Social Justice for Nashville: Cloe

Source:  Google

Name: Cloe 

Company: Martha O’Bryan Center

Position: Development Team Intern

Paid or Unpaid: Unpaid

Living arrangements: Crashed at my uncle’s house

Favorite at the desk snack: Chocolate trail mix

Coffee or tea?  Coffee

Summary of the company (in your own words): Helping low income residents in Nashville have better lives—providing food services, family counseling, education services, tutoring, youth programming, and employment services.

Summary of your department (in real language): The Development team raises money for the nonprofit to provide its services. This includes contacting donors (individual, foundation, and organizational), as well as organizing fundraisers and event planning.

Give a summary about what your job entails: We did a lot of volunteering with early education (Pre K) and in the food bank. Most of my job consisted of interviewing employees about their experience at Martha O’Bryan: why they come into work every day. All of the stories were about community members who were greatly impacted by MOBC programs. I compiled the stories they told me and presented the stories to the development team. The stories will eventually be put on social media and presented to donors.

Source:  Google

Busy rating: (out of 5, can give explanation): 4—there wasn’t a whole lot of down time, but we did get out early some days.

Interview difficulty rating: The interview to get this job was over the phone—and it wasn’t too bad. If 1 is the easiest, I’d give it a 2. The questions were basically the same as on the application.

Involvement with the other interns: 3. We spent about half of the day together and ate lunch together; we would do our volunteering together but were interning for the rest of the day in different departments.

Office environment:  5! Everyone was very nice, supportive, and always willing to listen.

Type of workspace (Cube, table, office, etc):  I worked in an office with a member of the development team, but I didn’t even have a desk! I did have a chair, though.

What has been the most enjoyable part of your job thus far: I’m finished, and I have to say the most enjoyable part was volunteering in the community, particularly in the food bank. Making someone’s day by bringing them a meal as part of Meals on Wheels was extraordinary. We take so many things in life for granted. It was humbling.

What has been the most challenging part: We had to read The New Jim Crow, and I found it to be a very challenging book. It was filled with angry, loaded language. I disagree with a lot that was written, but it was good to see a different point of view on the criminal justice system.

Source:  Google

What did you do that had the most impact on the company: The interviews and stories I complied (called The Highway Collection) will have an impact on the company’s social media presence and on the outlook donors have on the company—maybe it will even bring in more donors so that more social programs can be funded by MOBC!

What you did to prepare for the job: I prepared mentally by reviewing what I believed “social justice” meant. Surprisingly, my definition (creating opportunities for people) did not change.

What do you expect to learn? I expected to learn more about how to run a nonprofit—how to be a CEO.

What did you learn? I learned that nonprofits are more complex than they may seem from the outside, especially MOBC, which has so many moving parts because it deals with many different aspects of inequality. I also learned that the nonprofit sector may not be for me-- I may rather alleviate poverty through policy change.