I have had the opportunity to immerse myself in many different facets of the non-profit world during my internship at EMPOWER Porter County. I’ve done research, developed an initiative with co-workers, and presented ideas to possible collaborators. The majority of my time spent at EMPOWER was in the office, scrolling through existing youth development programs and filling my mind with case studies and facts. This was an extremely valuable task, as it taught me how much time it takes to really understand and become knowledgeable on a subject. It also taught me that research and Google searches alone are not enough for me to be inspired or to get my brain (0r heart) moving. I learned that communication and meetings are absolutely essential in the non-profit world to generate ideas, share experiences, and provide incredible insight that will ultimately make the project you’re working on a success. The meetings didn’t begin until the last third of my internship but it was certainly the most encouraging and exciting time. I, along with my supervisor and co-worker Mychal, met with numerous community leaders and professionals, all giving us extremely valuable feedback that helped shape our youth initiative. A meeting that sticks out in my mind was with Garner Tullis, the founder of Our Greater Good and former pastor of Bethel Church. After our meeting with him, I felt a renewed excitement for our project and a refresher reminding me why this project is so important to our community. His passion and heart for people was infectious and uplifting. He shared with us about his mentoring program with Our Greater Good and gave us some insight into how the mentoring process develops. While I learned a lot about how to proceed with our project and where we might have hurdles, I was overwhelmingly encouraged by the meeting. I think that’s how non-profit work is so rewarding. Yes, it is hard work and sometimes the payback is few and far between. But working collectively with other like-minded people towards the benefit of others is the most fulfilling position to me. I most definitely want to continue work in service when I graduate.

Here are a just a few realizations that I’ve come to over the past few months at EMPOWER:

• It is sometimes hard to stay motivated in an office environment when it’s YOUR responsibility to get work done. Put your phone away, make some tea, and stay focused.
• When presenting an idea to an individual or group, it usually takes several “tries” to refine your presentation so that people understand and respond well to it. Sometimes you have to have a few rough “pitches” to learn how to read people and tweak the communication style appropriately.
• Both using research and conducting research are both persuasive elements in the non-profit field.
• It takes a lot of different brains and experiences working together to formulate a proposal. It’s all really confusing and fuzzy for a while until you begin talking to people and putting more organized elements into the project.
• Ask for help and direction (sooner rather than later).
• Lastly, I realized that the non-profit world is full of extremely kind and passionate people are have a heart for others and I truly am blessed to have met so many of them.