“It was only my fifth day of work and I was a little lost, but just jumped right in. The event was a total success — we ended up raising close to $700,000,” exclaimed Emily Mayer, a human services major at the University of Delaware.

As a marketing, communications and special events intern for Big Brothers Big Sisters Independence Region in the spring of 2016, Mayer takes great pride in having planned and run three big events over the course of her semester.

She first learned about Big Brothers Big Sisters from a family friend who worked there. Big Brothers Big Sisters matches adult volunteers with boys and girls, providing a long-term relationship that has a positive lasting effect on children in need of a role model.

Their conversation inspired Mayer to contact the organization’s development manager, and she subsequently was offered an internship position.

Only five days into her internship, she was plunged into the first event, an annual golf classic and auction held at the prestigious Merion Golf Club in Pennsylvania.

Being responsible for marketing and communications, she helped manage social media. She not only wrote and published posts, but also tracked the data from those posts.

Mayer’s next role was to help plan the organization’s annual Fashion Touchdown, where she coordinated the Big/Little Runway walk and a pep squad. Playing off the football atmosphere, she arranged for some Big/Little matches to dress up in pep rally attire and pump up the crowd before the fashion show.

“The event was held at the beautiful Ballroom at the Ben (where the final scene of Silver Linings Playbook was filmed) with over 800 people in attendance,” said Mayer. “What made this event especially incredible was that 13 current Philadelphia Eagles players, and a number of their wives and girlfriends, modeled clothing provided by designers Nicole Miller and Robbini Bespoke, including Miller’s 2016 holiday collection.”

The third event was a block party to celebrate the grand re-opening and sign lighting at the historic Divine Lorraine Hotel. Mayer ran the activities tent for the children.

Mayer acknowledged that her supervisor, her career services adviser Cindy Holland, UD faculty members Norma Gaines-Hanks, associate professor of human development and family studies, and Steven M. Eidelman, H. Rodney Sharp Professor of Human Services Policy and Leadership, as well as her education at UD, prepared her for a successful work experience.

“I regularly called upon lessons from my human services, marketing, communication and business classes,” said Mayer. “I used the collaborating skills acquired through group projects and employed the tools from my counseling classes. This helped me to actively listen and communicate during meetings and general integrations with the coworkers.”

In return, her work experience provided two valuable lessons for her future career.

“The first is that just as much work is required after an event as before; it doesn’t end that night. We had to draft thank you notes, attend post-event meetings, and create a wrap book for future planning,” said Mayer.

The second lesson she learned was that, in the nonprofit industry, employees are driven by an endless passion to ensure that their agency survives. Many times, there are not enough people for the amount of work that must be done, which can lead to stress and an unequal work-life balance.

“I learned that sometimes adding a little bit more to your own plate can help someone beyond measure and boost morale across the team,” shared Mayer.

The internship provided a solid foundation for her career.

“When I first arrived at UD in 2013, I could never have pictured how in three short years I would grow from learning inside the classroom to a leader outside the classroom. I have matured more in the three months interning than in my past three years of college.”