As week two of my internship with JDRF (The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) comes to an end, I have taken the time to reflect on my first weeks as an intern. Interning at the Long Island, NY JDRF location has been an especially interesting experience as the Long Island office is in the process of merging with the JDRF Manhatten, NY office. People from the Manhatten office have been rotating in and out of the Long Island location as part of the merging process. This has given me the opportunity to meet many more co-workers in various positions at the nonprofit organization than I would have if the two offices remained separate entities. Because the Manhatten office shares a building floor with JDRF’s international headquarters, I have been given the opportunity to meet people at the highest rungs of the JDRF organization. I have listened to numerous important leaders within the JDRF community tell me stories about their time here as an intern and how voluble the experience was for them in the long term. It has been a humbling experience to see how many amazing juvenile diabetes research advocates and leaders started out in the same position that I’m in today.
Contrary to popular belief, there is way more to being an intern than taking coffee orders and running errands. The majority of my time spent is learning valuable skills that I am certain to carry with me throughout my lifetime. For example, a recent project I was assigned to complete required that I construct a budget sheet for bottles of wine that were bought and sold at a recent JDRF Fundraising Gala on the island. I had to account for what bottle we had originally, which bottles were won at the gala’s raffle, and which bottles were either not claimed or left over from the gala. Although this task was tedious at times, it was important I maintained focus and was certain to account for all of the proceeds that were collected at the gala. In doing so, I was able to analyze whether or not the bottles of wine were priced well so that people were willing to buy raffle tickets but also so that JDRF would make a profit in the event that only some of the bottles are bought.
In terms of leadership skills, I learned a great lesson in communication this past week at a not-for-profit career fair at Berekely College. An intern in the Manhatten office was no longer available to work the JDRF table at the career fair, and so I was asked to go into the city for the day to take her shift. Commuting from Long Island to Berekely College was relatively easy thanks to public transportation. After 50 minutes on the LI Rail Road, I took the subway to midtown. I made certain to arrive early to help my colleagues set up for the event. I was surprised to find that the entire team had been there for almost 30 minutes before I had arrived (despite arriving 30 minutes early for the event). I made a mental note about arriving extra early to events. “If you’re on time, you’re late,” I could hear my boss saying to me in the back of my head.
As students began to flood the auditorium, I could feel my nerves kick in and butterflies fluttering in my stomach. I worried I wouldn’t make a good impression in front of my coworkers. For the first 10 minutes, I opted to listen and take notes on how my peers were able to reach out to the college students and grab their attention. I decided to finally reach out to the students myself and finally engage with some of the people at the event. I tried to relate to the attendees as a college student myself and tell them about my positive experience with JDRF. While pay is not something I could highlight about interning for JDRF as it is a volunteer position, I emphasized the invaluble lessons and skills I have learned while working with JDRF. I appealed to fellow pre-med students by describing how interesting and beneficial it has been to understand scientific research from a fundraising and economic perspective. I explained to communications and sociology majors how amazing it can be to reach out to constituents from all walks of life in hopes to ease the challenges they face suffering from type 1 diabetes. It was especially easy to relate to my few fellow type 1 diabetics that I met at the convention and explain to them how rewarding it is to help others who struggle with the same aches, pains, and frustrations that we do. This experience allowed me to grow and be more confident in my salesmanship. I was able to honestly and eloquently convey the benefits of working for JDRF and got several people to sign up for our mailing list to learn more about how to join our team of volunteers. After the day was over, I was thanked graciously by the Manhatten office for filling in and for being so engaging at the event. I am proud to say that higher-ups from the office gave my boss in Long Island rave reviews. I am glad I stepped out of my shell for the cause and will be more confident about doing so the next time I do an event like this one. I hope my initiative will allow me access to more opportunities like this one that my boss can suggest me for.
As this is my second year interning for JDRF and I have been working with the organization since early high school, returning to the office this summer felt like coming home. I was welcomed back to my JDRF family with open arms and was excited to be surrounded by other women with similar interests. By chance, the entire Long Island office is made up of strong, independent women, many of whom I look up to as mentors. Introducing some new faces from Manhattan to the Long Island office a few times a week has been an adjustment. I am now making the effort to develop a rapport with several new people who I have never known and will only see for brief periods of time over the course of the week. These relationships, I’ve come to realize, are critical in maintaining a healthy and productive work environment. I learned this the hard way, for example, when I realized an employee from the Manhattan office and I were working on the same project for a good portion of the way without realizing until discussing our work over lunch that afternoon. We were able to finish the project much sooner than intended when we decided to split the contact list in half and each deal with half of the constituents. Several constituents, unfortunately, may have received the same email from JDRF twice that day about the same upcoming event.
Even after years of working with JDRF, I am constantly learning new skills and creating new networks of relationships every day. It has been a privilege to be able to see the foundation change and evolve over the years and utilize new technology and better tactics in order for the organization to run more efficiently. I am lucky to have been offered the position of intern after working as a fundraising captain for the organization for about 3 years prior. After winning several fundraising awards and proving my dedication towards JDRF’s mission, I was asked to get involved with JDRF on a higher level. If you are looking for an internship, the best advice I could give is to find a work environment that surrounds you with like-minded people. Not everyone has the luxury of working somewhere that they are super passionate about like I do, but luckily most internships will provide you with the skills and foundations needed to inevitably work for a company you believe in. Until then, finding a place where you feel welcomed and appreciated for your work is what I believe to be the most important aspect of finding an internship that’s worth waking up early for.
If you are in the New York/Long Island area and you’re interested in some of the work JDRF does, feel free to click here to see some of our upcoming events!