By Kirby Boes
June 19, 2018
Hi, I’m Kirby! I’m from Worthington, Ohio and will be a senior at Miami University in the fall where I am double majoring in Strategic Communications and Psychology. Today is my first day interning at the RMHC Marketing & Communications department and I could not be more thrilled to be here!
This is the story of how I ended up here at the Ronald McDonald House for my 2018 Summer internship.
In the spring of my senior year of high school at Columbus School for Girls back in 2015, I needed to fulfill our senior “May Program” graduation requirement in which we were to individually find any company, business, or organization to intern/shadow at for the month of May leading up to graduation. After taking time to think about what I wanted to get out of this experience I realized I wanted to intern somewhere that was a good cause and made a positive impact in our community. So, I ended up at the Ronald McDonald house working in the Donor Relations department, where I assisted in planning the RMHC Golf Tournament fundraiser, along with several other fundraising events. I truly could not have asked for a better experience! Over the past few years since this experience, I’ve never forgotten how much I enjoyed my time at the Ronald McDonald House, which is why it was the first place to come to mind when searching for communications/marketing related internships this summer before my senior year of college!
After reaching out to RMHC Senior Director of Communications and Facilities, Ryan Wilkins, about a summer internship he immediately welcomed me back on board, which is why I am sitting here today writing this blog post on my first day of this great internship at the RMHC Department of Marketing & Communications.
So far, I have been here only 4 hours and have never felt so welcomed anywhere in my life. Ryan and the other members of this department have all gone out of their way to welcome me into the RMHC team. I can tell they truly care about my growth and success here at RMHC and that is such a wonderful feeling.
Today was focused on goal setting, where I outlined what I hope to get out of this internship as well as what I would like to work on during my time here. This was to help Ryan understand what I would like to accomplish, however it turned out to help me in a number of ways too by giving me the chance to really think about what I want to gain through this experience, what I would truly like to focus on, and how I can play an active role in the RMHC community. Additionally, this goal setting activity made me feel wanted and appreciated by the RMHC staff, demonstrating that they are actually happy to have me on board and that they value my time here as much as I do.
Today was an outstanding first day and I cannot wait to learn more about RMHC, communications & marketing, nonprofits, and myself during this time at RMHC. I’m very happy to be here!