University of Mount Olive student Summer Rose, left, majoring in Leisure Service Management, is completing a 120-hour internship at the Mount Olive Area Chamber of Commerce, under the tutelage of Chamber president Julie Beck. (Kathy Grant Westbrook|mountolivetribune.com)
During her summer internship with the Mount Olive Area Chamber of Commerce, Mount Olive native and UMO student Summer Rose, 19, attends meetings, works on her networking skills, and completes office tasks like organizing and copying. (Kathy Grant Westbrook|mountolivetribune.com)
Because this is, after all, Mount Olive, Chamber of Commerce intern Summer Rose, left, finds herself ‘in a pickle,’ alongside Chamber president Julie Beck. (Kathy Grant Westbrook|mountolivetribune.com)
UMO sophomore Summer Rose, left, and Mount Olive Area Chamber of Commerce president Julie Beck are on the go, attending meetings and networking during Rose’s summer internship with the Chamber. (Kathy Grant Westbrook|mountolivetribune.com)
Every year, when tens of thousands of people pack the streets of Mount Olive for the town’s annual Pickle Festival, they find themselves in a whirlwind of food, activities, and entertainment. In the midst of so much excitement, seldom do they think about the humdrum tasks —attending meetings, completing paperwork, and making lots and lots of copies — that had to take place behind the scenes months (or even a year) in advance to make the event a success.
Nineteen-year-old Summer Rose has performed many of those tasks this summer during her 120-hour internship with the Mount Olive Area Chamber of Commerce — and it has only strengthened her resolve to work in event-planning when she graduates from University of Mount Olive, where she is a rising sophomore majoring in Leisure Service Management.
Rose, a Mount Olive native and the daughter of Greg and Tracy Rose, is the fourth student to intern under Chamber president Julie Beck, but she is the first to do so during the summer, so her experience has been unique, according to Beck.
The previous interns, says Beck, served during times when big events were taking place — such as the Pickle Festival in April or the Chamber’s annual banquet in February — “so their experience was totally different. They only saw, this is the event and we’re getting ready for it… but I think Summer saw more of the behind-the-scenes, because she saw all the boring stuff, but the things that have to happen in order for events to happen: You’ve got to have the paperwork, you’ve got to interact with people, you’ve got to attend lots of meetings and talk to folks, so Summer saw the back end that the other three did not see.”
Of all the meetings she has attended, Rose’s favorite has been the Pickle Festival review meeting that took place June 5. “I got to see what they were planning to change for the parts that didn’t work for the Pickle Festival last year, and I also liked seeing that they might have some new ideas for the next one coming up.”
Under Beck’s tutelage, Rose has learned the importance of planning, being organized, maintaining a paper trail, and keeping accurate records. And she says one of the most important aspects of event-planning that she has picked up on is that “you have to know the people around town who are going to help you and support you.”
Beck concurs that this is an important lesson she has tried to instill: “It is about knowing people and networking, because she knows every time I went into a meeting, I’d talk to 29 different people before the meeting and after the meeting, and I knew ‘em all by name, and I told her that’s the important thing: You’ve gotta build those relationships. You’ve got to get to know people, and work together, so hopefully she observed that and will follow through on that when she gets into this field.”
Because Rose hopes to remain close to home after college, meeting lots of local businesspeople is all the more important. “Hopefully some of the people that she’s met through these different meetings and functions, down the road might be of help to her…you know…[she’ll] already have those connections,” Beck notes.
One of the most valuable lessons she has learned about herself during her internship, says Rose, is that she needs to work to overcome her shyness. “I’ve learned that I really have to talk more to people,” she says. And that ought to be just a little bit easier since she’s had a lot of practice this summer.
