E4P, INC.
SPRING INTERN
Throughout my collegiate career, I always tried my hardest to give back to the community and get involved with philanthropic activities on or off campus. During the Spring semester of my Senior year, I was given the opportunity to fully immerse myself into the world of giving back, by serving as an intern for the E4p Inc. Morgantown chapter. Dr. Presha Neidermeyer served as the organization’s Treasurer, and also a primary advocate in raising awareness about the organization and its support efforts as well. When I initially began interning with the organization, we met weekly and sometimes twice a week to discuss all things non-profit. The course was extremely helpful for me to understand that while the organization was “non-profit”, many endeavors and activities through the organization involved profit. Since Dr. Neidermeyer was the organization’s Treasurer, I learned a lot about the financial aspects of non-profit organizations, and also grant proposing and requesting as well. I appreciated this opportunity, because I had never fully understood the value non-profits could offer to people.
As I became more educated on the impact non-profit organizations offer to people in need, I also received a first hand opportunity to be a supporter during a time of need. Toward the middle of my internship, Dr. Neidermeyer had brought to my attention a natural disaster that had occurred in Africa, in areas that our organization was helping to support. I could feel the distress and also passion in her voice and eyes, as she asked me if I could help their organization raise any funds possible to help the families in need. She informed me over 200 people had died from the flooding and collapsing of the town, and more than 100,000 children and families had been displaced. I immediately dropped everything and began working on ways to reach people, and spread the word about what had been happening. It amazed me how many people were unaware of what had happened, but were willing to help in anyway they could. I set up a page via GoFundme.com, and hoped to raise at least $10,000. While I understood that was setting the bar high, I wanted people to reach high with me, and help these people. Dr.Neidermeyer and I reached out to on campus organizations and also organizations off campus as well. I used social media a lot to reach people and spread awareness as well.
We ended up raising $2,028.00, and that was still amazing in the short period of time we had. It was probably one of the most captivating experiences I’ve ever been apart of, and I could not believe that even with raising that much money, we were still able to help thousands of people. I have a whole new respect for non-profit organizations, and genuinely look forward to becoming more involved with more projects like this in my near future.
RESOURCES:
Photos provided by E4p Inc. and Dr. Presha Neidermeyer
For more Information regarding our campaign efforts and the natural disasters that took place:
http://www.thedaonline.com/news/article_07eed544-ab68-11e4-9a92-0be352228871.html
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=49894#.VMO6q96Ac20
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/01/17/africa/malawi-flooding/
