Natasha Blackadar served as a Taproot Marketing Fellow in January as part of the Innovate Winter Break program from Brown University that provides mini-internships during winter break at organizations dedicated to social justice, impact, and entrepreneurship in Boston and NYC.
This blog has been re-posted here from its original source on Swearer Center.
Playful professionalism. Pragmatic optimism. Progress. Impact oriented.
These words, written on a large poster in blue Sharpie, have been hanging next to my desk for the last two weeks. When I first learned about these core values of the Taproot Foundation, I couldn?? believe that an organization could possibly sound so cool. After two weeks of intensive, engaging work on a project here, I can?? imagine a better way to describe this organization.
I??e spent the last two weeks working with the Director of Marketing here at Taproot to evaluate an annual campaign that they run in October: Pro Bono Week. In addition to that, I??e sat it on an office-wide brainstorming meeting, an interview with a nonprofit applying for Taproot?? pro bono Service Grant Program, and heard presentations from all of Taproot?? departments about what they do and why they do it. I had never really worked at a nonprofit before, and all of this information was interesting, exciting, and inspiring.
However, when I attended the intern networking event that the CareerLAB hosted for us here in New York last week, I was somewhat dismayed to realize that I was the only senior participating in this program. ??m I behind???I wondered, feeling worried that I had been slacking off during my first three winter breaks.
But now that I?? wrapping up my internship, I can look back on the skills I gained and the connections I made and know that, as a senior, this was probably one of the smartest ways I could have spent my final winter break, before I start my last semester at Brown and begin a daunting task–the job search. I?? glad I was able to participate in Innovate Winter Break, and more specifically, to be at Taproot, which has really opened my eyes to the possibilities and opportunities available in the nonprofit sector.
Natasha is the Communications Assistant, Social Innovation Initiative, Swearer Center at Brown University.
