Today is my last day as an intern at Habitat for Humanity of the Lehigh Valley. I was the one who created this blog and have been writing it for the past two months. I was also able to begin and complete a couple of other projects here at Habitat. My internship was definitely not filing papers and making copies. I feel like I contributed and helped a lot this summer. I have had an amazing couple of months here and I am sad to leave. Yesterday, Deb Cummins, the Executive Director allowed me to follow her around all day to get a better sense of what her job is like. We called it Cloud Day because I did not like the idea of shadowing someone, I would rather be a white puffy cloud bouncing along beside someone, like how I imagine the Google Cloud bouncing along behind my I-phone. This experience taught me a lot, and all day I was thinking about Cheryl Sandberg and how she would be so proud of me “leaning in”.
The best learning experience I had this summer was during my “Cloud Day”. I followed Deb around for most of the day (an intern’s day is much shorter than that of a full-time paid exec.). I met Deb at the build site of our Women Build (she had come from a breakfast meeting). We donned hard hats, work gloves, nail aprons, and I grabbed a hammer. We went onto the site to meet the volunteers and help build! Deb took a lot of pictures, greeted everyone and was very friendly. She must have spoken to everyone on the job site and thanked them for the hard work they were doing to Habitat. Deb wanted to stay until lunch arrived, so while we waited she checked her emails. By 11:30 am she had 27 emails already! They were from a wide variety of people; donors, volunteers, sponsors, partners etc. Lunch was a little late but Deb insisted on staying until they arrived so she could meet them and thank them in person. When the food donors did arrive, Deb took them to see the build site and other nearby Habitat houses. She told them about Habitat and why what we do is important. She made them feel like they were apart of a worthy cause. I think that making the extra effort to personally thank someone is what keeps the volunteers coming back to Habitat. Deb has great personal relationships with many of our regular volunteers. Throughout this day I really got the understanding that making personal relationships with people is a big part of success.
Next stop was to Deb’s Rotary club. I did not know much about Rotary club but Deb told me that it is a group of professionals who get together to give back to their community. On the way, Deb was telling me about the importance of being the brand and the image of Habitat. People associate her name and face with Habitat for Humanity of the Lehigh Valley and so sometimes she feels like she always had to be “on”. Meaning she always has to be at her best. At the meeting, I found out that Rotary do a lot of fundraising for local charities. Deb uses Rotary as not only a way to give back but also as a way to make connections within the community. At my university they are always telling us how important networking is to help us find a job after college. It seems to me that once you find a job, you still need to be networking to find partners who will want to work with you. At least if the job is at a non-profit.
After the Rotary meeting we went back to the Habitat office. When we got there Deb walked around the office to check in with everyone. While waiting for her next appointment Deb responded to emails. She had a meeting with a woman who is helping Habitat design some marketing for next year to celebrate our 25th year anniversary. Right when she arrived, Deb went out to greet her and made sure she was introduced to everyone in the office. After meeting everyone, we sat down in Deb’s office and the woman pulled out an agenda. They had a lot to go over. They set a schedule and made a plan full of deadlines and steps to be taken in the next 4 months. Deb had to explain a lot of things about how Habitat works; how it’s funded, what our programs entail, and where Habitat wants to be in 5 years. I stayed in the meeting for an hour and half and it still seemed like they had a ton of details they still had to go over!
At the end of the day I felt so lucky to have had so many strong women in my life. I grew up a Girl Scout and so a woman in a leadership role was nothing new to me. However, it was a different, rewarding, and educational experience to work in an office of all women. How many people can say that? This Habitat office is a wonderful working environment. We get a ton accomplished and make time for ourselves and each other. We celebrate every birthday and sometimes all eat lunch together and talk about our personal lives. This has created an environment of trust, respect, and teamwork.
I think that starting out my professional career in this environment has taught me basic skills, not only how to do a job, but also how to run my life. Both of my supervisors are busy women, always on the go, who have to balance work and their home lives. Both women have a work phone and a personal phone. They work hard all day and when it’s time to stop, they stop. They turn off their work phone and spend time doing things for themselves like, playing with their dogs and spending time with their families. Since it was summer, everyone in the office took vacation days and while one person was out of the office, taking much needed time to relax and not worry about work, everyone in the office kept things running smoothly, stepping outside of their specific roles to make sure everything that needed to get done got done. I learned that in the future it will be important for me to learn how to balance work and my personal life. I now realize that by doing your job before you go home (or on vacation) will lead to as much of a balanced life as possible.
I would like to thank all of the amazing people and role models I worked with this summer. It was truly an incredible learning and growing experience.
Habitat for Humanity of the Lehigh Valley 