Celebrating National Intern Day: Justin Gold

Hi, my name is Justin. I am sixteen years old and an up and coming senior in high school. I am a passionate filmmaker and photographer and hope to create a career out of what I love to do. I have never interned anywhere before or been in a professional work place. I started interning at Brooklyn Free Speech just two weeks ago as a marketing intern and it already is an experience that has taught me a lot.

I learned what it’s like to be in a professional work place by working at a desk, attending meetings and having certain responsibilities that I have a duty to complete. During this time as an intern I have been taking photos and videos as well as editing them to use for marketing and promotion of BRIC and Brooklyn Free Speech. I have already created a stop-motion animation promo in honor of the 30th Anniversary of Shark Week which is currently airing on our TV channels. I also produced, edited, and shot a new channel ID which will be running on our community-produced Brooklyn Free Speech TV channels soon. I have taken photos for events and classes happening at the BRIC Media Center and for the upcoming fall 2018 course catalog. Being a marketing intern also puts me in the role to post on social media and promote Brooklyn Free Speech.

This short period of time has allowed me to meet a lot of people in my workplace and make connections with the ones around me. This is an important thing for me because making these connections with people is not always my strongest quality and it’s always something I strive to better myself on. This experience did help me do what I love to do by taking photos and videos which is always something I’m happy to do and it allows me to bring in my passion and apply it to the workplace. It gives me a sense that I can turn what I love to do in a career and hard work and dedication will bring me closer to my goals in life.

The workplace here is very diverse and different than a typical job site. Brooklyn Free Speech is a community-driven TV and podcast network. They take the word “free” seriously and give their employees and community members the freedom to create content and art that they want to do.

Brooklyn Free Speech gives the community a platform to share their work where they wouldn’t be able to otherwise. The BRIC Media Center offers the community classes for equipment and software, studio space for film/TV production and radio/podcast production, equipment (cameras, microphones, laptops, tripods, etc.), as well as edit suites for them to edit and work on their content if they don’t have those tools at home. This makes the workplace a very diverse and interesting environment with many people coming in and out throughout the day.

I hope I am able to leave an impact at Brooklyn Free Speech and learn from the experience of the time that I am here. This internship has allowed me at a young age to be in a professional workplace and learn what it is like to be in this kind of environment. I am very thankful for this internship and internships in general to allow people to breakthrough into industries and learn from the experiences they encounter. Happy National Intern Day!

Check out the video I made (narrated by me) showing off the equipment and spaces at the BRIC Media Center.