Monet LaForge
internship with mercy corps
Who is Mercy corps?
secular, nongovernmental, global agency
Mercy Corps Action Center
Located in Mercy Corps’ global headquarters in Portland, Oregon, the Action Center promotes global literacy through lectures, exhibits and seminars, and youth workshops for middle and high-school students.
The Beginning
In 1979, Dan O’Neill co-founded Save the Refugees Fund, an emergency relief task force assisting Cambodian refugees following the infamous "Killing Fields" catastrophe. In 1980, he attended White House Cambodia Crisis Committee events at the request of then-First Lady Rosalynn Carter, who has continued to lend her support and encouragement over three decades.
In 1980 Dan O’Neill meets Ellsworth (“Ells”) Culver. The two men immediately strike up a strong, enduring friendship — and find that they share a commitment to provide more innovative, sustainable aid and development to poor communities.
In 1981, Dan incorporated Mercy Corps and in 1984, moved the headquarters to Portland, Oregon.
Now Mercy Corps works in 45 countries.
employs 4,000 employees.
90% are from the country they work in.
My internship
Summer Education Promotions + Events Intern
- Coordinates the all aspects of preparation that lead up to Mercy Corps’ summer programs.
- Responsible for managing our summer promotional activities, revising and initiating our registration processes, research and outreach of partners.
- Oversees all aspects of summer program promotions and outreach
- Revises and implements summer program registration processes
- Research and establishes community partners for summer programs
- Researches content for materials and work closely with Action Center staff to implement construction of curricula for summer programs
- Collaborates with Creative team to develop both print and electronic collateral for summer programs.
- Manages all duties related to the logistical planning of summer camps – including transportation, permissions, parent contact and coordination, communication with vendors and other stakeholders.
- Maintains connections with key community organizations that will be partners for summer programs
Promotions
I attended networking events as well as tabled events such as the Portland Workforce Alliance Career Day Convention. Here, the event hosted around 10,000 high school students and talked about possibly career goals and academic pathways. At the Mercy Corps table, we talked about how to get a job within the International Development world. We also wanted to communicate our summer program featuring our International Development 101, a week long crash course that digs into the roots of poverty, hunger and conflict, then takes action alongside local organizations who are making a difference around Portland.
We also implemented a new outreach plan that would engage all of the high school career and academic counselors in our summer programming. The response we overwhelmingly positive. Our registration is currently on waitlist and we have offered five full scholarships and have a few partial scholarships remaining. A record for summer programming.
I attended networking events as well as tabled events such as the Portland Workforce Alliance Career Day Convention. Here, the event hosted around 10,000 high school students and talked about possibly career goals and academic pathways. At the Mercy Corps table, we talked about how to get a job within the International Development world. We also wanted to communicate our summer program featuring our International Development 101, a week long crash course that digs into the roots of poverty, hunger and conflict, then takes action alongside local organizations who are making a difference around Portland.
We also implemented a new outreach plan that would engage all of the high school career and academic counselors in our summer programming. The response we overwhelmingly positive. Our registration is currently on waitlist and we have offered five full scholarships and have a few partial scholarships remaining. A record for summer programming.
ART + ACTIVISM = ARTIVISM
Conducted research, networking, and outreach to find artist activists within the Portland community to pair up with us for our summer camp geared towards middle schoolers, aptly called Artivism. Each day educators engage with the 30 odd students to communicate a topic or challenge that people are being faced with not only locally but around the world. The partner then comes in to talk about their work, why it's important, and teach the kids the medium in which the artist works. Examples of partners include: Laura Kuttner from Trash for Peace, Anna Sell with The Circus Project, Zach Johnsen from Zenvironments and Forest For The Trees, as well as Gary Hirsch from BotJoy.
What I learned
- I experienced the challenges and dynamics of working for a nonprofit
- Your skills can be translatable in many ways
- Try not to undervalue your skills and minimize your strengths
- I learned to value my ability to adapt to new environments and learned that it is a useful skill no matter what the situation
- Every job has its pros and cons even if you think the grass is greener
- It is incredibly important to question the field you work within and constantly measure it to your goals
- Change can be measured in so many different ways
- All moments can be teachable and celebratable