Today continues our intern stories.  We asked them to tell us about their experience during the program, and thought it might be interesting if you heard it from them.  Today’s post is from  Felicia Brown, who will attend Penn State University, Beaver.

This year I had the privilege to be a Heinz Endowments Summer Youth Intern at The Pittsburgh Foundation. I heard of this internship from a print out email from an old employer at the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh, Lori Rue. She talked very highly of it and encouraged the group to apply. I read it with interest, and was the only one who decided to pursue it. I was kind of scared because I didn’t come from a “good school”, or never really went through an interview before, so honestly I almost didn’t think I would be considered. After the long and scary application process, interviewing and a couple months of waiting, I was so excited to hear from Wayne Jones, Program Officer at the Heinz Endowments, and that I will be starting on June 15, 2009. He explained to us that we were going to be learning about the grant making process, and this year’s theme was the environment. I couldn’t wait, but I was scared and excited at the same time. I didn’t really know what to expect. Thus it was the beginning and end of my summer, but it was well worth the sacrifice.

This internship had to be one of the most eye opening experiences I’ve ever had. I learned things from writing request for proposals, networking, the Pittsburgh nonprofits, green buildings and initiatives. There are so many opportunities to be active in the environment, and too much to try and see them all! We arranged sight visits ranging from the Carnegie Mellon University, to the Fred Rogers Center and Powdermill Nature Reserve. All the interns from Heinz learned the ins and outs of conservation efforts, and new initiatives to be greener in everyday activities.

The impact this program had on me made me realize there are both sides to social services. There is the giving, and the receiving end. Neither of them is easy. There are a lot of tough decisions to make, and a lot of weeding out the programs that will make a difference, you want them to make an impact that will last a life time, and that’s why our RFP revolved around youth media. We wanted to reach out and grab someone through the screen, and thought this is a technique that has been used for years, and it works. Through our recommendations we had a hand in impacting the youth participating in programs that would otherwise not have had the opportunity. This internship is not about this summer, and not about our recommendation, it’s about the people who work hard in the community to help youth become leaders, to rise above all adversity, despite economic downturn, and poverty. It’s not just about me, and the things we did this summer, that’s the easy part of this whole thing, it’s up to the non profits to make an impact, and a lasting impact. This realization was very moving and I hope I get to see the work done in the future.

This fall, I plan on going to Pennsylvania State University at Beaver campus to play basketball, and pursue a career in graphic design and business. Through this experience I might just take up social work in the future (kind of makes me regret not taking that sociology class this semester). I plan on trying to get a work-study internship in the marketing design division at my school. So I hope all goes well. As for now, I’m just glad to be able to sleep in for a week because long work days at the office (although we didn’t do hard labor).  I definitely used a lot of brain muscle this summer, and will be going full force on the books in the fall!