During the 2018-2019 academic year, English major Elisabeth DellaRova interned at Downtown Greens as a Marketing and Communications intern. Downtown Greens is a small nonprofit in Fredericksburg that provides open community greenspace, gardening workshops, and youth programming. Elisabeth coordinated their Fall 2018 Giving Tuesday campaign, ran the Facebook and Instagram pages, helped with content creation for their newsletter and monthly Front Porch Fredericksburg column, and assisted with the Head Start Garden Sprouts program at the Original Walker Grant Early Childhood Center in Fredericksburg. Elisabeth helped with planning events, such as a fundraiser dinner at a local brewery, a community yard sale, and the annual Fork it Over Festival. She applied her writing skills from her English major, and learned about photography and design. She also got to do some hands-on nonprofit work, such as working with the Head Start kids and volunteering at the yard sale.
Elisabeth’s internship was supported by funds from the College of Arts and Sciences Alumni Advisory Board. To quote Elisabeth: “I’m very grateful for the grant that I received from the Alumni Advisory Board for the spring 2019 semester–it gave me the ability to work 10 hours a week at Downtown Greens. With the experience I got at Downtown Greens, I was able to secure a paid internship for the summer at a technology company that serves nonprofits.”
Elisabeth graduated in December 2019, and now works for that technology company full time. She credits that first internship at Downtown Greens for helping start her on a successful career path.
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