Author: Justin Tunley

Today, I was back at SAS for my final day of work experience. I spent the day in the legal department, meeting different members of the department and learning their roles within it. I was greeted by two of the managers on the floor and they gave Emma and I an overview of types of projects they work on. After about an hour, we split up and got to meet with two different employees in the department. I spent the morning with Eric, and he taught me a lot about the programs that SAS employees use, as well as an overview of how they deal with certain clients and whatnot. We ate lunch in the T building, and I spent the afternoon with Jewel, the employee that Emma had spent the morning with. While Eric taught me about client information and talked about customer relationships, Jewel showed me how they interact and deal with issues by doing more hands-on work. I was able to observe her contact a few clients, as well as log current and future deals with the clients. At the end of the day, we met up with all of the other Cary Academy students at SAS and had a “pizza party,” where we got to talk about the program, and wrap up everything. Overall, I really enjoyed getting to see the many different aspects of SAS.

Today was my final day at legislative building, and I finally got to watch one of the bills that we were involved in move to the floor. Yesterday, we spent the day lobbying against a billboards bill on behalf of Scenic America. At first, it looked as if the bill were likely to pass, but the morning of the vote, the bill had lost a lot of popularity and we were unsure how the vote would go. The general assembly started at around 2:00, and there were only three bills that came up before the billboards bill. As they announced the bill, the sponsor stood up and asked to take if off the calendar because they “wanted to move it back to committee to make a few changes.” In reality, he knew that the bill wouldn’t pass and needed amendments if anyone were to support it. It was very interesting to see the different lobbying techniques used, especially when it seemed as if the bill were certain to pass. I am going to miss being at the general assembly, but still have one more day at SAS with the legal branch.

Today, I spent the day back at the North Carolina Legislative building, lobbying for support with Laura DeVivo and Angel Sams. Today, we spent the day meeting with reps in the house to try and swing them against the passing of a bill attempting to decrease regulation on billboards. Only one day out from a potential vote, the bill was widely-talked about throughout the building. The bill was supported by Republicans mostly, so we spent most of the day meeting with moderate republicans and trying to convince them to vote against the party. It was interesting being the minority because I was able to observe some of the techniques that were used despite not having much power. Last week, much of the legislation we were dealing with seemed like it was certain to pass. Today, it was very interesting to see how lobbying strategy had changed now that we were considered the underdogs. Tomorrow, I will be there to see if the legislation gets passed.

I spent my 3rd day at SAS with “Corporate Creative,” an in-house firm that works with marketing to create ads and run social media for SAS. Emma and I spent most of the morning with Evan, a copy writer, and he showed us what is was like creating different advertisements for social media. He talked a lot about the importance of a strong title or slogan to draw in potential customers. He also talked a lot about his background in sport journalism and how it helped him get into marketing. 

 

After eating lunch in the C building, we spent the afternoon with Sean. While Evan worked with text-based ads, Sean worked in the video department. He showed us a lot of the behind-the-scenes that goes into creating SAS commercials and hosting events, and we even got to watch them create a video advertisement! While I’m not sure if I would want to pursue a career in corporate creative, it was definitely interesting to see a lot of the behind-the-scenes. 

I spent my second day on the SAS campus touring the HR Department with Emma. We started off the day by meeting Bethany LeClair, who talked to us about her job promoting SAS to universities and trying to recruit new employees out of college. We also learned a lot about SAS’s programs to give back to the community, including a program called “SAS for Good”. After talking to her for about an hour, Emma and I shadowed a few other women that worked in the HR department. They showed us many of the things that they work on, including creating different webpages and websites for SAS employees. They talked about many of the departments within HR, and taught us about how they all work together in the end. We also learned about their previous jobs and how they ended up working in HR.