There are only a handful of things that have happened in my life that have truly sculpted me as a person and, after this past summer, I believe one of those was working at Comcast NBCUniversal.
In a previous post, I mentioned that I was selected as an Emma Bowen Foundation fellow. They strive to get students of color in the media industry, and their selection process is very in depth. They only take, who they believe to be, the most promising students. They assign students to their sponsoring companies like Comcast, CBS, Discovery, and Forbes to name a few.
This summer, I worked as an Editorial Production intern. I scheduled shows to air on Xfinity streaming platforms. I also worked on modifying the voice command feature on the Xfinity remotes, making sure that the correct results appeared on the screen. On occasion, I would be assigned different tasks like adding translations of different languages to the system we use to program shows.
Every day was slightly different than the last—the main reason being that Comcast threw many different events in the summer. The most exciting was getting to see the cast of Queer Eye live. They were asked questions by a coworker of mine, who gave me a shout out during the show! We were also able to see the first episode of the new season before the general public. It was pretty exciting, and tissues were passed around toward the end because of the flow of tears everyone has afterward.
I know now that I can have so many different careers in the media field, and there’s nothing stopping me from obtaining my goals.
– Lashanna Bryant
I’ve always wanted to be an author or journalist—or maybe even both. So when my coworker, David, asked me to help him interview David Harbour from Stranger Things, I couldn’t pass it up. I was given the task of watching the door during the interview to make sure no one interrupted. I was very nervous and, if you have no idea how tall David is, he practically towered over me. He shook my hand, and I honestly didn’t even know what to say besides a very shy “Hello.”
Being able to listen in on the interview allowed me to live vicariously through David. I appreciated being invited—plus it’s a great conversation starter!
I came out of the experience feeling so free, liberated, and more confident in myself. I learned that I love television, even more than I already did. I know now that I can have so many different careers in the media field, and there’s nothing stopping me from obtaining my goals. I believe now, more than I ever did before, that I made the right choice in applying for the Emma Bowen Foundation and choosing to go into media in the first place.
