Continued from March 23rd, 2009…
So now it was time for classes to start and the concept of going to class abroad is not so much of a concept but a thought… aka it is really hard to do. Especially when then sun I is always shinning and you can hear the beach calling your name. I only had class two days a week, due to my internship, but it was quite difficult to go. However, I did put a lot of time and effort into my internship; sometimes I even skipped class to go to my internship, because I needed to get something done or there was an important meeting that day that I wanted to go to. For my internship I worked for the YWCA underneath the fundraising and marketing director. It was an office full of mostly women but they were all very helpful and fun. My first few weeks were pretty boring; I analyzed some stat, proof read the quarterly newsletter and updated spread sheets. Eventually, I was able to do more things. I was put in charge of the silent auction for the Mother of All Balls, a charity event held by the YWCA yearly to raise money to fund the Big Brothers Big Sisters program for the year, which required me to do many different tasks. I had to gather information about the companies who donated prizes; organize the prizes in an easy to distribute way, package prizes together to create a better silent auction item and then create display boards to show the prize and all of the conditions of the prize. The ball ended up raising $400,000 for the Big Brothers Big Sisters program which was a great feeling. After the ball I was put in charge of the mail out of thank you cards to all of the guests and donators. Besides the ball I also helped layout the staff monthly newsletter and took a day to go help with the in-school mentoring program.
Although class in important … learning about the business world and how to be a professional was much more valuable, to me, than classes. When I remember Australia I will probably not remember that I went to class and learned about Australia’s perspective of the World from 1944 to present but I will remember the ball and how amazing it was to raise $400,000 and that I learned how to plan a party and write business letters and talk to CEO’s on the phone.
To be continued…