Shadowing: One of Three

Wow! May 1st already! I had to write the date this morning, and I was surprised to have to write May already..time sure does fly!

I'm doing pretty well with working on accomplishing my goals. This one has to do with school - sort of. For my major we have to do an internship. I am doing mine next spring at Heritage Christian Services. They are a not-for-profit organization that helps those with developmental disabilities. I will be interning in their fundraising and grant writing department. The two ladies in that area seem very fun to get along with, and I'm looking forward to learning a lot. Besides my internship I decided I want to shadow people in their job as well. My goal is to shadow 3 by the end of 2010. I think it can be done!

I recently got together with Amy Eisenhauer who works at Roberts in Alumni Relations. She has some experience in Community Relations, which is what I was interested in. For one of my classes here we do a mock interview night. I interviewed with a lady from a credit union who said I would probably be interested in their community relations department. I asked what all that involved, and basically it is event planning to get the company's name out there. Although I've heard it can be stressful, I think event planning would be fun. (The fundraising aspect of my internship would be the event planning side of me.) I talked with Amy about what she does at the school and Homecoming came up. This is a big event that happens every year. It involves current students and alumni. I told her I would be willing to help out with it - it would be a great experience for me to help out with a big event like that! We will be in touch again in the fall.

For my other 2 (maybe more!) shadow experiences I am looking into the United Way and the American Diabetes Association (ADA). The ADA has a special events position that I would be interested in learning more about.

When I was in high school I was the class treasurer for all 4 years. We had to do various fundraisers to raise money for our senior class trip to Toronto. I loved organizing the events, making sure students sold their tickets, and running the event. I loved the feeling of success afterwards, and enjoying the rewards of our hard work. I definitely enjoy the switch from Accounting to Management, but the money thing is still in there for me!

I will keep you posted on any other shadow opportunities I have : )