Tag Archives: internship

Off to a Great Start at Fund 17 – Jean

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I just finished the first full week of my internship at Fund 17. It has been going great so far! I met with Haley, Fund 17’s director the week before to discuss my projects for the summer. She asked all the interns what they would like the focus of their internship to be, and I liked being able to personalize the internship to my preferences. I told her I wanted to focus on legal issues, so we decided that my responsibilities as the legal intern would be to prepare for our 501c3 application, look for pro bono legal assistance, assess Fund 17’s legal needs, and compile information on small business licensing laws. I think this will be a new, stimulating area to study. Another one of my responsibilities is to learn about impact assessment best practices, and to conduct client satisfaction surveys, which I think will be more of a challenge. I created a client satisfaction survey earlier this year to learn about entrepreneur’s satisfaction with Fund 17, and after some editing from Haley, I was finally able to give the survey to an entrepreneur, Anna. Fund 17’s guidance benefitted her business, and I’m happy I got some concrete evidence of our effectiveness. I’m excited to do the rest of the surveys next week and see what the results are. Hopefully they are as successful as Anna’s.

Fund 17 is almost ready to launch its crowdfunding campaign to raise money for its budget for the first year of operation. Check it out here. I’m excited about an upcoming training we will have about New Orleans geography. I don’t know a lot about the history and topography of neighborhoods in the city, which will be led by another intern. Having this knowledge is important for me as an intern and as a resident of New Orleans. So far the internship is going great and I hope that my projects progress as quickly and successfully in the future as they have been this past week!

Getting Excited to Intern with Success Academy This Summer — Audrey Preston

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Before I really dive in, I wanted to mention that this is my first time blogging! I feel so adult right now – halfway done with my college degree, about to spend a summer in New York City by myself, and now I’m a blogger. Wow.

 

I’m so excited about this summer, and now that my finals are (finally) over, it actually seems real. This summer, I will be interning in the finance department of Success Academy Charter Schools, which is a charter school organization that operates about 30 schools in the city, educating over 9000 students. Unlike many elite schools, Success admits students based upon a lottery, to prove that anyone can succeed with the right resources. They emphasize many aspects of learning, from math to art and even to playing chess. Their holistic approach has gotten results, too: they are ranked in the top 1% in the state for math scores. Their inaugural class just entered high school, so it will be interesting to see how the future of Success pans out. To learn more, visit http://www.successacademies.org/

 

I was extremely lucky to get an offer with Success, and I have been so grateful to everyone who has helped me along the way. I first heard of the opportunity through Julie Hauber, who is a Career Consultant with the Career Management Center in the business school. She has been such an incredible resource for me throughout my time at Tulane. She had forwarded me an email from Matt Jasie, who is involved in the finance department at Success. He had mentioned that they were specifically looking for women to join their team, so I decided to apply, and the rest just worked out.

 

I have always been intrigued by education and education policy (although I’m not very good with kids), so this is a great opportunity for me to get a first hand look at the inner workings of a charter school organization. I will be working in the finance department, so I will be performing tasks such as organizing financial information, preparing financial statements, and submitting budgets. I may also be involved in grant writing and fundraising. I won’t know my exact duties until we get the team together, so we can work with everyone’s strengths and interests, but I will definitely have real responsibility within the organization. No coffees and copies for me!

 

This summer, I have three main goals: develop skills, build connections, and have fun. I want to be working with the actual operations of the firm and make an impact, and I want to gain experience while I’m at it. I want to learn how to write a grant, how to raise funds effectively, and how to manage a multimillion dollar budget. I also want to become a pro at Excel and become Excel-certified. The experience that I will gain on the job will be valuable, but the connections I will make will be priceless. Ultimately, I want to work in New York’s financial district, and since the financial sector is so competitive, it is really important to build a strong network. By the end of the summer, I want to have built a strong relationship with at least one person from every firm I am interested in working for post-graduation. Finally, I want to enjoy my summer. New York is an amazing city, and I am so lucky that I get to spend two months there. I can’t wait to be living fifteen minutes away from all of the places I’ve seen in movies: Central Park, MoMA, and the Empire State Building. I know finals are over now, and I’m starting in less than three weeks, but it still seems surreal. I can’t wait!

 

Until next time,

Audrey

UNHCR Ready, Geneva Bound. -Kayla Bruce

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This summer, I am interning with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in Geneva, Switzerland. The UNHCR was established in 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly. The agency is mandated to lead and coordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another State, with the option to return home voluntarily, integrate locally or to resettle in a third country. It also has a mandate to help stateless people (UNHCR). The UNHCR Website provides extensive information on its areas of focus, including emergency response, protection and capacity building. They also put out updates each week on major refugee crises around the world.

As an International Development and Public Health student, I have spent a lot of time learning about the UN system in my coursework and am still in awe that this has materialized. As a freshman, I started talking to a contact in the UNHCR about her job, her perspective on the organization, and any advice she had for pursuing a career in this field. As a sophomore, I started inquiring about potential internship opportunities. Between my relative lack of experience and the fact that I may have started inquiring too late in the year, she told me that there weren’t any open positions that I could fill that summer. I found another great internship opportunity, where I gained valuable experience and expanded both my skill set and my resume. Early this fall, I got in touch with her again. Because I was ahead on credits, I told her that if there was a higher demand for interns in the spring than in the summer, I was available to take the semester off to work with the UNHCR (my alternative to a traditional study abroad). I provided her my updated resume and was able to talk about my interest in a more informed way. After seeing my dedication (or realizing that I wasn’t going to give up and leave her alone) she offered me a position for the summer of 2015.

This is an incredible opportunity for me to learn what it is like to work in a multinational organization. I feel that with three years of undergrad under my belt, I will be able to make a meaningful contribution to this organization. I am excited to get a first hand perspective of how international organizations like the UNHCR actually work. I think this will be a great learning experience for me, particularly in understanding the challenges the UN organizations face from a first hand perspective.

I will primarily work with the Communications and Public Relations department under UNHCR Spokesperson Melissa Fleming, who was recently featured on TED, discussing the Syrian refugee crisis and working towards more transformative refugee interventions. She has done a lot of work in my field of interest, and I am excited to learn more about how she got to where she is today.

I will contribute to daily media monitoring and will be responsible for pulling together a weekly impact report. This report will outline how UNHCR press releases, briefing notes and multimedia were covered in the media and on external platforms. I will also gather input from social media for this analysis. I will do research on current crises that will be used in articles, columns and speeches throughout the summer. The UNHCR is also planning for World Refugee Day on June 20th. Helping to organize this event will be a major part of my role in the beginning of the summer.

Additionally, I hope to shadow in the Public Health department one day a week. While I will not have as active a role as I will in the communications department, I hope to learn more about different roles within public health in the field of disaster response. I have spoken to my supervisor about this and we will have to work out the logistics of this option once I start work in May. I’ll be sure to keep you all posted!

In just three weeks, I’ll be taking off for Geneva. I’m not sure what to expect, but I know this is going to be the learning experience of a lifetime.

I. Allegro – An Introduction to the Symphony by Haley Butler

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This summer I will be interning at the Nashville Symphony, the largest performing arts non-profit in Tennessee and led by Music Director Giancarlo Guerrero. Founded in 1945 by Walter Sharp, the Symphony has become a cornerstone in the artistic community of Nashville, a city known for its dedication to music. With 140 performances annually, the Symphony’s concert schedule encompasses a diverse mix of classical, pops, jazz and family programs, along with extensive community outreach efforts.

I graduated from Nashville School of the Arts, a public magnet high school, specializing in orchestral and choral music. During my time at NSA, the Nashville Symphony was crucial to my development as a young classical musician. Their community engagement programs allowed me to attend the symphony on a regular basis, learn about the historical context of the pieces performed, and interact with professional musicians who provided inspiration and helpful insight.

During my summer with the Symphony, I will act as the Education and Community Engagement intern. I will provide support for all of the day-to-day activities of the Education and Community Engagement department, which is responsible for the Symphony’s music education initiatives, children’s concerts, community partnerships, and adult education programs. I will assist in the planning of Young People’s Concerts, design activities for Pied Piper Children’s Concerts, and deliver Instrument Petting Zoo programs to local schools and summer programs. Additionally, I will gain hands-on experience by building new curriculum for the educational programs.

A Summer in Rwanda with Engineering World Health – Maddy Bishop-Van Horn

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My name is Maddy Bishop-Van Horn and I am majoring in Biomedical Engineering (BME) with a minor in Mathematics. I found my internship through a Tulane BME alumni, who came and talked to Tulane’s Biomedical Engineering Society last fall about his experiences working in global healthcare.

Now for the exciting news: This summer, I will be living and working in Rwanda with an organization called Engineering World Health! Engineering World Health (EWH) is a non-profit organization that aims “to inspire, educate, and empower the biomedical engineering community to improve health care delivery in the developing world.” One of the ways EWH is accomplishing this mission is by sending engineering students and young professionals to developing countries to work in hospitals, repairing and installing medical equipment that might otherwise go unused.

On May 30th, I will begin the long, long plane ride to Kigali, Rwanda, where I will be living for the month of June. There, I will be trained in troubleshooting and maintenance of the available medical equipment with the available tools. I will also take language immersion classes in French and Rwanda’s native language, Kinyarwanda.

In July, I will be deployed with one other EWH volunteer to a small village (I don’t know which one yet) to live and work for the remainder of the summer. I will live in a homestay at night and take a public bus to the hospital to work under the supervision of a local biomedical engineering technician. At the hospital, I will have many responsibilities. I will take an inventory of all medical equipment, and then begin working to troubleshoot and repair broken but vital equipment. I will work with the local technician to translate user manuals from English to French and Kinyarwanda. I also hope to talk to doctors and nurses about the kind of equipment they wish they had and what would make their lives easier.

I have a lot of goals for this summer. I hope to make life-long friends. I hope to learn more about global health and where I, as a biomedical engineer, fit. I hope to repair equipment that can save lives, and I hope to challenge my own perspectives.

I am incredibly excited for this summer, and I can’t wait to share my experiences with you. Next post will be from Kigali, Rwanda!

Until then,

Maddy

A Sad Goodbye

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This shot from our first day was posted all around the office on Thursday. Going to miss my intern class!

This shot from our first day was posted all around the office on Thursday. Going to miss my intern class!

Thursday was the last day of my internship with AmeriCares. As I walked around the office saying my goodbyes, I was surprised at just how sad I was to go. I had truly immersed myself as part of this organization. It is a bittersweet end. I am leaving, but not without a new perspective, new friends, and new work experience.

I had updated more than 50 contacts for their emergency response appeals, I had complied research on six new sources for fundraising in the online gaming sphere, and I had written acknowledgements and analyzed third-party giving sites, it really was a comprehensive product of what development does in a nonprofit organization. I was also able to dip my toes into communications in designing marketing materials for AmeriCares Student Ambassador Program.

The opportunities to address my goals came naturally. The program strongly encouraged networking, and I was able to exchange information with not two employees but more than ten. Networking also pushed me to work on my communication skills and think about where I want to go next after completing this internship. I was really interested in what communications and multi-media were working on so those were two areas where I reached out the most. As I began working on research and updating contacts, developing organization methods and finding the best way of extracting information, was critical to making deadlines and prioritizing my schedule.

Some of my biggest takeaways were communication skills, researching and reporting techniques, and an understanding of how a nonprofit operates. This knowledge will help me in the future as I decide what field of work I want to explore and pursuing and securing a position in that field. If I do decide that nonprofit work is for me, I have a much better grasp of what that entails. Although AmeriCares operates much like any organization, there are certain differences. There is careful mind to budget, and how budgets, reports, and press releases contribute to nonprofit ratings and public appearance. It appeared that the approval process for external communications was much stricter for reasons of public perception as well, in addition to regular company policy, copyrights, and messaging consistency.

I would definitely encourage anyone to pursue work in not only the nonprofit sector, but also global health or emergency response. The work is extremely important and fulfilling, and it also attracts a certain type of person. Everyone at the organization is so caring and dedicated to what they do– they know that working harder means helping more people. For my first internship I could not have worked with a better group, everyone was willing to take time to welcome me and make sure my questions were answered.

Working at AmeriCares has changed how I look at disasters and global health issues. I watch the news and I read the paper, but it’s so different when you talk directly with people who have witnessed disaster first hand, and especially disasters that don’t even make it to the media headlines. Just this week we had a meeting with two directors from partner organizations who work in Sierra Leone and Liberia who came to speak about the Ebola crisis in Africa. These health care workers quite literally put their lives in danger to help people. They are clearly exhausted and weary from the horrors they’ve seen, but they continue to fight and do not let statistics break their spirit. These people inspire me make change and confront global issues, because it is clear from talking to them that one person can make a difference.

Getting the opportunity to talk with people who work on the frontlines is part of what has made my internship experience so meaningful. I had the chance not to read about disasters or programs, but talk with the people who witnessed disasters and initiated programs. Through pictures and reports I got to see the faces of children and families consumed with emotion whether it was joy or devastation. The stories were real and it proved to me that there is a human touch to everything AmeriCares does.

My last days with Catholic Charities

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My internship ended on July 31st, and already I have no idea what to do without my class! It was an incredibly rewarding experience for me, and even led me to pursue further internship opportunities with Catholic Charities’ Translation/Interpreting department in the fall.

The last day of class was very emotional for my students and me. We finished off the semester watching and discussing the Wes Anderson film “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and then we all played a slightly confusing yet still amusing game of Apples to Apples. My students all brought food from their home countries, including pad Thai, tacos, and pupusas (a dish native to El Salvador). I brought pizza, of course, a food very close to the American culinary heart.

My class was successful not only because I was able to eat amazing home-cooked foods, but because my students and I grew genuinely fond of each other. For instance, I have plans to attend a potluck with some of my students from Thailand and plans to tutor one of my Brazilian students and his wife in English this fall. What I loved best about the class was how familiar we all were with each other. My students often brought friends and family members to class, and on the last day there were several of my students’ children watching “Fantastic Mr. Fox” with us.

For me, the class was worthwhile both professionally and academically. I was able to practice my Portuguese, Spanish, and French language skills with my students and prepare for future language classes at Tulane. I was able to continue building my teaching skill set, learning how to teach students of varied language abilities and gather more teaching materials to take with me to Latin America when I graduate. But more than that, I was able to develop administrative and programming skills during my internship that I would not have been able to had I been merely an ESL teacher and not an administrative intern. I was given the task to set up a presentation about Adult Education classes in New Orleans, a task that was not easy to accomplish at first. When I first tried approaching language access/education groups in New Orleans, I didn’t get much of a response. After repeated efforts however, I was able to get in contact with a representative from Delgado Community College and bring him to our program site. Dozens of students attended the meeting and I was proud to find out that the Catholic Charities’ ESL program will continue bringing Delgado representatives to our program site because of my efforts.

I would like to reiterate how very beneficial this internship has been for me and how much I have learned through it. I know have more skills and ideas to bring back to Tulane and offer to prospective employers. If I had one piece of advice for future interns, not only with non-profits, it would be to be as proactive as possible and develop positions and responsibilities for themselves. No one will give you opportunities, you have to make them.

I would like to thank Dr. Thomas Allen and the Center for Engaged Learning and Teaching for awarding me a summer internship grant and my colleagues at Catholic Charities for accepting me as an intern and making me feel so welcome this summer.

Top of the Hill

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CAROLINE LANFORD | Washington, DC

Can you spot me? Second row in the middle, just to the right of RBG!

Can you spot me? Second row in the middle, just to the right of RBG!

As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called on me to ask the first question after her lecture to 160 of us congressional interns, I could barely contain the gratefulness I felt for having had such an absolutely amazing summer full of so many once-in-a-lifetime experiences. After thanking her for forging the way for women in the field of law, I asked Justice Ginsburg what she saw as the most difficult challenges women will face in the future and what our generation could do to further all the important progress she has already made. Her advice really spoke to me as I reflected on my professional plans:

Artificial barriers no longer exist for you, but there still are a number of problems that laws cannot solve– they can help, but they cannot be the sole solution. Perhaps most important of these is the home and work balance… I think more and more men are realizing that they’re missing something when they give up time at home with their children to focus solely on a career… I see it with my son and my son-in-law… When or if you have a husband, it is important that he knows that his work is no more important than yours… No one has it all all at once. People look back and say, “Oh, you’ve had it all!” and I have, but I never had it all all at once. It is important to live a balanced life.

I felt that the advice she gave me (and my fellow interns) really was the perfect summation, both professionally and personally, to an amazing summer.

In this last half of my time at the House Committee on Homeland Security, I have gotten to work on a few bigger projects. These three have been my favorite:

  • Going on the House floor with Rep. Cedric Richmond (D- LA 2) as he argued in favor of five bills from our committee that were all eventually passed.

    I made it on C-SPAN! Life complete!

    I made it on C-SPAN! Life complete!

  • Drafting statements for Rep. Yvette Clarke (D- NY 9) to read during passage of six science and technology bills. You can see/hear Rep. Clarke’s floor statements here: http://www.c-span.org/video/?c4506155
  • Helping research and draft the fact sheet, section-by-section analysis, and op-ed for a bill that was finally introduced with a senate companion the week before August recess. You can learn about the CORRECT Act here.

From these projects I think I’ve gained a lot of practical knowledge on how to digest and gather information and then present it in a way that’s concise, informative, and convincing. I also learned a lot of very technical information about the

Branch 1: the judicial

Branch 1: the judicial

Department of Homeland Security and how it and Congress operate that might not be as immediately applicable to my university studies. But I truly believe that everything I’ve learned this summer will be useful as I continue to study politics and eventually work in the political field. I wasn’t sure if I would want to work on the Hill after I graduated, but now I can easily see myself working with the committee again next summer.

Branch 2: the legislative

Branch 2: the legislative

Branch 3: the executive

Branch 3: the executive

For those interested in getting a taste of the Hill environment, I highly encourage you to reach out to your local Representatives and Senators. Each office takes about 5 to 10 interns every summer, and, if a member of your state’s congressional delegation is chair or ranking member of a committee, committee staffs take interns every season as well. As most things in DC go, it helps if you know someone (or someone who knows someone) in the office so that your email doesn’t get lost in the heaps of communication those offices get every second. But asking around and being proactive is always a good strategy no matter what field you’re interested in.

There’s really nothing like being a part of the very process that I’ve been studying for so many years of my life now. I am so grateful for this experience, and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in government, politics, or policy. I will be back in Nola soon, but, until then, I’ll just keep power walking. 🙂

Halfway: Informed and Immersed

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My (messy) desk. Also note the awesome decorations– they're all over the office.

My (messy) desk. Also note the awesome decorations– they’re all over the office.

Hi everyone! I’m about half way through my experience with AmeriCares and I am really starting to understand what the organization is all about. A big part of the internship is a crash course in work AmeriCares has done, the work they are doing, and the work they plan to do. People from each department have come in to give the interns an overview of their respective work, which is helpful as there is not always interaction between departments. I mainly deal with Institutional Relations so it is interesting for me to hear about the field programs we do in Medical Outreach or the process for partnering with a pharmaceutical company in Corporate Relations.

It is a typical for a company to give a 101 course to interns, but at AmeriCares all the employees, even ones you would never work with, make an effort to reach out to you. In addition to a mentor program, and professional development advisors, there are people at the organization who will just shoot you an email to talk because they heard you are going abroad to the same place they did.

AmeriCares encourages the interns and students to explore the work that it is doing. This week I wrote a few acknowledgement letters to donors who have contributed to our relief efforts across the globe. I consider myself to be pretty informed and up to date, so I was confused to be researching events that I had never even knew about, like volcanic eruptions in Indonesia in March that displaced tens of thousands or the humanitarian aid currently being sent to Detroit because water has been cut off from half the city.

In my exploration of AmeriCares projects I became particularly interested in maternal and child health after reading the work of a woman who works in AmeriCares Middle East and Africa partnerships, Elikem Archer. A part of the internship is to write a blog post that is shared on AmeriCares Global Health Blog, so I saw this as the perfect opportunity to talk with Elikem personally.

The blog post is about AmeriCares One Child One World program, which is a nutritional education and assistance program in Ghana and the post also delves into maternal and child health issues across Africa. If anyone is interested in reading more, click here! Feel free to like or share it on Facebook and Twitter. They are offering the intern who gets the most shares a prize at the end of the internship.

I am excited to keep finding things to love about AmeriCares and the great people who work there.

Midway through my ESL internship

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Hi all! At this point in the summer, I am about halfway through my internship with Catholic Charities here in New Orleans and I have no idea where half the summer has gone. In my Level 2 class, we have made it through about seven out of the 15 chapters, covering topics such as First Impressions, Work Vocabulary, Job Hunts, and Traveling. I can honestly say that the reason we have progressed so rapidly in the course is because of the enthusiasm of my students. I have never met a group of students (adult, college seniors, or children) that was so eager to learn. In no class at Tulane have I witnessed such perfect attendance (and my students almost never show up hungover!) or so many completed homework assignments.

My students come from all over the world and their personal experiences here in New Orleans vary drastically. Even though the classes take place Uptown, I have students who travel (either by bike or public transportation) from far-flung areas like Algiers and Kenner. Although I know that some Tulane students commute to school, it stuns me every day to see all the students packing my classroom, many coming directly from full days of work.

While it is easy for me to see how quickly my students are progressing on their learning goals, it has been harder for me to identify what I am learning from this internship. Some of what I have learned has been very positive. For instance, I learned a lot about the curriculum building of a Level 2 English class and how to develop students’ conversation skills through class book clubs and political debates. Some aspects of my internship have been less positive. While my teaching experience has been exceptional this summer, my work on the non-profit administration end has been less rewarding. My efforts to coordinate adult education and social services presentations for the ESL program have not been so successful yet, but that might be the result of mass vacationing to the Gulf shore to evade the summer heat. Although I eventually (today!) received a response from one group to my inquiries about adult education in the NOLA community, it has taken persistence on my part and a refusal to give up to get anything done. Despite some setbacks, my internship has been a great experience so far, even on the administrative end, as I have gained more experience researching public/education policy on the internet and in libraries by myself in order to find the necessary information for my students. That in itself is rewarding enough.

Thanks for reading!
Olivia