Being a College Intern at the Drug Prevention Nonprofit – CANDLE, Inc.

I am a current college intern at CANDLE, Inc.’s Reality Tour which is a nonprofit organization that educates communities about youth substance abuse and teaches children to “See Beyond the Next 10 Minutes.”

Why did I choose Reality Tour?

I chose this internship because I wanted to be a part of something bigger that makes a difference in the world around us. The reality of addiction and substance abuse is tragic but still needs to be talked about to best protect the youth. Educating the youth on the dangers of addiction, ways to manage their stress and telling them that their minds and bodies are important is an effective way families and communities can prevent substance abuse. Lastly, I chose this nonprofit because the program is different from any drug prevention program I remember being shown as a child. 

Reality Tour’s strategy of preventing experimentation and misuse of drugs and alcohol is not like old prevention programs. The program uniquely builds upon the parent and child relationship so the prevention of substance abuse continues even after the families leave the program. I would recommend any parent with a child, ages 10 and up, to register for Reality Tour to experience the reality of addiction. This program will even open the parents’ eyes and give them ideas or strategies to prevent drug experimentation in their homes. 

What is my Experience so Far with CANDLE, Inc.?

My main goals when I first started the internship were to grow professionally, gain more valuable skills and create more opportunities for myself in the future. I am happy to say that I am reaching my goals and learning more skills every day. I have had many opportunities to work with professionals and volunteers at the organization, create digital media and write content. 

To start, I have created signage for events that the nonprofit is participating in and a social media campaign for a specific event. For the campaign, I had to develop social media posts and a plan for the posts. Also, I am working with a board member to help me through the designs. I am glad that I have multiple professionals to consult with throughout my journey. I am also getting the chance to write blogs and news releases for the organization. I am glad that I am getting more experience and skills in multiple areas of marketing. Personally, I don’t like just doing one thing, I like to have a mix of writing and design, so this was perfect for me. This also will help me in the future when finding a job because I will be well-rounded. The same goes for the online or remote aspect of this internship. This remote experience helps me to develop more communication skills for an online environment, self-discipline with my work, and time management. 

Through my experience and time as an intern at CANDLE, Inc. I feel I have been given more tools to break through my own weaknesses and become a better future marketing employee. I am excited to utilize my new knowledge and eager to incorporate my work I have done with my time at Reality Tour into my personal portfolio and resume. 

How will I Apply my New Skills from my Internship in the Future?

I will apply what I have learned from my experience as an intern at the nonprofit, CANDLE, Inc., in my last year of college and for the rest of my career. I want to feel like I have more skills under my belt when I leave this internship. The most challenging task I was assigned was writing content. I tend to second guess my writing skills, but through this internship experience, I have been able to build more confidence in my writing. I have learned more about the first steps to take when writing content for a business, making the content attention-grabbing and writing professionally. I have also learned to be more patient with my writing and spell-checking. Lastly, it’s also important that I am getting practice in different styles of writing like blogs and news releases. 

I am the type of person that no matter how many times I reread my work I still won’t catch all my own mistakes and I tend to read words correctly even when they are spelled incorrectly. Through this experience, I am learning that I need to take my time and go slow when double-checking my work to better ensure that I fix my mistakes. 

The remote aspect of this internship, as I stated before, is that it helped me develop more off-site communication skills for the future. In the world now a lot of things are online and there are more online job opportunities than ever. When communicating online it’s important to be very specific and concise in your communication. It’s important to think about how the person receiving the email will interpret your writing. I believe that development in this skill is essential. I also enjoyed going to the office, meetings, and events. These experiences are very important as well for being better prepared for your future. Being open and confident in person is important in the workplace to build relationships and show your character or identity.

This internship at Reality Tour has given me the opportunity to create media and write content for an organization, helping me understand the marketing materials and the rules of the tactics. Also, this experience has helped me develop more writing strategies and writing competency. For example, I will use what I learned about creating outlines for specific pieces of work in my future work. This internship also gave me experience in understanding and sticking to the brand identity and the ethics of the phrases the nonprofit uses in its marketing. I also had to conduct research and gather statistics for the advertisements or social media posts I created. All of these new experiences and practices will help me market myself and my skills to future employers. 

To conclude, this nonprofit does more than prevent youth substance abuse, the organization also helps prepare interns for their successful futures.