Welcome Summer Intern

My name is Alex Barnett I am 22 years old, in August I will graduate with a bachelor's degree in recreation and parks management with a minor in communication studies and a concentration in event planning; despite having walked on May 4th and celebrating with family already. As a child I was raised in the kitchen and any event with my family was a major event. I am the youngest of a split family, my parents divorced when I was about eleven and both remarried. 

When I was around thirteen I was no longer the only child but rather the youngest of ten. This has instilled the concept of love and acceptance in me and has assisted in my love of planning. Before being the youngest child my grandmothers both included me in the planning of big holiday and birthday parties. 

As a senior in high school I was part of the Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America during this time I planned my first large event. This was a masquerade ball for 65 assisted living and memory care residents at Currituck House, in Moyock North Carolina. Despite the negative opinions of the event all of the residents attended and had a great time. This was nearly six years ago now and residents still reminisce about the dance. This was the first dance the facility had, and after the fact I received a lot of positive feedback, that pushed me to want to continue using events to put smiles on people’s faces. 

Today I am excited to say I am beginning my internship with a world class planner, a UNCG professor, and a personal inspiration; Jennifer Ball. As soon as I walked into her classroom on the first day of her special events and planning class I knew that I wanted to be just like Jenn, as her class progressed I decided it had been easily my favorite in my college career. This still stands, and I hope to learn so much more throughout my internship, I look forward to learning about keeping an active internet presence, writing good blog posts, understand the breakdown of an event budget, how to find my own worth and how to use that to price my own services later, how I can start my own company in the future, and as much else as Jennifer can pour into me in a short few months.