My name is Morgan McComas and I am a Florida Gulf Coast University student majoring in Communications with an interest in Public Relations and a minor in Spanish. Soon I will graduate on July 31, 2016 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Communications. This summer I served as Commissioner Bryan Nelson’s intern and feel very fortunate to have received this opportunity.
When I first started interning my knowledge on government issues was very limited. Originally I was looking for a new experience to expand my understanding of how Public Relations and government work while earning class credit. The first event that I worked on with District 2 was the South Apopka Community Clean-Up that was held at the John H. Bridges Community Center in Apopka. My assignment was to assist with contacting local restaurants to acquire food donations for the volunteers and as well as help with registration of volunteers and event management on the day of the clean-up.
During the rest of my time as an intern, District 2’s office was in the midst of planning the Back to School Fair and Birdapalooza which will be held August 6, 2016 and January 21, 2017 consecutively. I was able to attend meetings with the committee boards of each event and work with Commissioner Nelson’s aide, Vanessa Lewis, in making preparations for both events. My background in Public Relations was very helpful during this time. I created the official flyer for the Back to School Fair which included the official Orange County logos as well as drafted a press release with registration information for the event. Also, I compiled the minutes during meetings and organized them for committee use and contacted local businesses for donations for both Back to School 2016 and Birdapalooza 2017.
Also, I helped research weekly articles for Commissioner Nelson that would be featured in local Apopka newspapers on different community and government topics. Some of these articles are also published in other newspapers in the entire State of Florida. Commissioner Nelson was very helpful giving me all of the information I needed in order to complete these articles with my limited government knowledge and in doing so I learned a lot about our local government and its’ policies.
County CommissionerBryan Nelson
I was even fortunate to be able to sit in on a few Board of County Commissioners meetings on Tuesdays to learn about the local constituent issues that I received phone calls and e-mails about daily during my internship. This helped during my phone conversations with constituents as I was able to give them accurate information on their issue, direct them to the correct department to speak with or simply take down their information to have their issue handled by Commissioner Nelson himself.
One thing I didn’t know before this internship was the different levels of power within the government and how much Orange County Commissioners work directly with local constituents.
After graduation, I will be moving to Madrid, Spain to teach English for a year. Upon returning home next summer I hope to pursue a career in Public Relations and continue learning about our government and what it can do for our people.
I would like to thank Commissioner Bryan Nelson for this opportunity and Vanessa Lewis for guiding me through this internship and allowing me to have a strategic role in helping the community.
