National Public Radio Internship Inspires Entrepreneur
This summer Babson junior Sandhya 
Subramanian was selected to be one of the 48 (from more than one thousand applicants) summer interns for National Public Radio (NPR).
Sandhya worked in the publicity and events department at NPR's headquarters in Washington, D.C., coordinating external events. She also produced a piece on a luxury chocolate maker for the on-line newsmagazine Intern Edition.
The NPR internship program is designed to provide college students and recent grads the opportunity to learn about broadcasting through hands-on, practical experience.
Sandhya's primary responsibility was with Publicity and Events in the Communications Department, coordinating external events for NPR personalities including Steve Inskeep, Neal Conan, and Juan Williams. The events typically took place at NPR member stations and various non-profit organizations. She worked on everything from conducting research about organizations requesting NPR personalities to assess potential NPR Code of Ethics violations, to finalizing itineraries for each event.
Another role involved immersing herself into production of a piece for Intern Edition, a radio show produced and aired entirely by student interns. She led the team of 4 (including her) to create a segment about gold-encrusted chocolates! The hour-long program premiered Friday, July 27 and is archived on the Intern Edition Web site.
“Producing a piece for radio was an incredible experience because it was completely out of my comfort zone. I had to learn how to do tasks such as collecting, editing, and laying sound bites together,” said Sandhya.
Sandhya developed a marketing campaign for Intern Edition called “Are You Smarter than an NPR Intern?” She also coordinated its premiere and a luncheon for the interns, supervisors, and NPR staff of over 100 people!
As a Babson student, it was fascinating to learn about NPR's business model since it is a large media firm as well as a non-profit organization,” says Sandhya. “Public radio has such a distinct and intricate model with numerous elements that a commercial media company doesn't have.”
“Being at NPR this summer confirmed the fact that I'd like to work on the marketing side of the media industry.”
In just a few years, expect to see the name Sandhya Subramanian credited on media marketing lists!