We are all interns!
The Roc Nation School at Long Island University has partnered with organizations in the music, sports, and entertainment industries to create internship opportunities for students. Interns gain hands-on experience, working alongside top industry experts at major companies and dynamic startups. Through on-campus workshops and trainings, students receive support to help prepare them for success in the field. The school also supports organizations by helping them hand-select qualified candidates. These partnerships are mutually beneficial—students gain real-world experience, and companies get exceptionally talented and passionate interns.
Read our conversation with Roc Nation student, Apt-122 intern and national fencing champion Laura Fekete!
Tell us about yourself and your relationship to your professional and personal life?
I've always been a very busy person, because I've been fencing since I was nine years old. I’m a national NCAA champion. So basically all my life was school, practice, sleep – school, practice, sleep. On top of that, I was also doing music school, learning how to play the violin and so my days turned into music, school, practice, sleep. Literally I had no time and I didn't even feel like I needed it. Then I came to the States, double major, fencing, making music, you know? I have one or two friends who I can totally give time to and hang out with—my friends also think the way I do, so they understand.
Did you attend RocNation at LIU and what was your experience?
I do music technology, entrepreneurship and production, and because I’m a double major, I also study marketing. For me it was very good, because I found an internship that's basically good for my business major too. And there are some things that I can learn from it that I can use to promote myself as an artist.
What have you learned from interning at Apt-122?
Promoting myself as an artist. I'm making media kits, press releases, which is necessary for an artist to know. And then in the marketing world, it's also good to know these things because you never know when someone might ask—can you do this very fast? And I can say, yeah, sure, I did it a hundred times before. PR is a third type of thing I can do now. I really like to have multiple options because I wanna stay in the U.S.
I've also went to a couple events. For example, we were boxing stuff and sending it out for a client. I didn't know it was that chaotic to pack lots of boxes, it was very wild. I also learned how to create FedEx labels. I had to redo more than 150 labels, three times. You know, when you're doing it the third time all over again, you realize, okay. I've learned patience.
Do you feel the skills that you've learned on the job are really different to what you learned in university?
For this kind of job, I didn't really take classes. Because there's not a PR class, you know? So I feel like this is an extra that gives me knowledge that the university would not. Both my majors, this internship and whatever else I do, on the side is just building me up and teaching me so many things that I can use in life.
Are there particular lessons that you think everyone should take on from being an intern?
I would definitely say that working your way up the chain is very important. I think people will trust and respect you more when you work your way up, rather than just going into a position where you don't know what's below you, you only know what's above you.
We’ll see you later @WeAreApt122