Getting an internship with the Office of Institutional Advancement at Longwood was an experience that I am glad I was able to have. I was incredibly honored to receive this opportunity because I believe it helped me grow as a communication studies student. I not only learned to be more confident with myself and my ideas but I made connections with some of the wonderful staff here at Longwood. With the high praises from my internship supervisor I was able to excel and exceed all expectations, expectations that not only I had set but ones that my coworkers set for me as well.

The biggest challenge that I faced was my confidence. I was afraid to share my thoughts and ideas and I believe that held me back in really getting the full effect of the internship. I found myself in meetings wanting to participate but not knowing what to say. Coworkers asked me for my opinion or for help and I was able to help like I wanted to. It was a hard obstacle that I had to overcome. Even though I kept telling myself I had nothing to be worried about, I couldn’t shake the feeling. By my one month evaluation though I felt more confident and I could feel myself coming out of my shell more. What really helped was when my supervisor said she couldn’t even tell I had confidence issues. It made me realize it was all in my head.

When I first found this internship position, I was most excited with the aspect of meeting and working with the generous donors of Longwood. To meet the people who have made many things here possible, I felt was very special. As I got more into the internship and participated in the events that were being put on for the donors, I realized that it would be awesome to be working in a field of business that directly made people happy. Seeing how pleased the donors were with the work we had done, started to get me more interested in event planning. I was never quite sure what I wanted to do when I changed majors to communication studies but this internship has shown me that I have an interest in event planning.

I believe that I have gained the skills that I mentioned in my first blog article. My lack of confidence when needing to ask a question has mostly diminished to the point where I do feel comfortable when needing help or asking a question. I felt as if I shouldn’t be asking for help because I should be capable to do these things on my own. I have also gained the skill of being more assertive. Like I stated in my 4^th journal entry, you need to have a sense of assertiveness when speaking so that you seem more credible to those that you are speaking to. I gained these skills that I desperately needed because I knew they would help me succeed in the workplace. Constant praise and approval from my supervisor gave me the last bit of confidence I needed.

I was able to achieve my goals that I set and I was very proud to do so. My two biggest goals were to finish the Longwood magazine project and then of course I wanted to start writing hand written thank you notes in place of some of the regular post cards that are usually sent to the donors. Thankfully I was able to write out a good amount of hand written letters and I finished scanning in the remaining magazine articles that needed put into the database. My last goal was to become more confident and assertive and I can tell that I was finally able to get out of my head and open up more when it came to making decisions on my own.

I don’t think I could have picked a better group of people to be my coworkers and mentors. From the beginning they were always there to help and guide me if I needed. My supervisor in particular gave me all the direction and reassurance I needed when completing a task. When I first started she made sure I was comfortable with my workspace and those that I was working with. She urged me to set up meetings with everyone else in the office so that I was able to get to know them and what they did. I feel like that is a very important thing for new workers to do so I was glad that she had me do that.

This internship was more than I could have asked for. I didn’t know what to expect when I first arrived but within days I was feeling like I had been there so much longer. I just had this conversation with my supervisor, but I would 100% suggest this internship to a student seeking one. Not only is it awesome being able to get closer to the staff at Longwood, but I have been able to learn so much. This internship helps you connect with the school in a much more powerful way. One of the projects I was assigned, I was to read articles about alumni and put them in our database so that when our gift officers go out to meet with them, they have talking points. By doing this, I was able to learn about our wonderful alumni who have generously donated and continue to do so. Another reason I would suggest this internship is because during the first week I was here, I had coworkers telling me about their connections and how they could put in a word for me for when I graduate. You don’t always have coworkers who care enough to help you find a job so I got lucky when this opportunity presented itself. 

This was when I was manning the annual giving booth for our department at freshman orientation. The first day I was with another coworker to get a feel for what I needed to do, but the next 4 days I ran it solo. It was a very proud moment for not just me but the office because they have never had an intern run this booth alone.

This was what I was doing a majority of the time, so I thought it would be a good thing to document! A lot of the time I could be found writing thank you notes to our wonderful donors!

I wasn’t given many opportunities that allowed me to have written samples of work, but I was able to help plan some events and do some small tasks of others.

This is a sample of one of the hand written thank you notes that I was able to start doing towards the end of my time there. Usually post cards are sent with small notes written on them but my supervisor and I decided personal hand written notes would create more of a long-lasting impact.

These are two examples of emails that one of the workers in the office asked me to compose. There were to be sent out to donors that hadn’t given in a while.  These are hoped to be incentive to remind the donors of how much we care and hopefully start donating regularly once again.

This was the gift bag that I was in charge of making and putting together for an event that was held at a donors house. In the folder was information on the event that was taking place and as a reminder of the night, Longwood post cards and envelopes were given out to each of the guests.

Another sample of work that I unfortunately wasn’t able to see get printed was the Longwood calendar that is going to be sent out to the donors. For this calendar I went through the Longwood picture database and selected a variety of 14 pictures for the cover and different months. This calendar also has the dates and descriptions of events on campus for students, alumni events, events that the Office of Institutional Advancement were putting on, and important dates that pertained to students and alumni.

My last sample of work is a combination of little different tasks. It was for a dinner that was being hosted for the 1839 society, a group of people who have planned gifts for Longwood such as scholarships.  First, I was in charge of putting together and sending out the event invitation. After that, with the help of my supervisor, information was gathered on the event that was to be sent out to each of the guests. I then handled the RSVP list, designed the place cards, and helped with seating when the event day arrived. After, I was in charge of sending out thank you’s to the guests.