Week 3 Initial Impressions

Seeing that I just completed the third week of my internship, I'm late in posting about my initial impressions, but here they are. So what makes this internship unique for me is that I work for a startup company. It is in a developmental stage seeking to grow and take hold in the market. The startup company is called Unearth the World, it is a social enterprise that pairs volunteers with international non-profits while providing service learning. It was founded by a married couple, Kathryn and Mike Pisco and it is based out of their home outside of Wrigley Field in Chicago, IL.

Although just a startup, Unearth the World aims to change the voluntourism industry. Voluntourism is volunteering in another country while also traveling and touring all that it has to offer. Although it is a great concept, it has a bad reputation for many reasons, some being that volunteers are unprepared for these trips and that it isn't sustainable as volunteers leave after a few weeks. Kathryn and Mike saw these issues when they decided to take a year off work to travel and volunteer, visiting 20 countries in the process. Their views on life changed and they felt the need to make a difference, and thus they decided to hire an intern to help accomplish their goals. This is what makes this internship position so exciting for me. 

I work three days a week with Kathryn from her home creating country guides and training modules for volunteers set to go to Ghana, Zambia and Peru and I research U.S. partners and reach out to colleges to further expand the company. It is exciting because it is the only position, I have no other colleagues besides Kathryn and Mike, yet they are so passionate about it that we accomplish quite a bit while we work together. We communicate and discuss many things such as current events relating to the industry. My first week I dressed formally just to be sure, but in general I dress casually to work seeing that it's at their home and although there are no colleagues, diversity does exist in our partners. When I look around the office they set up for me and see their pictures in different countries helping local people, I realize that they are set towards making a positive impact on the lives of others and all it takes is networking and time before it takes off. I am optimistic about the company and very anxious and excited to help it grow any way I can, and that includes making trips to Ann Arbor to find students that want to volunteer but hope to find a good organization to do it with. 

During the three weeks I have gone and talked to different volunteer groups in Ann Arbor, discovered a social media site for volunteers (a combination of Facebook and Linkedin in a sense) called GiveGab to work through, and visited the Rotary Club and other organizations in Chicago with Kathryn to further promote Unearth the World. Chicago has so much to offer and it makes it possible to network and meet with people on a weekly basis. We have already set up many meetings and while Kathryn is out promoting I stay in and maintain the blog, Facebook and Twitter publishing articles and my own blogs to promote voluntourism and Unearth the World and I set up my own meetings in Ann Arbor. It is a team effort with three passionate people willing to do anything and everything to get the company's name out!

 Me and Kathryn at work!