The internship, week 1
In case you missed it, I'm doing an internship for my project management course with Save the Children's local chapter this spring. I started Monday and this week hasn't been what I expected, but it would be a shame to call it bad. On my first day, we had trouble with the logistics surrounding keys, phone, etc. On day two I set about putting out fires that needed to be doused before the local club's annual meeting, which is coming up this Tuesday. This meant collecting information and going through a few hundred emails.
Among the unanswered emails, I found a message from Helsingborg's volunteer center regarding tutoring. The point of my internship was supposed to be to lead a project to evaluate the providers of free tutoring in Helsingborg and convince the city to coordinate volunteer efforts. Since my mission is already accomplished, we need to decide on a different project.
The Helsingborg chapter of Save the Children is small and chaotic. I've been given free reign to help them get on their feet, but I honestly don't know where to start. There is no lack of things to be that need to be done, the trick is to find something temporary in nature that I can execute as a project in just two months, or narrow down the options to two or three projects and create some momentum and synergy in the local chapter's leadership. I'm thinking along the lines of a social media launch and a fundraising event.
I never thought I'd be using the word "synergy" without irony ;) Grown-up points!