I got this at the Eastern Market at the beginning of the summer. Everything did turn out to be amazing!

My roommates and I keep commenting on how quickly this summer has gone by. Two months seems like a lot at first, but now it feels like hardly any time at all. I’m entering my final week at Lutheran Services in America, which means I’m working on finishing up the projects that were assigned to me. A few of the projects I have been working on won’t be done by the time I leave, so I will be preparing those to be handed off to future LSA interns.

Outside of various smaller tasks, my two main projects at LSA have been donor analysis for the 2015 fiscal year and managing their social media platforms. The first project has involved a lot of compiling and organizing numbers in order to understand where the donations are coming from, evaluate donor trends, and formulate a new development strategy for the 2016 fiscal year. While sometimes spending hours on end working in Excel can be tedious, I’ve found myself to be quite interested by the results. This Thursday I will be giving a presentation to the entire LSA staff that will summarize the findings and help them understand a little more about where LSA’s funding is coming from.

Managing the LSA social media platforms is a different sort of project. I try to make sure that our postings are spread out evenly, so that we are maintaining a regular presence on social media. Sometimes these posts regard projects or events LSA is involved with, and sometimes they are highlighting one of our 300+ member organizations. I love posting about our member organizations because it means I get to spend time going through their Facebook pages and learning about all of the amazing projects and services they’re all providing. It fascinates me how vastly different our member organizations can be, yet they are all connected in their mission to serve others and by their Lutheran roots.

The LSA staff went to a Washington National’s game this week!

As a Lutheran, the network that LSA has created fascinates me. When I was growing up, I was always told that we are all one through Christ and that we are all connected.  That’s something I think about every day here at LSA. The work done by any one of our members is excellent and necessary, but when you take more than 300 of these organizations and find ways to connect them, that’s when truly incredible work can happen. And every single person involved in these organizations is doing service work – whether they are doing hands on work or office work. This is one of the best examples I’ve seen of the body of Christ in action. Romans 12:4-5 says, “For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” The members of LSA provide a variety of tasks, and LSA helps bring them together. We are all the body of Christ, serving in a multiplicity of ways, and touching the lives of millions of people every year. Every kind of service is a necessary part of the body of Christ and serving with LSA this summer has provided me with a unique example of the body of Christ serving God’s people.

For the last three summers, I worked as a camp counselor at Lutheran Outdoor Ministries Center. I loved the work I did – I loved running around the hundreds of acres of land with the campers, seeing their smiling faces, and knowing that I was making a difference in each and every one of their lives. So working in an office in Washington, D.C. this summer is a very different experience, yet I know that this is exactly where I’m meant to be.

The United Methodist Building, where LSA’s office is located.

I am currently working with Lutheran Services in America (LSA) as a Marketing and Development intern. LSA is an umbrella agency for Lutheran service organizations around the country. They have over 300 members who they support in a variety of ways. I am the kind of person who thrives when she’s busy, and when I told my supervisors that they grinned and said, “well then you’re going to fit right in here!”

They weren’t kidding! I’ve been with LSA for three weeks now, and I have yet to find myself bored or looking for something to occupy me. In terms of Development, I am working with my supervisor, Debbie, on donor analysis and fundraising strategy. This means that I am looking at our donors from this last fiscal year and I’m comparing them with donors from the last five years to try and find patterns and understand why people give to LSA. I’ve never done anything like this before, but I find it fascinating. This is one of my long-term projects that will last for most of my time with LSA.

In terms of Marketing, I have a lot of smaller tasks, most of which revolve around social media. As of this week, I am officially running all of LSA’s social media platforms. This has turned out to be really interesting work! It’s not just casually making a post when LSA does something interesting – there’s a strategy behind it. I’m learning how to make posts that get people’s interest, how to word my posts to match the “LSA language”, and how to plan out a social media calendar so we know can properly schedule when to post about different events or highlight some of our members. For example, the White House Conference on Aging (WHCOA) is coming up. This is a conference that only happens once every ten years, and since a large portion of LSA’s members are involved with senior care, LSA has made it a priority to publicize and interact with our members about this event. Due to this, we have planed out a variety of different social media posts regarding the WHCOA, including sharing information about the conference itself, how to be involved virtually, and different senior services stories from our members.

“Our nation is at it’s best when everyone has a seat at the table and can share in prosperity.” – Secretary Castro, speaking at “Opportunity in Urban America” at the Urban Institute

Outside of these projects, there are also a variety of minor long-term projects different people from the office have assigned to me. These are things that aren’t necessarily priorities, but would be really helpful to have completed by the time I leave. This leaves me with a lot of different items on my plate, which requires me to really utilize the time management skills I’ve been cultivating these last few years at Valpo. I’m certainly busy, and I love every second of it! This placement is giving me an opportunity to view service differently. I’ve done a lot of “hands-on” service over the years, and now I have the opportunity to learn about the service that is necessary in order for the hands-on service to be possible.

One of the things I love most about this internship, though, is how supportive the staff are. They had CAPS Fellows last year, so they are familiar with the program and they want me to get the most out of my internship and my experience in Washington, D.C. They are always letting me know about opportunities to go listen to a panel discussion or attend a lecture. Last week they sent me to listen to HUD Secretary Julian Castro speak at the Urban Institute about “Opportunity in Urban American” and what the Department of Housing and Urban Development would be doing in the next 50 years. He is an incredible speaker, and I am so blessed to have had the opportunity to listen to him!

A rainbow flag waving in front of the Supreme Court following the Same-Sex Marriage announcement.

One thing I am sure to never forget about this experience is that LSA gave me the opportunity to be a part of history. Our office is located across the street from the Supreme Court, and when they ruled on same-sex marriage yesterday, my supervisor told the other LSA intern and myself to go outside and be a part of the celebration. I’ve never experienced anything that compares to the joy of the people who were rejoicing in front of the Supreme Court just minutes after the announcement. It was truly incredible.

I know without a shadow of a doubt that this is exactly where I am meant to be this summer, and I am so grateful to the CAPS program and to LSA for providing me with these never-ending incredible opportunities.

A photo of myself in the crowd in front of the Supreme Court just minutes after the Same-Sex Marriage announcement.