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!
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