Summer 2010 Unveiled

Korrin B.

April 10, 2010 - 10:00 PM

I am still trying to figure out whether this past week was actually real or whether it was just a dream.

Last term, I remember spending a solid three or so hour session with the Internship Director for the Planning, Public Policy and Management department. Those three hours were dedicated to meticulously going through my two essays for my application to be a summer intern with the Carter Center. We carefully considered each word, while constantly battling the constraints of the word limits. One essay had to describe my qualifications and interests in an internship with the Carter Center in 250 words. The other had to be an autobiography in 100 words. I put hours of work into this application and I sent it off with the knowledge that I would be competing against hundreds of applicants from around the world for a spot as an intern in the Office of Institutional Development/Fundraising - a department that only took four interns.

On Thursday, April 1, I received an email from none other than the Carter Center. I expected to open the email and have it read something along the lines of, "This year we received many applications from highly qualified candidates, but were unfortunately unable to accommodate all of them. We regret to inform you that..." However, it didn't! Instead, it asked if I (yes, me!) was interested in setting up an interview. I became overwhelmed with excitement and had to immediately share the good news with my department's Internship Director. We quickly created an action plan for my interview that would be happening the upcoming Tuesday.

I spent the weekend reviewing my notes from the Nonprofit Resource Development class I had taken winter term. I looked specifically through the slides on prospect research, as that is what I would be doing in the position I was being interviewed for.

On Monday morning, I met with Karen Prater. Karen works in the Prospect Research department with the University of Oregon Development Office. She introduced me to the rest of the amazing team in that department and then was very helpful in answering some of the questions I had about the field. She was very knowledgeable on the topic and offered many good ideas on what my interviewer might ask. She also gave me a tutorial of the Foundation Center database, which was quite useful.

Monday afternoon, I met with Emily Brown, the internship GTF for the PPPM department. Emily was great in helping me organize the main items I would need to have available during my phone interview. We were also able to brainstorm possible questions and answers. Emily had great advice on phone interviewing and kept reminding me that this was my opportunity to show the organization how great I am, which was something that I really needed to hear and remember!

Monday evening, I met with the Internship Director for the PPPM department, Rhonda Smith. Rhonda and I went over some of my final questions and sat together in a combination of excitement and amazement.

When I finally got home that night, I spent a few hours preparing my notes and materials for my interview. I fell asleep and dreamed about, of course, the Carter Center.

Early Tuesday afternoon, I had my phone interview. I was able to use a room in the UO Career Center for it, which was very nice. I really enjoyed talking with the representative from the Carter Center, but left the conversation unsure. I was expecting about a week of just waiting and wondering. The wait was going to be hard.

Early Wednesday morning, I received both a phone call and an email from the Carter Center. I read the lines over and over again before letting out a scream and bouncing up and down in front of my computer screen with pure joy. "Dear Korrin: On behalf of the Development/Major Gifts program at The Carter Center, I would like to offer you an internship for the summer of 2010." The wait was quickly over and I had just been offered an internship with one of the most amazing organizations within our nation.

By Thursday, I felt as though every department I was related to at all on campus knew about my news and I had so much gratitude for the many people within each department that had helped me to reach this point. Later on, I will be creating a blog post to honor all of these incredible people.

On Friday morning, I was interviewed by the University for a story to put on the UO Homepage.

I spent Friday afternoon beginning the search for housing in Atlanta, Georgia.

By Friday evening, I was sitting and reflecting on the incredible events the week had brought me. This summer I will be flying across the country to live in Atlanta and work for the Carter Center. I have heard about Carter Center interns for as long as I can remember and now, I am one of them. It is so surreal. This summer, I will be personally meeting President Jimmy Carter and Mrs. Rosalynn Carter. I will be working with other interns from around the world to further the mission of the Carter Center and to help alleviate unnecessary human suffering. I am so grateful to be a student at a school like the University of Oregon. This school has truly shaped me into the student who just received this amazing opportunity.

I have another incredibly exciting piece of information concerning my internship that happened during the week, but I cannot blog about it quite yet because it is so surreal that I feel the need to double check next week that it is actually happening before I can share it with the rest of the world. Hint: It has to do with the fact that my internship is unpaid.