MENTOR Rhode Island

  

Name of Organization: MENTOR Rhode Island

Address: 2065 Warwick Avenue, Unit 1 Warwick, RI 02889

Description of the overall mission of this organization: Ensure youth have access to the motivational and supportive relationships they need to grow into confident, successful adults.

Ages of youth served: MENTOR Rhode Island has a variety of programs. School based mentoring begins in kindergarten and can go up until high school if needed. I specifically worked in the elementary school setting with a kindergarten student.

Name of Mentor: Christopher Margadonna

Hours worked: 200+ hours completed, Mondays and Tuesdays with occasional attendance of outside events (mainly for recruitment)

Description of your role and duties: My role was mainly administrative. My normal day included following up with individuals who were interested in a mentoring program and talking to them (via email or phone) about the next steps to get them a mentee. Additionally, I myself became a mentor during my time here and will continue to do so after I exit my internship. I work one on one with a kindergarten student for about one hour a week.

Description of the culture of the place: The non profit was very small. There are only about 10 people employed through MENTOR Rhode Island, four of them being in the same position as Program Coordinators. The dress code was business casual. Communication with all employees is mainly done at our weekly staff meeting where we talk about goals for last week and if they were met or not and make goals for the upcoming week. Email is probably the number one communication style but phone calls also happen as well.  

Additional Requirements: I did not necessarily have any additional requirements. However, I took advantage of as many recruitment events as I could. I attended various types of events with the recruitment specialist where I saw him demonstrate all the necessary skills needed when giving a presentation about the organization and what they do.  

Special notes on process of getting this internship: When choosing an internship, my goal was to do something that was completely out of my element. I had never been in an administrative position before, but I wanted to do something that was more "behind the scenes" rather than another hands-on experience. I contacted MENTOR Rhode Island for an informational interview to get to know more about the organization. After leaving, I was still unsure if it was for me. After interviewing with some other possible internship sites, I realized I wanted to learn more about MENTOR Rhode Island. I began at the end of October and worked closely with the recruitment specialist on how to bring people into the organization and teach them about the work that we do.

What three TAGS would you use to label this internship?

sports, preschool, DCYF, teenagers, administrative, trauma, mentoring, hands-on, art, science, after school, dance, curriculum, library, school, leadership, paid,

Your name: Alyssa Dorr

Your cohort: 5

Your email address if others can contact you: alyssaadorr at gmail.com