If I had to give an overall sweeping statement on how much U
of M has prepared me for my internship, I would say, no, not at all. Of course,
the work ethic and problem solving skills that I have developed as a result of
U of M has been helpful this summer at Make-a-Wish, but I can safely say that
coursework from the past two years at U of M never came up during my
internship. Psychology doesn’t have much to do with fundraising or development
work.
However, looking back on my internship, I have found that
fundraising and development work is exciting and stimulating and it is
something I can picture myself doing in the future! No two days are the same
and you never know what kind of fires you will have to put out, which is good
because I get bored easily J I have realized that people who do
development work in the non-profit sector must be very resourceful! Often there
isn’t a whole lot to work with, but you have to do your best to make
fundraising events worthwhile if you want your donors to be generous and keep coming back.
If I had to choose one thing to do differently in my
internship, it would be to sit down with my supervisor at least once a week to
talk about how everything was going and discuss my goals and just to chat. I
definitely got to work on a lot of different things, but I would’ve liked to
have had some sort of project that was completely my responsibility so that I
could take more ownership over my work rather than feeling like I was just
assisting my supervisor the whole time.
Overall, it has been a great summer at Make-A-Wish! I have met a lot of inspiring and hardworking people and I hope the last few weeks don't go by too quickly. I'm going to be sad when it's over.
Its always good to hear that someone is doing something that they are truly passionate about. Although michigan may not have prepared you as much as you would have liked, you learn more from mistakes and getting your hands dirty. I have noticed from personal experience when you are thrown into the water you either drown or learn to swim. It seems that U of M gave your the ability to learn from new situations although they may not have directly taught you the skills. Great work and keep enjoying what you do!
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your point that U of M hasn't prepared you for your internship. It's hard to really apply classroom knowledge on your internship unless that are very correlated. However, it still seems like you got a lot out of your internship and still were able to achieve your goals even without using your liberal arts education.
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