December 3rd, 2007 To Whom It May Concern, I am thrilled to have the opportunity to recommend Hannah Simon for employment with your organization. I had the privilege of working with Hannah when she joined our team as the Media Intern for the National Sierra Club. The Sierra Club is the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots environmental group, and we selected Hannah from a competitive pool of applicants because it was clear that she had the vision, passion, commitment, and skills to thrive in our fast-paced team of media professionals. Over the course of the semester, Hannah excelled in pitching stories to reporters and producers, researching our reports, writing letters to the editor, and navigating our media databases. She was eager to jump in and try new things, and she went above and beyond the basic requirements of the internship, developing her own projects that would help meet our goals. Hannah’s research and editorial skills made a big impact on our reports, and she played a vital role in our America’s Wild Legacy report and our Off Shore Drilling report. Not only did she never miss a deadline, she was often the one to come up with the project ideas and get the work done before we even realized the need was there. It was sometimes easy to forget that Hannah was an intern and not a paid staff member. Hannah took it upon herself to develop a blog outreach strategy, and quickly became the National Sierra Club’s go-to person for anything pertaining to the blogosphere. She created an extensive pitch list, developed relationships with bloggers, and generated myriad hits that helped drive traffic to our website. Hannah also took the initiative in coordinating the national syndication of Sierra Club Radio. Her outreach to program directors and station managers was instrumental in signing up additional affiliates and helping broaden our distribution network. Hannah was a pleasure to work with, and shined at all of the tasks that she took on. She was able to manage multiple projects at once, and her enthusiasm was a great asset to our team. If this sounds like a rave review, well, it is. I am sure Hannah’s energy, thoroughness, and willingness to learn will greatly benefit your program. Please don’t hesitate to call with any questions. Best,
Orli Cotel National Publicist Sierra Club (415) 977-5627 85 Second Street, Second Floor San Francisco, CA 94105-3441 TEL: (415) 977-5500 FAX: (415) 977-5792 www.sierraclub.org