Two-Week Report #3

[Jordan Merlo]

Six-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.

So far in my internship I have done a lot to promote the organization. As being a Public Relations/Advertising major my main focus is to bring in funds and support to Cabrini Connections. My goal is that with my degree I will become an event planner. I believe that I have the talent, drive, and skill to become an event planner even though I have no real experience in the matter.

I would love to be able to create an event for Cabrini Connections but with the time I have left in my internship I do not believe that I will have reasonable amount of time to create a well established event. I am however working with my sorority, Alpha Chi Omega, in hopes that the proceeds to our next fundraising event can go to Cabrini Connections. Nothing is set in stone yet though.

These two-weeks I have figured out many important and beneficial tactics. I now know how to correlate day to day news with Cabrini Connections and how to promote upcoming events we are having in an effective manner. I have found an abundance of ways to promote Cabrini Connections and I now know which methods are more effective in getting people's attention. For instance, it has come to my attention that Facebook has been an effective way of getting people to acknowledge Cabrini Connections' efforts in developing the lives of students living in low-income housing. All of these are extremely important to my learning because it will not only help spread the word of Cabrini Connections but it will also help my knowledge of social media and learning how to connection organizations with the people.

[Daniel Bassill]

Last night millions of people watched the Oscars. How do we get a fraction of that many people to look at information that leads them to become supporters of volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs like Cabrini Connections? The work you are doing is one step toward that goal. If thousands of college and high school students begin to write about non profits, and create videos and other material that "edu-tains" and "motivates", then we will have more people watching our "show" and doing work to help kids like "Precious" move from poverty to jobs and lives out of poverty. Thanks for your help.