A word from our interns.
Each month, the interns of Opera NexGen reflect on their experiences and opportunities. Let’s take a look at what they have to say:
First up, Harsha.
“My second month working as a Development intern here at Opera NexGen has continued to be a different experience than what I have been used to before. Although I haven’t had many assignments this month, I did attend many of the zoom meetings such as the webinars and the casual fun night where I had a lot of fun. I had many opportunities to interact with the whole team to get to know them better. All these new encounters during my time at Opera NexGen have definitely opened my eyes and broadened my perspectives of what a work environment is like.
One thing that I love doing is working and collaborating with other team members to understand the goals of Opera NexGen as a whole. Of course my job is to help them grow and do my best to actively participate in their activities. I enjoy working in this environment because everyone is super nice and kind as my experience here has been going quite smoothly. I also love how enthusiastic and determined everyone is to achieve their goals which make me push through to help more.
Overall, I hope to improve and learn more skills by efficiently completing all the required tasks which I am asked to finish. I am very excited to see what is to come in the future as I understand what I need to work on and what I shall keep the same.
-Harsha”
Next, let’s hear from our production intern, Shaurik.
“So far, the journey has been going well, I have also been able to attend more meetings with guest speakers and webinars, that were quite engaging and fun to learn about, something which I truly appreciated. In terms of current tasks, I have finished working on creating summaries on Portland Opera’s Night Trip, to familiarize singers especially for the company’s current project with Night Trip concerts. I look forward to also joining the meetings associated with the new project and helping out from the production team, being able to attend sessions in understanding the choir and production settings as well. Kathleen has kept me posted on all the rehearsals and meetings associated with the project, which I have found helpful in understanding the whole atmosphere for this objective, which I also look forward to meeting new people and challenging my skillsets. In my opinion, the workload has been tolerable and can be increased for my responsibilities and tasks, I really enjoy working with my supervisor in assisting and managing various projects, yet I would like to also work more in groups with other interns, to just collaborate on various things, where I feel like Night Trip project in itself might be an amazing opportunity to do such. As per my focus, right now would be to continue joining in through the Night Trip meetings and being proactive on my part, I am also improving my time management by checking slack at least once daily, and dividing up the time for each task, and as mentioned before I am also open to work on more projects/tackle other responsibilities. But overall, Opera NexGen has been an amazing experience, and I feel projects like Night Trip can help me understand more about theater and production in general, to gain a relative understanding through singing and speaking with artists, which we work with. Consequently, the experience so far has been great, especially for the new projects I get to work with, along with the numerous webinars which I get the chance to join in, my director has also been helpful, clarifying my questions and doubts along with keeping me posted on new tasks. I look forward to continue contributing to this company, and will stay tuned through Slack and Gmail.”
Here’s what our Administration Intern, Ryu Vongsaly, has been up to:
“Opera NexGen continues to amaze me with such a friendly and supportive team. I’m happy to be completing my second month and now beginning my third month of the internship program. Working as an administration intern at Opera NexGen continues to help me grow, especially with skills like organization and event planning. I find this experience to further these skills, which are vital for future administration positions.
This month, I have helped with planning mini-events to help fundraise for Opera NexGen. I was excited to be working with the development team on plans for starting up a book club. In addition to planning for a book club, I helped with creating bookmark graphics and a flyer to help promote the book club further. Helping out with planning for a book club helped me connect with the development team and also with researching to find books that may be of interest to members.
For October, all of the interns were also there to meet with Mr. Zachary Vanderburg, a guest speaker. Meeting Mr. Vanderburg was an exciting experience for me, as I was happy to meet someone with experience in the field of opera and administration. I was happy to be able to ask Mr. Vanderburg questions and learn more about how he grew in the field.
As of now, I am continuing to find partnering organizations for Opera NexGen. Partnerships with Opera NexGen will help both our organization and our partners grow together. This assignment has been able to help me build my research skills and the ways and means of finding out more about an organization.
Throughout this internship, I’m continuing to improve and learn more in the administration field and slowly taking up new tasks. My goal is to strive to improve my efficiency, while still maintaining quality this month. I know in the administration field, quick decision-making skills are important. I continue to look forward to future endeavors my internship brings me and continue working with the amazing team here at Opera NexGen.”
And last, but certainly not least! Our Multi-Media Intern, Lindsay:
“In October, I attended my first meeting with the other interns to watch a guest speaker. I only saw a bit of it, but the speaker was insightful, and I found their answer to my question about their greatest accomplishment very inspiring. I also started working on a checklist for musicians which was a nice project, because it gave me a lot of creative leeway. I am looking forward to working on the website more!”
We’re so happy to be working with such eager, bright interns! Stay tuned to hear what they’ll be taking on next.
