The organization that I worked with this past semester was The Little Guy Foundation, a nonprofit focused on community outreach, connecting people from all over the world through arts, dance and music, and raising awareness about underleveraged communities and finding creative ways to help these communities. There were two main branches to achieve these goals, the international aspect- which focused on gathering groups of ambitious people from all over the world to go on South America immersion trips where they will live with and aid a specific native community, and the local effort- which was focused on raising awareness about the little guy foundation on campus, tabling, and direct bi-weekly volunteering with home for humanity. Through helping coordinate, promote, advertise, and logistic-ify these projects, I was able to make the most of my internship and help Sam Bolton, the founder of the company, grow her nonprofit and be prepared to leave on the South America excursion shortly.
Specifically, the main projects I worked on was tabling bi-weekly here at GT, making posters and informational flyers and templates for the organization, updating and keeping track of the website, sending out bi-weekly email newsletters with updates and information to a new group of newsletter subscribers, helping with marketing the brand such as designing and printing stickers, and lastly, volunteering hands on at the home for humanity events.
Some key skills I learned during this internship was how to manage tasks within a team, how to design promotional posters and business cards, how to talk to strangers effectively and convey a message, and most importantly how to help a small nonprofit gain more publicity and attention. From tabling on the walkway, to sending out targeted emails, I was able to streamline communication and better understand what it takes to have a forceful communication base for a company.
One memorable experience I had during my work with the little guy foundation, was when we went to the Home for Humanity volunteer sessions every other Saturday. Me and my other fellow intern and Sam would stand outside the GSU homeless food shelter, and we would offer free haircuts and nail trimmings to the homeless. On top of that, every week we had various activities for the homeless such as poetry writing, painting, music making, and spoken word poetry. Having these classes accessible to the homeless really opened my mind on how homeless people do not get the chance to express themselves creatively, and this experience allowed them to take a break from their strenuous lives and focus on art and self-expression. Also to mention, it was quite fun to help the barbers and help trim up many many clients on the street. Through this experience I learned the importance of spreading art and humanity as well as some barbering skills!
The work I did during this experience helped me realize that it really isn't that difficult to get connected with the outside world, even if the people in need are in a different country. Getting to volunteer firsthand with the homeless population of Atlanta and promoting excursion trips was a fantastic way for me to see how the service and time I spent working for this company can evoke real world change. Through working with Sam and the rest of the team, I realized that individual effort truly does have potential to make a substantial change. We were able to send two groups of 20 adventurous people on an excursion in South America to help communities learn English, recover their cropland, and learn more about their culture. Working to promote and spread information about these trips was really rewarding, since they are real trips that real people will get to soon experience.
In terms of future career goals and work, this experience taught me what it is like to work with a nonprofit and what it is like to collaborate with a group of people who show up just because. Not because they are getting paid or they are being told to do so, but because they truly want to make a change. This work showed me the importance of time management as when it comes to volunteer work everyone's time is very valuable and it is important to be a good communicator and produce deliverables quickly when working with a group of volunteers. Likewise, this experience gave me more insight into what it is like to run a small business from the ground up. I got to see all the behind-the-scenes action and work that goes into running a social media, website, Instagram, and community presence at Georgia Tech all to spread the word about the new nonprofit, The Little Guy Foundation. Running a nonprofit now seems like a difficult but rewarding pursuit, and this experience motivates me to pursue future projects similar to this one in my future with the time I have allotted for philanthropy and volunteer work. I would like to thank Georgia Tech ILSI Social Impact Fellow program and Sam from The Little Guy Foundation for giving me this opportunity and trusting me with some creative vision and flow for this new small business.
This reflection is part of Georgia Tech’s Social Impact Fellows program, offered through the Institute for Leadership and Social Impact (ILSI). This program connects students with nonprofit and community organizations in Atlanta for semester-long, hands-on project experiences designed to foster co-learning, social responsibility, and personal growth. To learn more about program details and application information, please visit our program webpage.