Teams meeting remotely. The meeting revolved around all of the monthly tasks, and each Staff Team: Customer Experience, NFP Capability, Business Development, Marketing and Communications, IT, Technology, and Community Information presented their progress and accomplishments over the previous month using statistics, data, and other tools.
"I was glad to be a part of the staff meeting. It was a great learning experience. I observed that all of the Connecting Up members were engaged in efficient communication and interaction during the session, and were focused on different aspects of growth, advancement, and professional development." ~ Rhea Rao
Rhea also stayed informed about parent Infoxchange via all-staff news delivered through Yammar and weekly updates from CEO, David Spriggs. This enabled her to better understand the organisation as a whole and feel more connected to our mission and the people within our not-for-profit.
Rhea also stayed informed about parent Infoxchange via all-staff news delivered through Yammar and weekly updates from CEO, David Spriggs. This enabled her to better understand the organisation as a whole and feel more connected to our mission and the people within our not-for-profit.
Intern Rhea Rao interviewing SA Maritime Museum for the April School Holidays event.
Not-for-profits interviews and storytelling articles
Rhea has always liked interacting with people and communicating with them, therefore she enjoyed interviewing organisations in South Australia to provide content for SAcommunity media channels. Her prior experience in copywriting, content creation, and even social media marketing helped her when she needed to make content for Facebook and Instagram in order to engage current audiences and inform them of upcoming not-for-profit events in South Australia while also attracting new audiences.
Rhea conducted interviews and wrote numerous articles and media releases for multiple community organisations, including the Rotary Club of Mawson Lakes (Easter Bunny Fun Run), the Japan Australia Friendship Association (Kodomo no Hi Festival), the Orchid Society of South Australia (Festival of Flowers), the Cancer Council of South Australia (Relay for Life), the SA Maritime Museum (April School Holidays), the History Trust of South Australia (History Festival 2023), Adelaide Kite Flyer’s Association (Adelaide International Kite Festival) as well as a community event calendar entry for April 2023.
Find all of Intern Rhea Rao's news stories >> here.
Mentor Meeting Experience
On March 31, 2023, Rhea participated in a Teams meeting with her mentor Sam Lloyd, the Marketing Lead of Infoxchange, as part of her internship. Sam's expertise, experience, and qualifications in marketing and communication, together with a discussion on developing professionally at work, helped Rhea gain an understanding of marketing tactics, client communication, workplace culture, and being a professional.
Rhea’s key takeaways from her mentor meeting involved understanding the target audience, thinking objectively, being straightforward with the clients, comprehending the difference between a branding campaign and a short sales activation, asking the right questions to clients, gaining an understanding of how leadership works and most importantly accepting that sometimes she may fail at certain tasks but that should not stop her from trying different approaches and giving it a go again!
Sam Lloyd, Marketing Lead, Infoxchange
Key Takeaways
“I had the pleasure of interviewing Sam Lloyd I learned a lot of different things about marketing and some of my weaknesses that I need to work on. I am also beginning to look at my career path from a marketing point of view after the meeting. A short summary of some key takeaways I learned from my mentor meeting with Sam include:
1. One of the brutal, straightforward questions I need to ask myself after creating something is "Who cares?" about what I am creating. When I'm trying to promote my product, it may be flashy, attractive, and useful, but I need to ask myself, "Who is going to care about it?" It's crucial to pose this question bluntly. It is all about the target audience, the recipient/client, and what they will like.
2. Understanding the difference between a branding campaign and a short sales activation is essential. A branding campaign involves a brand image, persona, and message, and raising awareness of the company. It takes more time and effort. On the contrary, a short-term sales activation campaign requires SMART objectives because they are all about limited-time deals and offers and conveying a short, quick message. Having a solid understanding of semiotics is also vital to creating successful campaigns. These campaigns are significantly different from one another, and the key is to find out what your client or agency truly wants by asking them questions.
3. Marketing firms might not always offer useful feedback. They might not know what they want or what modifications they want to make to a certain design or product. However, it is all about the feelings and emotions more than the language used to express what they want or to make a design modification. It is necessary to poke people's lizard brains and ask specific questions like why, what, who, when, how, and where.
4. Leadership qualities and skills cannot be taught, and they are not something that can be "attained." Understanding that there isn't much to learn or many needs to meet is the way to be an effective leader. It's all about the people, and since you're the adult in the room, being a successful leader means being a mature individual. Managing people is a never-ending task for a leader. The idea of being a good leader is by letting go of the notion that something needs to be achieved. It's crucial to be optimistic and engaged in the moment.
5. It is imperative that I accept that I will fail and stop trying to avoid failure. I cannot "stop" myself from failing, and if I do, I must accept my failure and use logical thinking to move on. I always see failure as a sign that I didn't put enough time or effort into anything, so I try harder the next time and put in more hours. Although, it is irrelevant to put in more hours is something I learned. It is about breaking the existing association that I need to do so and thinking more objectively.” ~ Rhea Rao
Adelaide University Intern Rhea Rao helping Ada Wing Yi Wong with Telephone Techniques and in Writing a Blog for the SAcommunity website
Intern Rhea Rao helping Stephanie Wu with BEEPro - email design suite
Capacity Building
Rhea has supported SAcommunity team members in capacity building tasks throughout her internship. Capacity building refers to the process of developing skills, abilities and resources required to thrive in the digital world. She has spent time working with other students to develop their telephone techniques, email and communication skills, BEEPro usage, news and storytelling writing, and even their personal branding strategies. She has been very supportive of the other interns and is always eager to help.
Training and Education - Professional Development
Rhea has also learned about different aspects of media and communications through selecting from the numerous training and educational webinars offered by the Connecting Up Digital Learning Platform. This training and development online learning platform offers a variety of live and recorded webinars, webcons, and workshops from a range of subject-matter experts who have experience in working with not-for-profits.
As part of this online training, Rhea was able to further her understanding of familiar software, such as Microsoft 365 and Canva. She also learned more about Google Analytics in Media and its features. Additionally, she improved her understanding of various social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, learning various social media tactics to help her in developing campaign strategies and posts for her storytelling news articles.
These training webinars are offered free for interns and volunteers to help inspire them on a weekly basis, and to assist them in creating content for SAcommunity media projects and their portfolios. The professionals presenting the training webinars are based across Australia and have extensive knowledge of working in media and communications and its application in the not-for-profit sector. Overall, Rhea gained an immense amount of knowledge about the not-for-profit sector as a whole and developed multiple media skills along the way.
These training webinars are offered free for interns and volunteers to help inspire them on a weekly basis, and to assist them in creating content for SAcommunity media projects and their portfolios. The professionals presenting the training webinars are based across Australia and have extensive knowledge of working in media and communications and its application in the not-for-profit sector. Overall, Rhea gained an immense amount of knowledge about the not-for-profit sector as a whole and developed multiple media skills along the way.
Connecting Up Training and Educational webinars accessed by Rhea Rao along with her feedback included:
Week 1:
Intro to Microsoft 365 by Conan Daly, The I.T. Team
Webinar Feedback: One of the new things I learned through this webinar was the use of Sharepoint and its benefits. It is a method used for storing data, something like Google Drive or DropBox. Since it is a part of the Microsoft 365 family, it can be easily used alongside Microsoft Teams.
How to Overcome the 7 Biggest Mistakes Not for Profits Make on Social Media by Alecia Hancock, Hancock Creatives
Webinar Feedback: The audience is one of the key components of social media, and this webinar gave me a greater understanding of how to speak to the right audience. As Alecia Hancock put it, "You can find the 'where' once you know the 'who'". As a way to engage the present audience and draw in new ones, I also discovered the value of certain trends like Throwback Thursdays and spotting specific trends on various social media platforms. The webinar served as a general overview of all the things I learned at university.
Week 2:
How to Create a winning social media strategy by Rubina Carlson, Refuel Creative
Webinar Feedback: I have a greater understanding of how important it is to comprehend various social media methods in order to keep an audience interested. Creating key messages is crucial for informing the audience about the organization. In this industry, it's crucial to identify the right channels, produce content that will spread the message, and make use of platforms for analytics and metrics. I also watched the webinar on Google Analytics to better grasp analytics and platform metrics.
Week 3:
2022 Copywriting storytelling tactics for NFPs by Andrea Rowe, Copywriter, Communications strategist and author
Webinar Feedback: I learned the importance of stories and how some stories may contain personal and sensitive information and thus we need to be careful while asking the informant certain questions. This webinar provides important knowledge about self-awareness and its significance.
Week 4:
Become a Canva King or Queen by Yvette Adams, The Creative Collective
Webinar Feedback: Even though I was already familiar with Canva's functionality, I learned a few new skills. I had to reconsider every design choice I had made after studying the entire section on design mindsets. Before starting any new designs, I will now ask myself all the questions highlighted in the webinar.
Week 5:
Instagram for Non-profits by Kirsty Wallett, social media and digital marketing specialist, The K Franc Social
Webinar Feedback: At the university, I took a variety of courses on social media marketing, and I frequently discussed Instagram as one of the major social media platforms. This webinar served as a kind of refresher and reminder of the different tools that assist not-for-profit organizations and other businesses generally in increasing interaction on Instagram. The webinar was extremely helpful, informative, and much-needed!
Week 6:
Basic Facebook marketing for non-profits by Christine Gooding, Social Media Director, The Shannon Company
Webinar Feedback: The Facebook Ladder of Engagement caught my attention quite a bit. In terms of its user base, I have always believed that Instagram is superior to Facebook, but after learning much more about Facebook, I now believe that its numerous features make it an excellent platform for boosting engagement.
Week 7:
Masterclass: Getting Started with Google Analytics for tracking stories by Tim Brack, Digital Marketing Lead at Leafcutter
Masterclass Feedback: I learned about micro and macro conversions (completed sale, rate of engagement). Additionally, I learned about behavior-related content (average time spent, etc) and its importance and the various types of page views. I learned about bounce rates as well which refers to people who only visit a website and then leave without doing anything on the website. Overall, the webinar was very beneficial.
Session 4: NFP Bootcamp: Creating a Social Media Strategy by Alecia Hancock, Hancock Creative
Workshop Feedback: Once again, this workshop assisted me in evaluating a number of concepts I had previously acquired in high school and university. The use of "SMART" objectives, which are crucial and advantageous when developing social media campaigns and content, was one of the key goal-setting strategies that were addressed. Different strategies and methods of communication were discussed using the Conversation Prism in the section on platforms, which was also quite helpful. One crucial thing I took away was the importance of concentrating on just one platform rather than trying to focus on several at once, which could disrupt your entire social media strategy.
Week 8:
Digital Marketing Webcon: Dive into Facebook and Instagram Advertising by Alecia Hancock, Hancock Creative
Webcon Feedback: In today's generation, Facebook and Instagram are the top social media platforms for content development and social media marketing. The webinar explores the advertisement hierarchy and its stages, campaigns, ad sets, and creative. The webinar was highly informative and went through every step of making an advertisement in great detail. She also discussed how experimenting works - what works, and what doesn't while developing advertisements. I learned about split-testing advertisements and other techniques as well. She examined advertising campaigns and their applications on Facebook and Instagram in-depth by providing multiple examples and elaborating on the concept behind numerous advertisements.
SAcommunity April 2023 eNews
Rhea created the SAcommunity April 2023 e-Newsletter using BEEPro for a promotional e-campaign release. Her e-newsletter included the events calendar she created for the SAcommunity April Community Events 2023 as well as a combination of her blog stories, combined with the Media & Communication Team's articles for the month.
“Thank you so much for having me and letting me be a part of the Connecting Up and Infoxchange family! I have learned and grown so much in the past few weeks as a person and as a working professional. I have a more thorough understanding of how media organisations function, particularly non-profit ones. I was very excited every time my new stories and eNews were published along with the social media posts. The internship helped me become better at communication and helped me improve my interview skills. Thank you for having me and helping me blossom!”
~ Rhea Rao
~ Rhea Rao
