Summer of Impact 2022: Denali, Media Services Broadcast Content Creator Intern
Denali is serving as a summer intern in our Cary office from the Indiana/Kentucky area. She is a rising senior at Huntington University in northern Indiana and will graduate in May of 2023. Some things that Denali loves are reading fiction/sci-fi, singing, playing the piano, writing and people. She joined our global content team as an intern for summer 2022. Denali has worked on a variety of projects, including script writing, social media content development and audio production.
Q: How did you hear about TWR?
During my first year of college, my campus held a missions fair for students to preview prospective ministry opportunities. I went to check it out knowing that I someday wanted to work with missions in some capacity. As a broadcast media student, the word “radio” quickly caught my eye. That was when I met the traveling team, consisting of Mark and Debbie Blosser. Each year after that I would stop at the TWR table to say “hi” and chat with them. Finally, in my junior year, I applied for an internship and was accepted!
Q: What caused you to get involved in the internship program with TWR?
It almost came as a sweet surprise to me that there was a ministry opportunity that was so well within my passions and interests. I know I want to pair my degree studies with missions. … I got involved in TWR’s internship program because it was too good to pass up.
Q: Have you always been interested in missions?
I have been interested in being involved in missions since the first mission I went on right out of high school. Two years ago, I had an indifference to the field of missions; I did not know what it could offer me yet. After spending three months in southern Zambia, I was sure that missions, in whatever way God meant for it, would be in my future.
Q: What do you feel your calling is, and how does this summer fit into that?
I have felt many callings in the past several years, each of which I believe will be significant in my future somehow. One central passion and calling … centers around people. I love to meet and get to understand the way people think about the world and about God.
My internship gives me the opportunity to collaborate with people from all different demographics as well as geographics so that I can broaden my perspectives of cultures. This kind of experience is gold.
Q: What projects are you involved in?
My supervisor has given me free range to work alongside TWR Asia and Africa, specifically their on-air BE107 FM Morning Buzz and Worship Connexion radio shows. My role is to create new and revamp existing social media accounts for the two radio shows; then, to create awareness and drive engagement between the presenter and the audience. I want to establish a solid Facebook and Instagram presence for the shows but also dabble a little into YouTube and possibly even TikTok.
The Global Content Team may also hand me audio production, script writing and studio recording projects as the summer goes on.
Q: What is the biggest challenge you’ve encountered so far in your internship, and how have you overcome it?
The biggest challenge came before I even arrived in Cary for the summer. During this past semester of college, I was attending classes full time as well as working two different jobs in the afternoons, leading a women’s ministry on campus and participating in student government. When I was accepted for the internship, I was so thrilled but also had this overhanging anxiety for the fund-raising process and how it would play out when I already had little time to finish school assignments.
Though time management and sleep played a part in pulling me through that tough season, it was really God simply providing me with the right amount of energy I needed when I woke up each morning. Something the Lord emphasized for me during those months was that though God may rarely be early, he will never be late. The process seemed dreadfully slow, but God provided all the funds I needed even before the deadline date rolled around.
Q: What were you most looking forward to during your internship?
I was most looking forward to being a part of a missions atmosphere again. I love meeting people who have lived a lot of life and can offer the most interesting stories. Working in missions is the perfect place for long discussions on life and God’s influence, and I knew working with TWR was going to offer so many new perspectives.
Q: What is one thing you have learned this summer?
This summer I have experienced a lot of cross-cultural communication and by way of that have learned quite a bit about having a sensitivity and awareness for cultural differences in speech and expectations for one another.
Q: What’s your favorite thing about being here so far?
I would say getting to meet and work with people from all walks of life is one of my favorite things about being here at TWR. Everyone I have met is so welcoming and inclusive. It seems like I have been asked to lunch by half the building by now and enjoyed each conversation all the same.
Q: What is your favorite food?
I am a sucker for some pho (a Vietnamese soup).
Q: What is a little-known fun fact about yourself that others may not know?
In my very first theatrical show, I played half of a broken chair!
