by Rainie Grant, ’18

Communication with self …and then with others

This semester I learned that before I can communicate with others, I first have to learn how to communicate with myself.

As the Communications Intern, my favorite thing to say has been that the hardest part of organizing an event is convincing people to come to your event instead of participating in any of the other many options that are open to them. You can create a wonderful event and invite as many people as possible, but that doesn’t guarantee that they will come. Marketing strategy and communication is key to drawing people’s interest to events so that they can gain whatever message is being passed along; however, none of that means anything if you don’t know, yourself, what you want from the experience.

Working in communications at the CFV has given me the chance to discover who I have become, why, and what I want to gain in the future, from the internship as well as from Butler and life. By facing my fears and standing in front of different groups to lead conversations about prominent issues, by being tasked with choosing and categorizing my principle values, and by playing a role in how people relate to each other, I have been encouraged to communicate with myself and to answer these questions for myself.

Finding my place, my role, within the process of communicating with others has allowed me to identify how I can use the tools I have gained in order to appeal to myself and more easily to others. I am very pleased with how my time with the CFV has progressed, and I look forward to continuing to use these tools in the future as I work my way to law school and whatever may follow. I sincerely thank Marguerite and Daniel for their mentorship and for their guidance in helping to develop my communication skills with both myself and others.