My name is Lee Thomas, I am a senior student majoring in Rhetoric, Writing, and Public Discourse with a minor in Psychology. This spring, I have had the opportunity to work as an intern at Walla Walla’s Blue Mountain Community Foundation, a sort of “bank” for nonprofit organizations in the Walla Walla, Garfield, Umatilla, and Columbia County communities. My overall purpose as an intern with the Foundation is to assist in communications, presentations, and donor outreach. I assist in writing for the programs, brochures, and other sources of information for the Foundation to distribute for community and donor engagement purposes.
A typical, standard day working as an intern for the Foundation consists of emails, emails, emails. Keeping in constant contact with the Foundation team, with potential donors, and the community nonprofits that we work with and for is essential for maintaining effective communication across tasks and projects that require efficient collaboration to be achieved.
My first major task for my internship has so far been my favorite one. I interviewed four individuals from the area that have contributed to the community in various ways, from committing countless hours to volunteer work, to taking on leadership roles in different settings, to donating work profits to organizations and individuals. Meeting each of these four people and collecting their life stories was fascinating and enjoyable. I then wrote short vignettes about their lives and their community-oriented accomplishments to share at the awards ceremony this March (pictures included). Through this project, I was able to help portray the honorable personalities and characteristics of these local humanitarians to be recognized and celebrated. While I have plenty of personal and work experience with writing within various nonfiction formats, I have had limited experience exploring the nonfiction format of biographical documentation. This task was the perfect opportunity to practice meeting and interviewing people, and then taking that information from their words to share with the rest of the world through my own words.
I always appreciate opportunities such as the Whitman Internship Grant to grant me access to community engagement. One of the most impactful components of my experience here at Whitman College is involving myself within the Walla Walla community in various ways. This internship experience in particular has allowed me the chance to garner further experience within the nonprofit sector, which is where I plan to head career-wise. With regard to my soon-to-be-completed degree in Rhetoric, Writing, and Public Discourse, this experience has adjusted my perception of community foundations, as well as my ability to write about and for them, that is applicable to the pertinent social studies element of rhetorical studies.
Experiences like Lee Thomas’s are made possible by the Whitman Internship Grant, which provides funding for students to participate in unpaid internships at nonprofit, some for-profit, and government organizations. We are happy to be sharing blog posts from students who were supported by either a summer, fall, spring, or year-long grants at organizations, businesses, and research labs all around the world. To learn how you could secure a Whitman Internship Grant or host a Whitman intern at your organization, contact us at ccec_info@whitman.edu.