From a young age, I knew I wanted to help people, but the path to do so has never been clear to me. I recently graduated from USC Lancaster, where I spent two years passionately involved in 15 clubs and organizations, but constantly switched my major. I was drawn to opportunities that built connection and support in communities, but any one course of study always left me wanting more.
When we started our internship at the Arras Foundation, Amarie Gist and I hit the ground running. We spent our first week analyzing data and researching ways to increase community engagement and reach more people looking for connection to resources and support. Suddenly, I realized what all the hours I spent on college research projects were preparing me for.
In just one week, we performed data and feedback analysis on major foundation initiatives like Give Local, the Horizon Youth Review Committee, and our community’s nonprofit leadership development cohort with Together SC.
For Give Local, an annual 24-hour fundraising event supporting causes that matter to the people of Chester and Lancaster, we examined other communities’ giving day methods, incentives, and initiatives to learn how we might increase our community engagement.
For the Horizon Youth Review Committee, a board of local high school and college students that make foundation Horizon Education Grant decisions, we studied survey feedback and created a prep packet of guiding questions, rubrics, and explanations to support them as they review grant applications.
For our nonprofit leadership cohort with Together SC, we assessed themes presented in feedback from previous meetings and proposed topic ideas for their upcoming meeting.
Later, we broke into our individual projects and set personal goals for the next 10 weeks. My focus is on storytelling, where I will uplift the great work that nonprofits are doing in our community. I will be able to connect community members with vital resources, all while strengthening my own skills and learning the inner workings of nonprofit organizations.
Looking ahead, I am excited about the lessons I will learn and the relationships that I will make throughout the summer. These relationships are, of course, with my amazing team, but also with my community, with content creation, and with myself.
New opportunities awaken new parts of us, and I am excited to continue developing my professional, creative, and ambitious side during my time at the Arras Foundation. I am finding purpose in my education by applying it in a field of work I’m passionate about, and I know this will help me as I head to the University of South Carolina to complete my bachelor’s degree.
