It's been great!!

My internship this summer has been truly amazing and one of the most gratifying experiences I’ve had so far. Just knowing that we are really making a difference in peoples lives makes me feel good inside and proud of what we were all able to accomplish. The experience I got from this internship is invaluable and will not only benefit me in my future career but in life as well. I loved the sales and technological aspects of this job and to be able to improve and use those skills gave me a lot of confidence. After looking back over the past couple of months, I can see how much I’ve grown as a person and that makes me really excited for what’s in store for me in the future.

I remember the first day I was so nervous/excited about cold calling and setting up meetings that I woke up 2 hours early just to get down my sales pitch. I must have stuttered a hundred times my first call but I was able to set up a meeting (probably out of pity) which gave me the confidence I needed for the duration of my internship. I think Michael said it best when he told us, “No matter what happens, you’re not going to die!” After that first call I was comfortable with what I was saying and cold calling no longer became an issue. It makes it a lot easier to cold call and set up meetings when you truly believe in the program you are representing. My absolute favorite part of this internship was going to the meetings and getting a chance to sit down and talk to these people. I have met so many great people with big hearts that just want to help and give back to the community. Some of them would get so excited when I presented the Freeclinic Link and that got me excited! It’s a great feeling to see the look on their faces and something I will never forget. I was also able to work with Daniel a lot this summer with the FedEx Kinko’s donations. Many clinics were interested in computer donations and that was a great incentive for them to sign up.

After about 5 weeks I hit kind of a wall and meetings started slowing a down quite a bit. I had to do a lot more research to try and find new contacts and get things rolling again. It especially got more difficult when ¾ of the people I contacted didn’t meet the membership criteria or weren’t interested in Donate Now. One of the biggest challenges was getting in contact with the people you needed to talk to and/or trying to have them call or e-mail you back. That part got really annoying but I knew that would be part of the job when I signed on. It took a lot of self-motivation and persistence to keep calling and e-mailing back but it paid off with a few clinics.

Overall, I feel very blessed to be a part of this internship program with Aidmatrix and know this was the right decision. To work with so many great people that genuinely care about what they do really inspires me. From this opportunity, I can take the skills and confidence I have gained to fulfill my goals and take on many more challenges in the future.