Time flies! I’m almost half way through my summer internship and I still remember the first day when I met my cohorts at Winants Hall, all of us excited to become members of RUF. This internship has helped me to cultivate learning, nourish thinking, enhance skills, and boost my morale.

For me, the internship would be described as “WOW! SIDAR!” Which means Warm, Opportunity, Wonderful, Supportive, International, Dedicated, Ambitious, and Relationship.

Warm. Rutgers University Foundation is a big family within the Rutgers community. As a loyal Rutgers daughter, I am proud to join the Donor Relations team this summer. My unit colleagues have imparted me with great wisdom from their professional expertise, excellent interpersonal management, incredible efficiency, outstanding communication skills and the most important point – willingness to share and to teach me day-by-day. I feel like I am not an intern, but a member of a warm family.

Opportunity. As a graduate student studying public administration, working at a nonprofit organization has always been my dream. Academic learning in the classroom has stimulated my interest as well as broadened my horizons in both the fundraising fields and foundation operations. And now RUF has made my dream a reality.

Wonderful. In the past 5 weeks, I have actively collaborated with my unit to prepare awesome events like The Spring Reveal 2016 (see pictures below) and The Board of Overseers Meeting. The event turned out to be a great success and our guests spoke highly of it. I knew it was the hard work and well-rounded preparation from my team that made it all possible. I do appreciate such a wonderful opportunity to see an event firsthand, to engage as well as to learn about what my team regarding events.

Supportive. Every Friday there are SIDAR class sessions and field trips. These Friday workshops help us to gain deeper knowledge and experience in the field and outside of our units. So far, we have visited American Red Cross and United Way of Central Jersey. Each Friday we get the chance to learn more about the industry, and absorb valuable experiences. Moreover, all of our guest speakers are very open with us, and are warm-hearted and willing to answer every tiny question we may have.

International. Working with my cohorts is the best thing, we are young and energetic and are all devoted to RU. As the one and only Asian or Chinese in SIDAR, I enjoy having diverse conversations with my fellows. Although we come from various cultural backgrounds, we love good food (fried avocado and free lunches!), respect each other’s cultural differences, stimulate creative thinking, encourage hard work, and admire international communication. If it wasn’t for this internship, I would never have met these amazing people.

Dedicated. Meanwhile, we have been working on our cohort Millennial Engagement Project, and this is the first time I have been a part of such a large group with 10 fellows. We work closely with each other, and spark ideas for our project. Together, we build our project from a loose structure into a concrete, logical planning circle. We learn from each other, and we devote our passion and enthusiasm in it. As millennials, we provide our insights and approaches to assist RUF in engaging students and alumni of our generation. As a cohort, we want to make positive, everlasting impacts to our university, and the greater Rutgers community.

Ambitious. After taking my baby steps into development and alumni relations, I have found I have a strong passion and ambition for this field. Along with what I have learned in the classroom, the internship has given me a 360 degree opportunity for my further advancement. This industry has been growing in a tremendous way, I am thrilled to grow with it as I begin my developing my career.

Relationship. As much as I look forward to my summer vacation, it is hard for me to say goodbye to RUF, Talent Management, my unit host (Donor Relations), and my beloved SIDAR cohorts. We have built a solid friendship during this tenure, and it has brought us together as a team. We cultivate team spirit and mutual trust as well as an understanding for one another.  Although the internship is coming to an end, the relationship among us will never fade away. Nothing is going to change my love for Rutgers.  I am proud of the contributions I have made to my school, no matter how small.

WOW! This is one of the best internship experiences I could ever ask for. Once again thank you so much for having me. It is my great honor to meet and spend my summer with everybody at the foundation. You all are treasures in my life. I will always have this memory in the bottom of my heart.

Yingxing Huang

SIDAR, Donor Relations