Summertime

It's been quite a while since I've posted and so much has been going on. After finishing up freshman year with a few exams and papers, I stayed in Charlotte and spent an amazing five weeks interning at Carolinas HealthCare Foundation (CHF). Each of us in the program interned with a non-profit organization in Charlotte this summer, learning about how a 501(c)(3) functions.

Before starting at the Foundation, I had read much about CHF, its mission, beneficiaries, and goals as a non-profit, but I was still unsure of what I would be able to do there as an intern. There seemed to be so many aspects of the Foundation that I knew absolutely nothing about, that I felt uneasy just jumping right in. Luckily, from my very first day at CHF everyone was so welcoming and willing to help me understand what the Foundation does. I spent time getting to know everyone there, and I worked with them on many different projects from writing a case statement, to planning, promoting and executing successful fundraisers, to gaining an understanding of Carolinas HealthCare System (CHS) as a whole.

Attending charity golf and tennis tournaments, each in honor of a specific child's fight against cancer, helped me to understand the importance of fundraising for the cancer centers and institutes that are a part of CHS. At these events I had the opportunity to get to know the children and families who are battling cancer and learn about their relationship with the Foundation. It was really incredible to see the unconditional support that the Charlotte community provides for CHS and how willing it is to fundraise for other local causes.

One fun event that I helped out at for the Foundation was the Prelude to the Dream viewing party. Prelude to the Dream is a charity dirt track race with NASCAR drivers that supports four children's hospitals across the nation, one of them being Levine Children's Hospital. The viewing party at Blackfinn in Uptown was hosted by the Starlight Society, a group of young professionals in Charlotte that works closely with Levine Children's Hospital.

Here's a picture of me and people I worked with at the Foundation. From left: me, Sheri, Morgan (the other intern at CHF), and Kirstin. Work can be pretty fun too! :-)

While living in Charlotte for the first part of the summer, I was finally able to make some trips to the beautiful lakes in (and near) Charlotte, Lake Tillery and Lake Norman. I'm pretty ashamed to say that it took me an entire year to get out and go boating when both Tillery and Norman are each within an hour from campus. It was such a blast and the lakes are so beautiful! Jasmine took Christina and I out on her boat one day, we just swam, ate and relaxed after our first week of work. And then Emily, one of Christina and I's apartment mates (I'm not sure if that's how you say it, but technically speaking, we weren't roommates. Hmmm...) during the summer, has a boat out on Lake Norman and her family took us boating one weekend.

Emily's dad was trying to throw us off the tube, but we were holding on pretty tight!

And now I'm back home in D.C. for the rest of the summer. I just started working at Reddz Trading, a resale clothing store in Bethesda that I worked at last summer when it had just opened. It's pretty fun working there, seeing all of the new stuff come in. June must be the time of the year that people choose to clean out their closets because we've been so busy lately buying! Besides Reddz and getting to see friends I haven't seen in months, I'm so excited to go to Los Angeles in July to see my little cousins-- one is only a few months old! And then after a family trip to Maine to see some more of my cousins, I'm back to Charlotte and school starts in late August.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful summer and is finding time to get out and enjoy the weather-- staying inside all day is really no fun! Thanks for reading, and I'll be back soon!