Internship at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
This semester I have had the opportunity to intern with Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s events team. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia events team plans and organizes fundraising events throughout the entire year. They have special events and peer-to-peer fundraising events. Throughout the duration of my internship, I was able to help with a few different events that raised funds and awareness for CHOP’s Cardiac Center, Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center, The division of Neurology, The Center for Autism Research, and more. Being a part of the team, I was able to learn and understand a different perspective of running an event. In past experiences, I have always been on the entertainment side.
In the beginning of my internship, I helped out with a few different special events such as Black Tie Tailgate (@ Philadelphia Auto Show) and Cheers for CHOP. Both of these events were very sophisticated and detail oriented. Within the past couple months, I was able to help out with Philly Spin-In, Walk For Hope, Huddle Up For Autism and am now working on 31 Day Challenge- a Daisy Days events. I think my favorite event overall (although I haven’t been to every event) was Philly Spin-In. This year was the 1st Philly Spin-In, and when I started my internship they had just begun working on the details for it. Philly Spin-In was basically a 4-hour indoor team spin relay to raise funds and awareness for the Cardiac Center at CHOP. At the event, we had a hundred or so stationed spin bikes that families, friends, and more were able to ride and participate in 45-minute sessions. Some of the top spin instructors from around Philly took over different sessions throughout the event and really made it special! Each instructor had their own playlist and made it fun for all the participants. My job during the event was to keep everyone hype. Volunteers and I danced around the bikes with pom-poms and more to pump up the crowd! If you know me, you would know this is something that I love to do. After each session concluded, a family that has been/is being affected in some way by the Cardiac Center at CHOP shared their story. Each story truly touches me and reminds me why I do what I do everyday. (Not just for the internship). The event overall raised an incredible $200,000! It was great to see the little things that I completed helped with the overall success of the event.
Throughout my time so far, I have definitely learned a great deal. A few of the things I learned seem small, but could help me a lot in the future. For example, learning how to mail merge. Although it seems like something silly or little to say you learned, knowing how to use it will save me a lot of time and be applicable in my future. Some of the tasks that I had to complete throughout my internship were organizing potential donor information, contacting businesses to get them involved or help get the word out about our event, mailing, making a few miscellaneous creative displays, looking up participant records, and more. A lot of the stuff I did overlapped with a lot of things I completed in some of my previous advertising courses. In addition, I attended a few meetings, one of them being about CHOP’s new campaign. I was able to see their comprehensive campaign booklet for the new campaign, which I found super interesting. I really like CHOP’s new branding overall and learning about it. Fun fact that I learned at the meeting – Al Capone once donated to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Overall, I am really enjoying my internship with CHOP. It is teaching me skills that I will be able to bring to my future jobs. Each day that I go into the office I complete different tasks and it is never the same, which I like. Some days I am doing a lot of research on the computer, while other days I take trips to the main hospital. Sometimes it is easy to get caught up in the little things that you are doing on a daily basis, however, being constantly surrounded by a cause I am passionate about does not let me forget why I continue to do what I do everyday. (In and outside of my internship) .
