ComArtSci student Drew Reynolds, spent the summer of 2021 interning at YpsiWrites, where she was a Communication Intern.
While working at YpsiWrites, she gained skills in design, promotional ideas, themes and learned how things work behind the scenes. She liked how YpsiWrites also provided free writing resources to the Ypsilanti community, which led to her being passionate about helping them with this goal.
With this not being Reynolds first internship, she was already adjusted to the professional work environment. This internship also taught Reynolds what kind of journalism she was truly interested in.
“Throughout my time in the journalism program at MSU, I realized that traditional journalism was not something that I felt extremely passionate about,” Reynolds said. “I always enjoyed creative writing growing up and working for YpsiWrites not only reconnected me to other writing/media opportunities outside of reporting, but it inspired me to start writing creatively again. YpsiWrites is built on the idea that everyone is a writer and everyone's writing matters. This was one of the first internships I ever worked where I felt like my work was truly meaningful”
The greatest lesson Reynolds learned during her internship with YpsiWrites is that writing doesn't always have to be utilized as a skill on a resume or something that needs to be capitalized from. “It's important to write for yourself, instead of always writing for an audience or another viewer,” said Reynolds. Academia trained Reynolds in a way to think of writing as performative, but this internship gave her the opportunity to view writing as something much more personal.
“I recently interviewed a Ypsi-based children's book author, who was awarded one of our Writers of Ypsilanti this year, and she inspired me to start journaling again,” Reynolds said. “I like meeting new people and hearing new perspectives; the people that I have met throughout this internship have held such positive perspectives of writing that it began to rub off on me too... and I am incredibly grateful for that.”
Reynolds shares that her time at MSU has felt very limited because of the pandemic. She felt like she missed out on a lot of typical college experiences but is grateful for the experiences she has had and the people that she has met. Some of her favorite memories involve taking walks around campus in the fall and spring semesters with her friends.
Currently, Reynolds is still working for YpsiWrites designing a nature writing prompt book for one of their volunteers and doing promotional/social media management for our workshops and events. She is also working as a cook and a baker with plans to go back to school in the summer.
After graduation, Reynolds plans to shift gears and enroll in culinary school as she knows the media and communication skills that she has gained throughout her journalism career will never go to waste.
By Demetria Bias