It was 3:30 a.m. when I received the phone call. "Miss Compo, your car is waiting for you out front."
If this was any other weekday morning, I wouldn't have been wide-awake and smiling so early, but this was Thanksgiving Day. I was on my way to participate in one of the country's oldest Thanksgiving traditions: the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Assisting with weatherman Al Roker's broadcast from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is just one of the many fond memories I now have from the four months I spent interning at NBC's Today Show.
Looking back, I am nothing but extremely grateful for the countless opportunities and experiences I had while interning at one of the nation's most prominent morning news programs in New York City.
I set my sights on the Today Show internship in the fall of my sophomore year. I met with my advisor and we determined that I would be able to spend an entire semester in New York to devote to the internship. From there I put a lot of time and effort into perfecting my resume and creating a standout cover letter. A month after sending them out, I was face-to-face with Today's program manager. At the end of the interview, she offered me the internship.
I began the internship in September along with five other students from across the country. For the next four months, I spent over 40 hours a week at Today. No two days were alike, but each day included a mix of assisting producers, helping write scripts, assisting with guests and segments, running errands, going on shoots and a variety of other tasks.
Some of the highlights of my internship were filling in for news anchor Ann Curry's assistant for three days, being interviewed and appearing in a segment on hotel business center scams, modeling a Pop Tart costume for the program's Halloween special and watching the lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree from the Today offices, which are located right in Rockefeller Plaza.
Being an intern in the fall meant that I had the chance to assist with Today's outdoor concert series. I helped with the production of performances by artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Matchbox 20, Chris Brown, Faith Hill, Natasha Bedingfield and James Taylor. In addition to working with these musicians, I was able to meet and work with celebrities such as Vince Vaughn, Steven Tyler, Robert Plant, LeAnn Rimes, Mary J. Blige and Annie Lennox, to name a few.
More important than the celebrities or performers I met while at Today were the people that I worked with. For four months I was able to work alongside and learn from some of the most talented, professional and friendly people in the business. I am eternally grateful to these people who showed me that if I continue to work hard, I will find myself right back where I was: working in a field that I love and having the time of my life in the greatest city in the world.