Last semester, I applied to the Tufts CMS Winternship Program, which is cosponsored by Career Services and the Communications & Media Studies department and pairs up students with media professionals in the LA, Boston and NYC areas. I was delighted to find out that I had been assigned to work at Trickle Up in NYC for a week from January 11th - 15th.
This extraordinary nonprofit empowers people living on less than $1 a day to take the first steps out of poverty by providing them with business training, seed capital to launch or expand a business, and savings support to build a better quality of life for themselves and their families. I met Bill Abrams, the president of Trickle Up (and a Tufts alumnus), early Monday morning, and then proceeded to follow him from meeting to meeting until around Thursday evening. It was a little overwhelming at first, but I very much appreciated the opportunity to sit in on these meetings because it gave me the chance to meet a lot of different people, and to become acquainted with various departments within the company. During the week, I attended meetings devoted to everything from event planning to budgeting to reaching out to donors. I was even able to watch Mr. Abrams get interviewed about the benefits of microfinancing by NY1, a popular 24 hour web news channel.
Unfortunately, family obligations required me to leave my winternship a day early, but I nevertheless feel that I had an educational and fulfilling experience at Trickle Up. Although I've known for a while that I want to work in the realm of communications after graduation, I've had some trouble narrowing that down to focus on a particular area. Interning at Trickle Up was my first foray into the world of nonprofit work, and it showed me that my ideal job is one in which I can devote my skills and talents to making a positive change in the world. Internships give you a chance to acquire valuable hands-on experience in a variety of different fields, enabling you to discover where your strengths and passions truly lie. Career Services provides many different resources for locating, financing and everything else-ing internships - check them out! 
