Camila's Portfolio

 

Internship

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click this link to see the full internship packet: 

 

 

Below is a sample of my weekly logs:

 

 

Summer Internship Weekly Logs

Week #1

 

At the beginning of the summer, I was set on getting an internship related somehow to journalism. I want to be an investigative reporter when I grow up, so I thought this summer could be a good opportunity to acquire some exposure to that world. For a few months, I pursued the possibility of doing an internship at the Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit agency in Emeryville. When it was clear that that wouldn’t work out, I felt exceedingly discouraged. I had no idea that I would end up working somewhere more gratifying than I could have imagined.

 

Last Wednesday, I began a month-long internship at a nonprofit organization in Oakland called Hispanics in Philanthropy, which seeks to increase the representation of, and provide a support network for, Hispanics in the social sector across the Americas.  I’ve only worked here for a week, and yet I’ve already been challenged, developed friendships with some of my co-workers, and learned about many of the ins and outs that go into nonprofit management. The people in this office have been incredibly welcoming, and have been very intentional about the way they assign me tasks to make sure that I get a comprehensive view of the organization. On Mondays and Fridays I work with the manager of the organization, on Tuesday I work with the development department, on Wednesdays I work with the program and development coordinator, and on Thursdays I report to the marketing coordinator. My assignments are as varied as my schedule. For example, yesterday I learned how to operate Microsoft Publisher and used it to add four pages to a program for an event, and today I helped expand our base of followers on Facebook by posting a link to our organization on the profile pages of other organizations and activist groups with similar causes.

 

My most memorable experience at HIP so far took place last Friday. In light of the current, ongoing crisis at the border, where the thousands of unaccompanied children have attempted to come to the U.S. have been met with hostility by unprepared local and federal institutions, HIP hosted a convening of funders and nonprofit leaders to have a conversation with Sonia Nazario, a Pullitzer Prize winning journalist. Nazario has been covering the issue of violence in Central America and the subsequent migration of unaccompanied children for over a decade, and she’s the author of the 2006 best seller Enrique’s Journey. The people in my office know about my aspirations to be a reporter, so they assigned me the task of writing an article covering the event to put on the organization’s website. Of course, I was happy to accept the task. It has been a bit of a daunting assignment, as I’ve never before written an opinion editorial about an event I witnessed; my writing background is pretty much limited to the literature analyses I’ve written in English class. But it’s also been very gratifying. I have the opportunity to play the part of a real journalist, reporting on an event and weaving it into the wider context of a social and political issue.

 

Week #2

Every day for two weeks now, I get up at 6:30 in the morning, head to Downtown Oakland, grab coffee at the café across the street from our office, and go upstairs to be sitting at my desk by 9 o’clock. I check in with my supervisor, accomplish whatever tasks I’ve been assigned, go out to lunch at noon, and then end my day at the office by 3. This routine has become familiar to me, and I’ve grown to enjoy it and take comfort in the established succession of events.

           

On February 26th of next year, Hispanics in Philanthropy is hosting its annual convening of Latino CEOs in San Francisco. One of my tasks this week was to make calls to the CEOs’ assistants and confirm that they had received the invitations and that the date was saved on their calendars. When I was first interviewed for this internship, I was asked, “What do you hate?” In a moment of panic, I said the first thing that came in to my head, which happened to be “making phone calls.”  I rambled on a bit about how talking to people on the phone made me nervous, which isn’t entirely untrue but its also not the way I wanted to present myself. In any case, I have a feeling that I was assigned this task specifically as a way to practice making phone calls to people in administrative offices.  I thought it would be nerve-wracking, and it was, at first, but after a few calls I had a script memorized in my head and it was actually gratifying to cross each name out as I went down the list. I’m glad that I was asked to do this, because now the practice has helped me build confidence and dispelled some of my nervousness about this seemingly simple task.

           

This week, we welcomed a new hire into our office. It’s been interesting, helping orient her into the office as though I’m part of the team.  Yesterday, I went with her and three others from the office for lunch at a farmers market nearby. I’m really thankful that I had the opportunity to get to know these women in a more personal setting, away from the professional constraints of the office. I’m not sure exactly where I’ll end up working in the future, but do I know that I want to work somewhere like this where my colleagues are my friends.