One of the things that brings pride to our work at RUF is our leadership’s dedication to building a pipeline for our future. Not just a donor pipeline, but enhanced staff opportunities and of course the future of our recruitment and retention efforts. The RUF Summer Internship in Development and Alumni Relations falls into that pipeline and we are thrilled to debut it this summer.

Our SIDAR interns represent an incredible cross-section of our student body, both undergraduate and graduate. They are motived, eager, sophisticated and ready to soak up everything RUF has to offer. Our unit hosts that will be housing these 10 interns (RBHS, SAS, Alumni Relations, Annual Giving, Donor Relations, Athletics, CFR) are taking time out of their already loaded schedules to mentor these students and welcome them into our ever-expanding industry and world.

This summer we will be challenging my colleagues to get to know the SIDAR interns and the program to catch a glimpse of our profession’s future. This is our opportunity to train the next generation of development directors, volunteer leaders, alumni relations officers, prospect researchers. Throughout the summer you’ll be able to read updates from the SIDAR Class of 2016, their hosts and the speakers coming in for our “classroom Fridays.”

I continue to go back to the incredible commitment RUF has pledged to this program. Without it, we would never have gotten it off the ground. We’re confident their investment will be worth it in spades. My thanks again to all of our interns, unit hosts, and Nevin for their commitment to the program and their support this summer!

Tahsin Alam
Director of Talent Management, Rutgers University Foundation