Internship – College Admission at Loyola

The end of my internship

By Stephanie Rodriguez | April 19, 2015

Last Wednesday was the last day of my internship at Bear Necessities Pediatric Cancer Foundation. It was difficult to wrap my head around the fact that I had been interning for 3x a week for a total of 3 months. I do not know how 3 months went by so quickly! It was so sad to leave all of my good friends at Bear Necessities. The amount of time and effort they put into granting a “Bear experience” for a child with cancer is beyond amazing!

I never realized how time consuming it is to plan an experience with someone. We have to make many calls to find someone who is willing to help us with donations (trust me, there are people out there who are not willing to help). I have gained so much knowledge during my short time at Bear Necessities. I became a pro at sales-force and filing/sending non-profit paper work. I learned how to talk to businessmen and leave very detailed 10-second voice-mails. I learned that you do not stop at a no. I learned how a desperate and helpless mother sounds like, but I also learned how happy a child can sound like. I learned that people are not nice, but I learned that some are willing to give more than they have.

This internship, not only brightened me with new knowledge, but it touched me spiritually. Working as a Certified Nurses’ Assistant for 5 years, I became very good at talking to family members after the death of a father or mother. I became good at this because this was all I would see. I was able to talk about the wonderful life that this person lived, and reminisced with the other family members about his or her life. But what do you say to mothers who have lost their one year old? This internship opened up challenges, but nonetheless made more conscious about a different aspect on life.

I am happy to say that my time with Bear Necessities is not completely over, yet. I loved this internship so much that the 20 hours a week was something I looked forward to every week. I believe that it emanated to them because I was asked if I could keep volunteering with the Spanish-speaking families. All I have to do is make calls and translate; of course, I said yes! I look forward to this new adventure, because the excitement on the kids’ voices is indescribable! Next week, is my first week making phone calls with the Spanish-speaking families; I will keep you updated 🙂

2015 Bear Tie Ball – Let’s Eliminate Pediatric Cancer!

By Stephanie Rodriguez | January 19, 2015

I had to wait until this week to tell you all about the biggest event for Bear Necessities Pediatric Foundation 2015! Every year, Bear Necessities hosts an event called 2015 Bear Tie Ball. This year the theme is Latin Nights, to take place on Saturday February 28th at 6pm in Union Station. I am looking forward to this event for I have heard great things about it. If you didn’t know, Bear Necessities is “[a] Chicago based national organization dedicated to eliminating pediatric cancer & to providing hope and support to those who are touched by it.”

I want to share with you this great opportunity in which your attendance will demonstrate support on eliminating pediatric cancer. I feel so blessed to be an intern for this organization, and I cannot wait for this event! I am so excited to meet so many people and this event’s Emcee will be a Former Chicago Bear, Anthony Adams! So, save the date. I will be posting more information and details as we approach the date!

Meanwhile, we will be in charge of making sure everything goes as planned! I have seen the time and dedication that these people put into this organization, and I know that it will be anything less than perfect. 🙂

Thank you to all of the sponsors who continue to donate money for a great cause. This event is for all and you can purchase the tickets on the link below!

Click the link for more information.

All About Internship Interviews

By | January 25, 2013

So, my first internship interview was on Wednesday afternoon. I haven’t heard back from them yet, so I plan on giving them a call at the beginning of next week. I would like to get the internship, but the most important thing that I wanted to get out of this interview was a test run of my skills as an interviewee.

Because this was my first face-to-face internship interview, it was important for me to really pay attention to my behavior as well as my interviewer’s. There are several recommended guidelines that people are given for interviews. Here are a few:

Look presentable. Granted the weather is very cold right now, so walking outside in a skirt is not my cup of tea, but still wear nice clothes (aka no holes, stains, etc.) and have a nice appearance. Also very important is to smile (genuinely of course). It is said that most interviewers make their decision within the first minute (even less) of meeting you.
Have some background knowledge of the company you’re interviewing for. At the very least, know who they are and what they do. It doesn’t hurt to have some knowledge on what you could be doing for them as well. Being informed will only benefit you and not being informed can be the end of your chance for the job/internship.
Have some questions prepared. This was a difficult one for me this time because my interviewer was just starting up a new project for the company that I had not found any information on, so I thought up some questions on the spot. One thing I did was I asked my interviewer questions about her relationship to the company, as in what she does within the company, how she does these things, etc. I’ve heard before that making the interview more personalized regarding the interviewer can help your interview. You need to be informed about the company itself, but have questions to ask the people in the company about their jobs. Keep it professional, but make it more personalized so that the interview isn’t rigid.

Whether these tips helped me is yet to be determined, and if they didn’t, I’ll be on the lookout for more and better advice to give from my own experiences. In one of my next week’s blogs, I’ll post an update on this first internship of whether I got it or not.