What's next?
April 18, 2018 |
I started my senior year at Xavier with a mission that most seniors are aiming for-a mission to find a way to use my skills I spent the last four years perfecting and go to work doing something that I am excited to get up for every morning. I wanted to be in a community where I could fight for the rights of others and incorporate digital media, advertising, and public relations. Luckily, I found the perfect combination. Beginning in August 2018 I will move to Los Angeles, California to begin a year of extreme growth to participate in a year of service with the St. Joseph Worker Program, working as a Volunteer and Donation Coordinator with Alexandria House.
I will be going to work every day and showing our organization to potential volunteers and groups of people that are looking to work with Alexandria House. The mission of the organization is to provide housing to single women and women with children when moving from emergency shelter to permanent housing. Alexandria House also provides services to residents in the neighborhood and work to create a community of respect and mutuality. It's important to have consistent communication about the organization, so that everyone is getting the same idea of what Alexandria House is and what they can do as a volunteer. While I am not going into a strictly PR and Digital Media position, there is still a lot of this work to do. Like any other organization, a non-profit organization needs to do advertising and promote their work to others; they just usually don't have much of a budget to do so. With just about every person on some sort of social media, there is plenty of digital space to use to promote organizations, and I've been preparing to do that with my Digital Media classes.
I'm excited to be a part of this organization and share all of the benefits and purposes of the organization to anyone interested. Communication will be a big part of my work. You know what they say-communication is key, especially for nonprofits. Figuring out a way of how to talk about and show the organization to get the most engagement will be the big test and finding out how that communication could be different than private businesses or corporations. While we won't be selling a product or a service, we will be promoting a way of thinking and opportunities for people to get involved, to build upon a community. My goal for the year is to push myself to find the best way for me to use the skills that I have to support my organization, my staff, and my clientele, and to provide the best service and create a place that gives a view of the work we do and the importance of having affordable housing.
It's amazing to think of the benefits and importance that communication skills play in various lines of work. I feel that I have the skills from the Communication Department to be able to work towards building a constructive narrative of our society and the incredible justice work that is being done.