I feared feeling disconnected while beginning work in a new place that I can’t see in person with people that I can’t meet face to face. I also was looking forward to exploring a new city- I couldn’t wait to find my favorite neighborhood coffee shop, go for walks on the Riverfront, and meet new people. However, this past week GreenLight Fund (the Detroit based nonprofit that I am working for) has made me feel like I am part of a bigger community even though I have just been working from my childhood desk. They organized a virtual tour of Detroit for the interns to partake in, allowing me to see images of the places that someday I hope to visit in person. I also engaged in conversations with my coworkers during “Summer Fridays” which are a weekly occurrence designed to help everyone get to know each other on a more personal level. Everyone at GreenLight Fund has been very kind, welcoming, and easy to talk to, fostering a work environment where I feel comfortable asking questions. They have also created a structured work plan of tasks for me to complete throughout the summer, which has been helpful, because I now have an idea of what to expect.
During these first few days of work I have been learning more about GreenLight Fund through readings and research in order to get oriented with the goals of and projects occurring at the nonprofit. GreenLight Fund works directly with the Detroit community to identify unmet needs. Then they go through an extensive process of finding and funding one nonprofit to enter the city each year, and the nonprofit is meant to address the community needs. My main focus with GreenLight Fund this summer will be on communications, so I have begun research on marketing strategies and posts to retweet on Twitter. I have also started learning how to use several online programs through which I can produce social media content such as quotes, images, and graphs for GreenLight Fund in the future. At first I was nervous about lacking prior experience, but so far I have been able to learn new things along the way, giving me confidence and excitement for all the skills I will be able to develop this summer. I will continue researching social media strategy this upcoming week as well as doing data analytics.
I am most excited to delve deeper into my work at GreenLight Fund, because I strongly believe in the mission of this nonprofit, and I want to help them succeed to the best of my ability. Also the work is truly interesting to me, because I might want to work at a nonprofit in the future. I may not be getting quite the immersive experience that I was hoping for, but I am so grateful for the opportunity to still work at this nonprofit; I also think the format of this experience will teach me things I wouldn’t have learned in Detroit, such as different modes of communication and connection and ways to self-learn and self-motivate that will be helpful to me in the future.