Name: Rebecca

Year: Senior

Major: History; International Studies

CFS Program: Field Studies in Civic Engagement

I decided to pursue an internship through CFS as a senior because I wanted the chance to gain more experience in the social impact field before I transitioned from school to a full-time career. I was especially keen on interning at an organization that approached social impact in a way that I had not had the chance to work with before. Prior to my current internship, I had worked at a non-profit performing international development abroad, at a social enterprise that purposely employed young mothers, and at a non-profit that provided veteran services. While all of those experiences had exposed me to the realities of working to make a social difference and had given me crucial, varied skills, I was hoping, through CFS, to get more business-related skills within the social impact space. I had become interested in the possibility of companies to be successful profit-making organizations, while at the same time, producing social good, and so wanted exposure to a company doing that. Thus, with the help of my CFS advisor, I applied to organizations that included a non-profit that encouraged business to adopt socially responsibly practices, a venture capital firm that invested in health technology startups, and a consulting and data products firm that specialized in measuring social impact for foundations, government agencies and corporations. It was exciting to see the variety of opportunities − some of which I had never even imagined for myself − available to me through the CFS program.

Ultimately, I chose Mission Measurement, the consulting and data products firm, as my internship site. There, I felt I would gain exposure to the largest variety of situations involving social impact programs. Mission Measurement’s goal is to provide the expertise and research for standardizing, measuring and predicting social outcomes across a variety of fields. I work for the consulting team at Mission Measurement. In my role, I support the other analysts as they engage with clients to determine client outcomes, measure those outcomes, and then improve upon practices moving forward. My favorite part of being a member of this team is the variety of work I get to do. With different types of clients who are trying to achieve a wide variety of social good, I have been able to get a better sense of what and who is out there in the social impact space, and how they are working. It is really interesting for me to hear the different perspectives of retailers, food producers, and social investors (and many more) as I explore this field. Beyond gaining exposure, I have been lucky to develop key skills in research and presentation as I helped my coworkers in Mission Measurement’s client engagements. Lastly, it has been a great experience to be surrounded by such talented and intelligent coworkers who are putting their skills in service of social impact.

To go along with my internship, I am taking the CFS course in Civic Engagement. The best part of the course is understanding my work in context of the larger civic engagement field, and learning about what my classmates are doing at their internships. Our professor skillfully has us share the daily experiences we all have at internship as we learn to navigate professional spaces and then helps us to connect those experiences and our work to themes in civic engagement. Going through this learning process with others has been very valuable.

As I make career decisions this quarter, I am grateful for having more experience to draw on from my internship and CFS class. Moving from academics into the professional world is a big change, and I am happy to get as much preparation as possible before hand.