Insight Into Community Internship And Its Contributions

Executive Summary and Research Contributions

Describe about the Community Internship?

This paper provides an insight of the activities undertaken by me during the community internship. I have completed my community internship from The Smith Family. I was appointed as an intern for the position of the administrative assistant in Volunteer Operations Centre. The job responsibility included management of documents, payment hotline and the general administrative activities etc. Additionally, I received training in CRM for undertaking tasks. In case of most of the tasks, directions and flow charts for completing the task. In this paper, Ecological Systems Theory has been integrated for identification of the external factors that has influence on the activities of the organization. The internship has significantly contributed in development of my personal and professional skills. I have maintained integrity throughout the internship. Additionally, my professional skills such as communication skill, time management etc has been developed during the community internship.

I have completed my internship in The Smith Family as a Volunteer Operations Centre Administration Assistant. The Smith Family is a charitable organization. The principle goal of the organization is to develop opportunities for the deprived and unprivileged children as well as their families in order to encourage those people to enhance engagement in the society by utilizing education as an important tool. Presently I am a student of Bachelor of Commerce and I was given the chance to choose the elective subject as well as an organization for completing my internship project. Therefore, I have selected The Smith Family as I found a position of Administrative Assistant was vacant in the company. I found that it will provide a lot of opportunity for obtaining great work experience. At first, I met the community organization supervisor and the meeting ensured me that I have chosen an appropriate organization as I realized that it would help in enhancing my knowledge though practical experience.

 I was offered a position the Volunteer Operations Centre of The Smith Family for assisting in processing huge amount of documentation which required utilization of CRM system Microsoft Dynamics of The Smith Family. I was responsible for managing the e-mail account along wth the Queensland payment hotline account. The Volunteer Operations Centre is a central administration processing team who is responsible for managing as well as receiving documentation across all the locations of ‘Learning for Life’ in Queensland.   ‘Learning for Life’ is an initiative of The Smith Family which provides an opportunity to the unprivileged families with the children of school going age for accessing the scholarship assistance. It allows the children to participate in the education programs which run across several locations of Queensland.

During the internship tenure, I have assisted the organization by receiving documents, sending mails, management of the e-mail account along with the payment hotline. Additionally, I have performed general administration duties associated with the documentation of the initiative, ‘Learning for Life’. These tasks required utilization of the CRM and I received training for that. Mr. Russell Twomey has trained me to learn the CRM system in the organization. I have enjoyed these tasks and I found that in most of the cases, flowcharts as well as step by step instructions were available for assistance. For this role, the eligibility criteria included strong verbal and written communication skills, experience in similar position with knowledge of MS Office. I focused on capitalizing the opportunities of working as an administrative assistance in The Smith Place. 

Volunteer Role or Activity

Theorems

Theorems can be described as the statements which assist in organizing set of facts into the cause as well as effect. It is essential to integrate an appropriate within the internship report. Ecological Systems Theory is appropriate has been found to be most appropriate for this report. This model has been developed by Bronfernbrenner. This theory emphasizes on the analyzing the influence of the environment on an individual (Abbott, 2001). According to this theory, a system approach is broad as well as encompassing. It has been found this theory helps in the visualization of the significant influence of the environment on the environment so that the theorist can be able to contextualize the impact on the well being of the individuals though out their life span  (Nash, Munford and O'Donoghue, 2005). According to this theory, macro system such as the political environment, economy culture, exo system such as mass media, school, availability of the mentors, micro system i.e. the norms, peers, family values and expectations have significant influence on the individuals (Munhall & Fitzsimons, 2001). It has been found that various systems have a correlation it has an impact on the individuals. Therefore, it is very important to balance the specialist or the departmentalized thinking with the extensive influence as well as variables as change occurs at various levels.

It has been found that the wider society has significant influence on the individuals. The Smith Family has taken an initiative to provide opportunity to the disadvantages people in Queensland. Form the above diagram; it can be found that the school and local community play a major role in shaping the ideas of an individual. Hence, the awareness among the community can help in encouraging the children of school going age, belonging to a poor economic family background to participate in the initiatives and programs undertaken by The Smith Family. The volunteer operations of the organization can be more effective, if the community participation enhances along with increased awareness regarding the education among the under privileged families. In this internship program, the extensive application off the CRM system and management of administrative activities have made me realized that the effectiveness of the activities of volunteer activities of The Smith Family by the Volunteer Operations Centre in Queensland.

Ecological Systems Theory discussed in the above section has been integrated with the internship work carried out in the South Brisbane in Volunteer Operations Centre as an administration assistant. This internship has helped me in exposing to various social issues. The Smith Family has been focusing on providing education to the deprived children across Queensland. Engaging as an intern with the Volunteer Operations Centre in the Queensland has helped me in understanding the condition of the people who cannot afford proper education for their children. The Smith Family has undertaken an initiative for providing education to the children of the under privileged families in Australia (Munhall & Fitzsimons, 2001). The Ecological System Theory has identified that the external factors has significant influence on the individual.

Academic Engagement

The initiatives of The Smith Family will be successful only when the participation of the target group will be higher. In order to achieve it, community participation is considered to be an important for making the initiatives successful. Hence, it very important to make the community aware of the importance of education so that the under privileged children can be encouraged to attend the education programs adopted by The Smith Family (Abbott, 2001). Additionally, if the local government invests for improving the infrastructure of the volunteer initiatives, it will contribute in the success of the activities of the Volunteer Operations Centre in Queensland.

Internship program with The Smith Family has significantly contributed in the personal growth which will be important in my future life. In this internship program I was assigned with the role of administration assistant. It has been found that as I was associated with a charitable organization I was exposed to the problem of lack of education among the people belonging to poor economic condition. I found that I have contributed for a good cause. At the time of my community internship I felt satisfied as I helped the organization in managing their charitable initiatives for helping the children to get an access to education (Corcoran, 2012). One of the important goals was to serve the organization as a trustworthy team member. It has definitely elevated me as a person. I have been honest throughout the community internship. Additionally, I have acted ethically during the internship. As my responsibility included management of different documents and information, I have handled different private documents of the organization. However, I made sure that the private information will not be disclosed (Cummins, Sevel & Pedrick, 2006).

The community internship has significantly contributed in the professional growth. It has been found that the tasks performed by me in the Volunteer Operations Centre have made me very efficient in performing the administrating activities related to documents handling. Additionally, I have developed an ability to identify error in the documents of report as my attention level has improved.  Working under tight deadlines has helped me in improving my time management skills. Additionally, it has been found that my interpersonal skill has improved as I was involved in communicating with a lot of people. I have received training in CRM. Moreover, I have leant to work as an efficient team member (Howell, Carter & Schied, 2001). Overall, the internship program has significantly helped me in enhancing my professional skills which will be extensively helpful in my future life (Corcoran, 2012).

References

Abbott, T. (2001). Social and personality development. Hove, East Sussex: Routledge.

Corcoran, J. (2012). Helping skills for social work direct practice. New York: Oxford University Press.

Cummins, L., Sevel, J., & Pedrick, L. (2006). Social work skills demonstrated. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.

Howell, S., Carter, V., & Schied, F. (2001). Making workers visible: unmasking learning in a work team. Journal Of Workplace Learning, 13(7/8), 326-333. doi:10.1108/13665620110411111

Munhall, P., & Fitzsimons, V. (2001). The emergence of family into the 21st century. Boston: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.

Nash, M., Munford, R., & O'Donoghue, K. (2005). Social work theories in action. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.