The Adventures of a Big City Intern-7

With mixed emotions I find myself back in the mitten I call home having come in off a flight on Sunday afternoon. I enjoyed my experience in the city- both at work and out on the town and its something that I wouldnt trade for anything in this world. I learned a lot in the office, like how to do HTML coding for websites and how to upload website content. I also was able to get some presentation experience towards the end of my internship when we had to give our final presentation. I was surprised at how easy it was for me to get up in front of a room of such distinguished people [the president of our company included]. Speaking to the group about college and our experiences both with their programs and while in the city was a phenomenal opportunity and I believe that it gave them a better understanding of what their clients [student useres especially] are looking for in a social networking site. With so many of them out there these days, sites have to be competitive, not only with content but with their image as well. We also discussed with them the importance of what their generated e-mails look and sound like, and how to make them more student-friendly and personal. Outside of that, we spent a lot of time discussing what it's like to be a college kid using multiple networking and electronic grading systems, and how we manage to keep track of several e-mail addresses, our Facebooks, and Blackboards and all of the other sites we're expected to check and keep updated on a daily basis.On the same page, we discussed how online communication has eliminated the apparent need for "real-life" communication and how rare it is to actually speak to someone on the phone or in person, and even further how rare it is to get a card from someone as opposed to getting an e-card in your e-mail. Which is something that my networking also tought me- that face-to-face communication is so rare that it is valued so much more than anyone realizes.Overall, in and out of the office my experience in the city taught me many life lessons that I know will be extremely beneficial in throughout the rest of my life. The trip, the people, and the city are things that will always hold a special place in my heart now and I can't wait to go back one day!

The Adventures of a Big City Intern-6

Heyy all!

Highlights-

Last Thursday…Lunch with Sandra!
Sandra treated us to lunch at a Thai food place not too far from the office and we were able to tap into all of her fabulous networking experience. She gave us lots of helpful advice concerning networking tactics, keeping in touch with people, and even shared her past experiences at various employers, how she got there, and her tips for success on the job.

This past weekend…Liz!
My friend Liz came to visit and we spent the majority of the weekend in city, shopping and wandering, taking pictures, and exploring. Overall, successful, relaxing weekend. =]

This week so far…=]
So on Monday I went to visit the Make-A-Wish Foundation in Manhattan and after talking to Gail for a few minutes got the opportunity to meet with a few new people as well. First on the list was Jay, Director of Corporate and Strategic Alliances. Jay handles most of the foundation’s fundraising and even shared with me some of the research he is currently doing on cultivating donors and exploring what their capacity to give is. On a more personal note, Jay also shared with me his story about getting involved with the foundation. Jay’s twin brother was a wish child when the two were much younger and ever since experiencing the joy that the Make-A-Wish Foundation brought his family and the impact they made on his brother’s life. It inspired him so much that he started to volunteer for the Foundation, and kept up with it regardless of what city he was living in at the time (mostly Boston and NYC). Years later, after various other Public Relations and Non-Profit jobs, Jay started what he described as being his “dream job” at Make-A-Wish. He shared with me some of his tips for handling the stresses of a fundraising job especially in non-profit. He also shared with me his personal experiences in having trouble landing jobs because of a lack of experience, which was something I had not heard from many other people. Everyone else I’ve talked to gave the impression that who you know is either equally or signifcantly more important than what you know. Jay however had quite a different experience, and was actually not hired the first time he applied at Make-A-Wish because he didn’t have enough experience, regardless of the fact that his brother was a wish kid and he had himself been volunteering for years. This began to worry me a bit, considering that I don’t have much experience, and knowing this I knew I would need to get some fast if I wanted to land my dream job at Make-A-Wish.

Amy Epstein, the Foundation’s special events manager shared with me that I could get that kind of experience much like she did, by doing freelance special events. She was able to give me good insight on the Special Events end of the job at Make-A-Wish, which is where I would love to end up. Amy also shared with me that she had gotten involved with the foundation because she was a former wish kid, which was very touching and inspired me even more to work towards pursuing my dream job. I found that Amy and I had a lot in common and that she was very easy to talk to.

Overall my experience at the Make-A-Wish office was very successful.

Today…We had our presentation!
Presentation went EXCEPTIONALLY well. We talked to the employees at EdDy about our experiences with their various programs, what it’s like to be a college student today, and how technology dictates everything we do with our lives both in an academic and social atmosphere. Everyone loved our presentation and said that it had taught them a lot. Overall, very successful.
Bike ride along the Hudson tonight, followed by outing with work friends.

=]
Only 4 days left!

New Honors Society on Campus: Sigma Alpha Phi

Up to now, the chapter of National Society of Leadership and Success in Lawrence Technological University is almost founded. I have found several Executive Board members, Michael Dalessandro, who is the Vice President, Christina Minta, the Chair of Fundraising and Ireli Xhani.

To introduce our organization to the campus while checking the responds of potential members, we decided to hold our first informal introduction meeting on campus. This is our fist time to “sell” and test our organization to the market. After settling the time and location, another crucial tip is to make our product more attractive. During the discussion, Christina mentioned that it would be more attractive if we could offer some free food. Since everyone likes free food, it will be easier to introduce the organization to someone after he accepts the benefit we offer. It is always easier to sell a product when you have free gifts attached.

Then we decided to buy some pizza from Hungry Howie’s. As the Student Government does not operate in the summer, we can not apply any money to cover our costs. However, all the E-board members are generous so we decided to pay the pizza together. As the president, I feel so happy that all the members take responsibility, and it shows that their personality fits for Executive Board members.

We set a table in the atrium, putting some pizza on it to attract students to our group. At the beginning, we found that it was a tough task to invite strangers walking by to come. Some people just ignored us, which is rather embarrassing. Actually, the first stage of communication is relatively hard since people tend to be hesitating to talk to people who they don’t know. However, no one will reject a smiling face. If one is really enthusiastic and honest, the other one will be influenced. Then, the purpose of communication is achieved.

Then we changed our attitudes quickly to become more warm and talkative to students, inviting them to have free pizza first and making jokes to make them feel comfortable. While we talked to them, we tried to affect them how important leadership skills are and how our organization can help them to achieve their expectation. Also, we collected information about what aspect they are interested in our organization, and what potential problems they concern.

This two day introduction turned out to be rather successful. We asked students who are interested and might become a member to write down their contact information. The list finally contained about 50 students, which is impressive in the summer semester. The goal of this activity, which is finding out the number of potential members and what this organization should offer to students, was reached by our hard work.

I always believe that communication skill is the fundamental requirement for successful management. The activities and meetings of this internship make me confirm how important communication skill is. Since information is the primary element in today’s business world, how to transmit the information to make it clear and understandable for listeners, how to make sure the information is transmitted correctly and in time through different channels. All these tasks are related to communication, and they play important roles in management.

IT internship, part 2

So these last couple weeks have been pretty busy.

We're migrating a lot of things from a company we just bought, which means we have to generate a lot of router scripts. Being that this would take a few centuries to do it manually, we have a script to generate the configs for us. It looks at an excel file to pull its information, so the task is just making sure everything in excel is right. This can be done by scanning over it yourself (time consuming and room for error) or by entering in really complicated formulas to do it for you. So that task fell to me, and I came up with some formulas (with help from an Excel forum to get me started) to make it easier. So now the configs are generated, which makes everything considerably easier.

We got a new network analyzer, so I've been poking around with that. And I can say I've worked with Network General Infinistream software, which is always a plus.

Next week I have Xng training. I don't remember if I mentioned this, but Xng is what we use to create work orders and it's also a database to track how things are physically connected together. That should be interesting. I'll let you know how it goes.

The Adventures of a Big City Intern-5

So yesterday was the big day. April and I met with Gail Monaco, the Director of Donor Cultivation and Major Events at the Metro New York Chapter of Make-A-Wish Foundation for coffee in NYC. The meeting was a success from the very beginning. Gail was super friendly, and very open, and willing to answer anything we had questions about. Her persona made it a lot easier than I had expected to feel relaxed around her, even though she has such a prestigious position within the foundation. We found that she had only just gotten involved with non-profits after working in insurance and real estate for numerous years. She started off as a volunteer for United Way, an opportunity which eventually turned into a paid position within the company. After being there for 6 years, she moved onto the Make-A-Wish Foundation where she has been for the past 13 years.

We learned about the process involved with granting a child's wish, and how every wish is made possible. The interviewing is actually done by volunteers which was something that surprised me. However, many of the employees at Make-A-Wish also volunteer for the foundation and get the opportunity to go out and meet the children and their families to find out what the child really wants as his/her wish. Gail said she has had the opportunity to do this several times, and though it can be tough, is a rewarding part of the experience. She also told us several wish kid stories, which were really inspiring to hear. Gail also mentioned that she still maintains contact with many of the wish kids after their experience with the foundation and gets invited to their weddings and other special events.

Overall, the meeting was definitely a rewarding experience and has further convinced me that working for Make-A-Wish is going to be my ultimate goal after school. I plan on getting involved with the Detroit chapter as soon as I am able to once getting back to Michigan. I would really like to intern with them at some point in time before graduating college to get a better feel for the industry in general, as well as the foundation specifically. I'm not sure what I would want to do within the foundation specifically just yet, however after listening to Gail yesterday, the foundation seems to allow you to "wear many hats" as she continuously described it. One day she talks to donors and plans budgets, the next she plans major events, other days she talks to the kids...every day is different and that aspect of the job definitely appeals to me.

In addition to meeting with Gail, I have an appointment with one of the employees in our office tomorrow to talk about his experience working with handicapped children. I'm also meeting with a woman who works in NYC at the Alliance for Lupus Research office as the Special Events Manager next Wednesday after work for coffee. I also received an e-mail response from another Make-A-Wish employee and will hopefully be meeting with her some time next week to get a feel for her position within the foundation and her experiences.

So goal #1 is going wonderfully and my networking is well under way!

More to come!
Krysta