Weekly Report #6

[Jordan Merlo]

Twelve-weeks ago I started my internship at Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connections. Cabrini Connections is a non-profit organization designed to enrich and further develop the lives of students who live in low-income neighborhoods such as Cabrini Green. They do this by providing tutor/mentor programs for these students after hours, which not only provides alternate learning opportunities but keeps these students out of trouble. At my internship my job is to promote the organization further through social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs, volunteer forums, etc. Through this I will help expand others' knowledge of Cabrini Connections, get people to either donate or volunteer at Cabrini, as well as increase my own knowledge of certain social media outlets. These two-weeks in particular I took a look at the number of hits on my blog site and found that I am still producing a steady flow of traffic. I am however trying to find a way to increase this traffic so that more people can learn about what Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connections is doing. Also, I have started diving into my final essay and found out some vital information through talking to people and online research.

My supervisor in particular has contributed a lot to my learning goals. While looking for an internship in the beginning I was trying to find something that was purposeful and practical that allowed me to be able to apply the skills and concepts I learned in the classroom. That is excatly what this internship did. Dan Bassill, CEO and Founder of Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection helped develop my appreciation of social media. Through him I learned the ins and outs of the social media world and how to effectively get a message across.

The learning goals that have been most useful in guiding my internship have been figuring out ways in which to get higher traffic on not only my blogs but on the Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection site as a whole. I have come to find that with this basic criteria I have to come up with ways in which I know people will view my blogs and potentially take a look around the rest of the website. Certain social media networks like Facebook and Twitter have been found to be extremely successful in that arena.

Several weeks back I started my final paper. I just recently interviewed Dan Bassill, Founder and CEO of Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connections. In the interview I received a ton of useful information that will be imperative for the success of my paper. I also plan on interviewing either someone else within the organization or the head of another non-profit organization.