A Beautiful Internship Experience

One experience I have had at Fordham that is incredibly unique to going to school here is the access to internships and career opportunities. This past summer, I stayed in New York and interned with Beauty Cares, a domestic violence nonprofit in Chelsea. Beauty Cares seeks to end domestic abuse through early education on the differences between healthy and unhealthy relationships. I believe that one of the primary reasons I was able to secure this internship is because of the incredible support and resources I found in Career Services. Because I live in New York year round, I was the only summer intern who was asked to stay on for the school year and not have my internship end after the summer was over. This allows me to greatly increase my skill set and job experience, something that will be highly valuable as I begin to move forward with my career goals.

At an event I helped plan with Beauty Cares' team member Maggie Cely and our CEO and Founder Aryn Quinn

Some of my responsibilities include managing our social media accounts and developing new online marketing and community building strategies. I have taught myself about SEO and analytics - skills that are invaluable in the job market. One of my points of pride from the summer is successfully developing and launching a plan to use Pinterest to drive traffic to our website. It was a difficult task, but one that I realized would be important to increase our visibility and reach.

One of my favorite CelebriTees, from actress Julianne Moore

I also had the privilege of working with our CelebriTee Campaign, where we ask celebrities to decorate wife beaters with an anti-domestic abuse slogans or messages. I recently helped secure the Tees from actor Mel Brooks and designer Tom Ford. One of my favorite aspects of working at a nonprofit is that I don't have a typical day, nor do I do the stereotypical intern things, like making coffee and copies. I have secured event space and sponsorship, negotiating donations from companies that have no idea I am just a college student. At Beauty Cares, I know I'm an integral member of the team, and that is an incredibly empowering feeling, one I'd never expected to receive from an internship!