Interns@AutoCom

Hi everyone, My name’s Nathan Ichtertz and I’m the other new summer intern here at AutoCom. I’ve been here for two weeks so far and am enjoying working with a bunch of great people! A little about me: I’m 22 years old; I was born in Arizona, grew up near the Central Coast in California and attended college in Oregon. Now I’m launching my public relations career in Metro Detroit. Like many young PR practitioners, I earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and public relations; but I had the opportunity to watch PR unfold from the other side – as a journalist. Witnessing my editors get peppered with dozens of boring, wordy news releases taught me an important lesson – being an effective communicator is vital to successful public relations. In the PR world, if your communication skills aren’t up to par, your pitch to the media will end up in the media member’s e-mail trash folder. In working as a reporter, I found that the best PR people are confident, articulate, knowledgeable and capabl...

Hello everyone, My name is Martyna Mackiewicz and I am the new summer intern here at AutoCom Associates. Just a couple of weeks ago I graduated from Wayne State University with a bachelor’s degree in English. My college career was nothing short of simple and straightforward. I endured many pre-medicine classes along with psychology and art history until eventually I found an attraction for literature and writing. The four years I have spent at Wayne State helped me to understand the importance of involvement with a struggling city such as Detroit. Planting trees in Detroit neighborhoods and visiting Detroit high schools shaped my awareness about economic and social problems surrounding such an urban city. At the end of my junior year of college I was granted an internship at WDET 101.9 Detroit Public Radio station in the public relations sector. This experience allowed me to become acquainted with programs and activities Detroit has to offer. After three months at W...

It’s time to welcome spring and put your heavy jackets away to the back of the closet. It is also time to update everyone on how my internship has been going so far. I can’t believe it’s been almost three months since I started at AutoCom. Summarizing my experience at AutoCom so far, I can say that I’ve managed to learn a lot and I have had some great experiences. I had the opportunity to take part in the organization of a few events, such as the SAE World Congress Dinner, which was previously discussed by Alina in her last blog. A few weeks ago, I attend ed the Detroit Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists’ annual banquet. It was a very nice event with an informal atmosphere. It was nice to see all the major Detroit journalists gathered in one place, mingling and talking about their jobs, while the emcee’s of the event where announcing the awards. I always thought that events like these would be very serious and people would get bored after ...

Communication works for those who work at it John Powell (1963 - …) Greetings from Detroit! Last Tuesday, April 13, Kerry, Tedi and I were riding in a glass elevator up to the 72nd floor of the Renaissance Center and enjoying an awesome view of Detroit. The city was below our feet. We could even see the Ambassador Bridge, which connects the U.S. and Canada over the Detroit River. On this brilliantly, sunny spring day, AutoCom held its 2010 SAE World Congress Dinner for clients and journalists. When Kerry, Tedi and I were finished setting things up for the evening, we did not miss the opportunity to pose for pictures, including some photos on a big blue “queen’s chair” and in front of the great view. As guests were arriving, we helped everybody find their seats and choose their dinner option. I was also able to speak with many fascinating people during the evening. Earlier in my studies, I wanted to become a journalist, so being sat with journalists from Reuters, the Detroit Free Press...

If we take care of the moments, the years will take care of themselves Maria Edgeworth (1767 - 1849) Dear All, Time flies faster and faster... And that is not only a figure of speech. Chile’s recent earthquake shortened the Earth’s day by 1.26 milliseconds, according to a NASA scientist's computer model. Time is of course measured, but it is also your perception. In my opinion, our life consists of memories and experiences we gather throughout our existence. One of these valuable memories I am making is my internship in the U.S. It is my third month into my internship and every day brings something new. Just the other day I participated in a telephone conference with our client Hella Lighting. We had five people on the line discussing the efficiency of HID technology: a journalist in San Diego, CA, the marketing manager of Hella Lighting in Plymouth, MI, the vice president of marketing of Hella Lighting in Lippstadt, Germany, Marty Habalewsky, a vice president of AutoCom, and mysel...

Dear All, I would like to introduce myself, my name is Viviane and I’m the new intern. I’ll be working here at AutoCom Associates until mid - August. Since the majority of the interns have been Germans, I would say that I am probably the first Brazilian Intern at AutoCom. First of all, I want to tell you a bit about my background. I’m 25 years old and I have been living in Holland for the past three years, where I am pursuing a bachelor degree in European Studies. For some strange reason, I decided to go to Holland, despite my parent’s pleadings that I should have gone to England. It was a nice experience and it was also the first time that I was living abroad. If you are asking yourself what a bachelor in European Studies really means, I can say that the program is a mixture of Politics, European law, Economics and there is also a great deal of communication classes. Therefore, this internship will be the ideal opportunity to put into practice what I have learned at the University. Ad...

Back in autumn, I remember reading in travel guides about the images of “snow covered landscapes” and several different options of winter activities in Michigan, such as snowboarding, skiing, snows hoeing, sledding, snowmobiling, ice fishing, etc. I somehow liked the idea of living in this winter wonderland! As it turns out, it has been a very mild winter so far, which means I haven’t had to scrape snow off my car every day! Although it seems I have spoke too soon in this case, we are actually expecting 6-10 inches of snow by tomorrow morning and even more snow throughout the week! After speaking with family and friends from Germany, it made me feel more fortunate during this last month, since they are nearly at the end of their patience, in the middle of a snow storm. Extreme temperatures have been observed all over the world, in places like China, Korea and India. In the U.S., Washington D.C. is near to setting the record for all-time snowfall this winter, snow that would probably be...