Hello, my name is Betsy Acker and I, also was one of the youth summer interns for the Barry Community Foundation. I will continue to serve the Foundation at 10 hours a week during the school year.  I am 17 years old and I am a Senior at Hastings High School. I am very involved in our school and community. Some of the activities I have participated in are basketball, cross country, soccer, Interact Club, Youth In Government, Pride Club, Student Council, National Honors Society, BPA, Band, Leadership Barry County, and the Youth Advisory Council. Applying for the BCF internship was one of the best choices I’ve ever made! I have had a chance to work with many adults which has helped me learn new skills.  I have been given the chance to use my own ideas and creativity in my work which has helped me grow as a person! I absolutely love working for the BCF!

We both loved working for the Barry Community Foundation, it has given us a hands on experience of what a non-profit organization really does. We both kept very busy this summer! Some of the projects that we worked on this summer are the 40 assets presentation to the community (Betsy), the annual report (Megan), the YAC annual report (Megan), organizing the YAC retreat (Betsy) and helping with community service projects for YAC to just name a few.  We had a lot of fun and learned a lot. We were given the opportunity to make an impact on others lives! We both feel that we have made a difference in our community.  It is a great feeling!

Working with Bonnie and Jennifer at the Barry Community Foundation has helped both of us develop new skills, and has given us more confidence as individuals. They allowed us to take on new challenges, and let us use our own ideas, opinions and creativity in our work. Working for the BCF and with Bonnie and Jennifer has been a great experience neither of us will ever forget!

My name is Brandi Walden, and I was lucky enough to be the YAC intern for the summer of 2005. During my years as a member of YAC, I served as the public relations director, and as vice president. When I got the opportunity to work for the Barry Community Foundation, I was thrilled! I started my internship in May ’05 and, with the guidance of Jennifer Richards, YAC advisor, I decided what I wanted to work on that summer. For one of my projects, I chose to try to give new energy to a program we already were involved in, but that seemed to have lost its momentum . Project GreenFund is a recycling program for ink cartridges, toners, and cell phones. The best thing about this project is that, for every item recycled, the YAC receives dollars to use to help our community!

In addition to Project GreenFund, I worked on recruiting new YAC members. This was a really important part of my job because we had such a huge class graduating in 2006. I also planned the annual YAC fall retreat at Camp Algonquin. It was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun!

The final project I worked on during the summer was creating scrapbooks for YAC.  I made two books: one about what YAC is, and one about what we do. I think they turned out well and were a great way to show off YAC!

I loved working as the BCF intern, and I would highly recommend it to other YACers. I learned a lot, and met a lot of really dedicated and dynamic people who have influenced my life.  It was by far the best job I’ve ever had!

My Internship Experience
By Elena Gormley, YAC Member and 2005 BCF Summer Intern

Hi! My name is Elena Gormley. I am a YAC member and a Senior at Thornapple Kellogg High School. This summer, I interned at the Barry Community Foundation offices. One of the best things about my job is I never got bored-I was always doing new things! For BCF’s upcoming 10^th birthday celebrations, I helped design a coloring book of prominent Barry County places, created a YAC promotional poster using Adobe InDesign software, designed six display boards for the BCF birthday party, cataloged door prizes for the Main Street Savings Bank Charity Golf Classic into an Excel spreadsheet, and helped create an online survey that BCF will use to check the basic infrastructure of non-profit organizations that BCF works with. Whew! This internship kept me quite busy!

This internship was great because I got to use different technologies and software that I was previously clueless about (FLASHDRIVES ROCK!), meet members of the BCF Board of Directors (They are the funniest people around!), and got to see how the Barry Community Foundation works.

I would definitely encourage YACers to apply for the Summer Internship because the hours are very flexible, you are treated with a lot of respect, and it is a valuable (and fun) learning experience!  

An Experience to Remember
By Emily Benningfield, YAC Member/2005 YAC Intern

Hey YACers! I’m Emily Benningfield and I’m the YAC summer intern this year. It’s only July and Jen and I have already accomplished so much!

So far this summer, I have planned the YAC Fall Retreat, worked with Leadership Barry County, began organizing a Relay For Life Team, sent out Grant Reports to all those who have received funds from YAC and worked on our new website! Soon I will be working out the details for the Roofsit this November and updating the scrapbooks. Phew!

For those who don’t know me, or don’t know me very well, I am going to be a senior at Hastings High School in the fall. I will be turning 18 on our October meeting (so expect cupcakes!) and I’m the baby of my family. At school, I am involved largely with the drama program (doing both musicals and plays) as well as singing with the Varsity Choir, acting as Bulletin Editor for the Key Club, Alderman for Student Council and I am also involved with Youth in Government, Pride Club and Tennis. I’m a busy girl. This summer (along with working at BCF) I’ve just finished the play “The Hobbit” with the Thornapple Arts Council’s Youth Theater Program, and started “The Man Who Came to Dinner” with the Thornapple Players. When (and if) I have free time, I attempt a social life by going to concerts, or being a goof with my friends.

This summer has been a great learning experience on two levels. The first, I have acquired skills needed to interact in an office setting, which includes answering phones, filing papers, working a copy machine and even getting coffee for “the boss”. Secondly, I have learned life skills that I know have changed the way I am as a person. Since I started here, I’ve learned not to take things too personally. For example: If I get yelled at on the phone for making a mistake, all I can really do is apologize to the “yeller” and go on with my day. I’ve learned to not dwell on past mistakes because if you do, you end up messing something else up because you aren’t focused. I have also learned that working in an office full of women (nine women, one man- part time) is a life experience in itself. Never has a work environment felt so comfortable and fun as it has here at BCF.

There is my update for you, YACers. I strongly suggest that you apply for the internship next year. It looks very good on a college application and it helps you grow as a person. Take it into consideration!