Hey hey hey! I'm home now for August and am happily doing some catch-up writing for this summer's adventures. Makenna has definitely been holding down the summer blogging with her super cool Athens adventures, so thank you for that!
Sometime last semester, a friend recommended that I look into the Princeton Internships in Civic Service (PICS), a program that places Princeton students in paid internships within nonprofits and organizations in the public sector.
I had heard great things about PICS (including from Cricket!), so I did some digging. While the listing of PICS internships was incredibly rich, there was really one description of a job and workplace that called to me:
The moment I found this on their homepage, I knew One Simple Wish (OSW) would be receiving an application from Aliisa:
Wishes? A chance to serve kids? An illustrated mission statement??! I submitted my resume goods online, interviewed in the Career Services office, did a little happy dance over a congratulations email, and in June walked into the One Simple office headquarters!
Actually, I drove to the completely wrong site on my first day. But I did find their Trenton office eventually and started my summer of wishes.
One Simple Wish
First off, let me give you a little look into what One Simple Wish is. I'm going to borrow some drawings from little info videos I did for OSW during the summer.
And yet, these kids living in a system that makes them question where they fit in ...
...still just want to play, dance, rock a cool pair of Heelies and just be a kid. That's where One Simple Wish steps in. We see and address the need for these kids to experience childhood joy, to ask for things despite a lack of stability in home or family, and to just have fun and to play. That's what granting wishes can help do.
Isn't that awesome!?!? I loved that I got to work and grow with an organization that has a mission like One Simple Wish's. It's no wonder that Danielle, the founder of OSW and my boss for the summer, was in the top ten of CNN Heroes 2013.
The main project of my internship was creating an OSW campaign for colleges. Over the summer, I've been working on the idea of PlayDay, a day of play on college campuses that raises awareness and funds for foster care, plus lets students have a ton of fun while doing it. Though the details are still in the works (I got to do a call and presentation with Hasbro!), it will hopefully be out in N.J. campuses the spring of 2016.
In addition to working on PlayDay, we put my love for design and writing to work in various collateral and presentations.
One of my favorite parts of the summer was making little videos about PlayDay, OSW, their Wishful Drinking initiative, and Dedicate your Day program.
I thrived off an environment that encouraged creative exploration into things I'd never done before. In the case of these videos, I had so much fun drafting the script, talking to myself in a secluded Lewis Library room for the voice overs, and poking around Photoshop's tools to make some rudimentary animation. And I got to do it for a cause I really cared for!
The People
I LOVED the people at OSW. My co-workers are doing awesome work, and at the same time, were totally open to my little intern questions about their own background and work experience. Here are some pictures of these cool folks!
Meet the beautiful marketing corner featuring Suzanne, Kelsey, and tons of bears.
Altogether, it was an awesome summer! I got to join OSW in small ways as they grant wishes and spread joy. It kind of sounds like the words out of a Disney song, but I've seen it can be a cool person's job every day.
