CLARA BARROW, STUDENT INTERN
EMAIL
Welcome Clara Barrow to our FFEA Team as she works with us to complete her internship. Deanna is a student at the University of Florida and will graduate in August 2023 with a BS in Event Management.
Clara will be working with us on our Convention Planning, specifically with the Awards, Sustainability, and Entertainment Showcase Committees.
What is your Career Goal
(upon graduation and long term)?
I feel as though I have a
dizzying amount of career goals for after graduation! I have loved my past work
in non-profit, community-building events and would not mind revisiting that in
the future. I would also definitely be interested in working with more
large-scale, entertainment style events like sporting events or concerts. The
ultimate goal, though, is just to do what I love and do it to the best of my
ability!
Can you share any past
event related experience that you have (paid or volunteer)? How has that
experience
shaped you?
I have always been an organizer
and a planner. Some of my earliest memories are of helping my mom put together
our local church events! In more recent years, however, I have tried to dip my
toes in every stage of the event planning process. My freshman year of college,
I worked on program development for a local middle school summer camp. The summer
before my junior year, I was in Iowa City working with the Iowa City Downtown
District on community-building projects. One of my favorite events was the
Annual Block Party, for which I was head of volunteer coordination for over 200
volunteers. This past summer I worked at Confetti Events in Tampa and gained
some valuable insight on what day-of wedding coordination entails... including
how important a comfy pair of shoes can be for those all-day events! These past
few months I have been working with Sweetwater Branch Inn in Gainesville. Here,
I learned quite a bit about venue management and catering.
These experiences have taught
me what it looks like to work hard in this industry. They have shown me how
many moving parts go into planning and hosting an event and I hope they have
shaped me into the type of leader that takes into consideration the hard work
that goes into making each event a success. I hope to care for every member of
my team throughout my career
, from event staff to vendors to lead planners, and
never forget the hard work I put in throughout my college years and those who
went the extra mile to take care of me.
What you are most looking
forward to with the internship experience?
The biggest thing I am looking
forward to with this internship experience is how much I am going to learn! I
am hungry to learn anything and everything I can about this industry from
people who know how to do it best. I am excited to observe, to grow as a
planner and, most of all, to serve the community of festival and event planners
that I hope to be a part of very soon!
Best Book You Have Read: We
Were Liars
by E. Lockhart
Best Advice you have ever
received:
Be afraid and do it anyway.
What is one of your favorite
quotes?:
“And now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be
good.” ― John Steinbeck