Summer Intern in Volunteering Programs
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The summer after the first year of my MEd program, I found an internship with Chatham University in their Office of Student Activities. The position was to assist the Coordinator of Student Activities & Residence Life with bringing a chapter of a national volunteering organization to campus. This national organization is the Bonner Organization whose goal is to provide a way toward college financial assistance through community service (in addition to traditional routes such as academic merit, legacy status, athletic talent, and financial privilege).
I assisted with establishing a new chapter of the Bonner Leaders by:
I assisted with establishing a new chapter of the Bonner Leaders by:
- Benchmarking peer institutions - I contacted Bonner Coordinators at many other peer institutions to interview them about the services they provided for students, how they implemented various offerings like orientations, service logging training, and co-curricular classroom-style discussions.
- Creating co-curricular discussions - Going off of the six core values of the Bonner Organization (Community Development, Civic Engagement, Diversity, Social Justice, International Perspective, and Spiritual Exploration), I developed monthly meetings for the Bonner students. Each topic of the study related to one or more of the values and was intended to develop the students personally, academically, professionally, or in their volunteering.
- Training service sites - Service sites refer to the local non-profits in Pittsburgh where the Chatham students could serve as Bonner Leaders and volunteers (including areas like child literacy at the library, equitable housing, food kitchens, etc). I helped to create a presentation which easily explained how representatives from service sites could act as mentors for their volunteers and assist them with completing requirements of the program through our website.
- Planning and overseeing an orientation - One of the most challenging aspects of this job was planning a two-day orientation which occurred before Chatham's general first-year orientation. I had to welcome first-years and make them feel welcome but I also had to engage with returning students who already had friends and knew the campus. I also had to make time for teaching the Bonners about their new responsibilities and for them to do speed interviews with service sites.
