Summary of Experience
As an intern for the Development Director at City Year Rhode Island, I was able to gain experience in various areas of the company. City Year works with inner city schools across the globe to educate our youth and combat high school dropout rates.
City Year is a non-profit organization that was established solely to improve our communities. The core of the business has always the corps members, who devote a year to serve in schools with high dropout rates. They organize activities before, during and after school to give students incentive to be present in school- physically and emotionally. One goal that I had was to obtain knowledge on the daily activities of the corps members. One of my duties in fulfilling this goal was to input and summarize evaluations by corps members of their training presentations. I was able to see how they were trained and what their opinions were of each topic. This provided me with valuable knowledge of the company and what leads up to the members entering the schools and working with the children.
Relationships with sponsors are essential to maintain in non-profit organizations. Another goal that I wanted to achieve throughout this experience was to communicate with these sponsors, whether it was by mailing letters or by coordinating events to honor them. I was lucky enough to help in the organization of an event, which I was actually able to attend. As crucial as the corps members are, the sponsors are no different. Without donations, City Year wouldn’t have been able to expand into what it has become today.
Some of my internship responsibilities have included the following: inputting data into various computer programs; researching information on the company, schools and donors; preparing databases for functions such as mail merges; and compiling information pertaining to events and activities. In completing these tasks, I have helped to improve the organization’s overall efficiency. I have communicated with sponsors, corps members and staff which has helped to maintain critical relationships for City Year. I am proud of the work that I have completed and I believe that I have been a beneficial addition to the company. Working so closely with such different departments has given me a range of valuable knowledge that I can take on to any career that I pursue.
