Hear from #CrusaderIntern Quynh Nguyen about her experience last summer at United Planet in Boston.
What were you up to this past summer?
United Planet is a nonprofit organization in Boston, MA that promotes international volunteerism for long-term (6+ months) and short-term (1-12 weeks) programs. I work as the short-term Program Advisor and I was in charge of general administrative tasks. These tasks include speaking to volunteer inquiries by phone and email, register enrollees with the Department of State’s Safe Traveler Enrollment Program, put together packages to send out to volunteers, etc. In addition to these daily tasks, I also was involved in longer on-going projects for the organization, including creating a PowerPoint to visually demonstrate volunteer statistics (how much percentage for each age group, which county is most/least popular, what’s the most common duration of stay, etc), accumulate and compose a list of resources for pre-departure training sessions, and speak to coordinators from each country.
I would say that my most important role however is acting as a first point of contact for potential volunteers. This requires me to know basic information about all of the short term programs in order to give people accurate answers.
What was your favorite part?
What I really enjoyed most about United Planet is how close the staff is. I felt welcomed on my first day on the job and have grown more comfortable with everyone. We are all really close in age so it’s much easier to get along. There is a Social Committee that plans events outside of work so it’s nice to get to know my colleagues outside of the office.
What surprised you?
What surprised me about this organization is the way that it’s a network of roles that all depend on each other. By this, I mean that each person has his/her own work that is different from other people’s, which comes together to form a functional organization.
