Spring Intern Spotlight

ABOUT OUR INTERNS

At the start of the new year, we were on the lookout for exceptional interns to help us through the first quarter of an off-year. We were thrilled to welcome Morgan and Billie, two outstanding additions to our team! As Morgan and Billie's time with us came to a close, I had the opportunity to conduct an exit interview with them to gather their feedback on their experiences at GA.

Billie Casebeer, who will be graduating in a few weeks, started at GA working with our Southeast strategy team to assist with client relationships and requests. However, after discovering her interest in digital fundraising, Billie transitioned to working with our digital co-op where she succeeded in helping our team and our clients! 

Morgan Reese was a dual intern, spending time as a Nonprofit intern and a Marketing and Communications intern. As a Nonprofit intern, Morgan was heavily involved in researching and building potential relationships, shadowing calls, and compiling media clips. Additionally, in Marketing & Communications, Morgan assisted in social media copywriting and helped to update our job board. 

If you could describe your internship experience in one word, what would it be and why?

BILLIE

“Enriching. Starting with the strategy team and then transitioning to the digital team has allowed me to gain a well-rounded understanding of fundraising and particularly digital fundraising, which has become increasingly important in the campaign space. Working alongside experts in the field has been really beneficial professionally - it’s great to learn from the best.” 

MORGAN 

“Growth. Whether it was learning about fundraising generally or deep diving into digital and mail, I learned about a new part of politics and nonprofits. I was also able to enhance my writing skills and my overall behavior in a professional environment which has been very valuable.”

How did your internship experience help you grow personally and professionally? 

BILLIE

“I’ve been very lucky to be with an organization that values an intern's ability to grow professionally and personally. At GW, students are pretty competitive about their internships and people always seem to have one. When talking to other students in internships, I’ve heard about a lot of negative experiences. Since being with GA, it’s been nice to share the positive feedback I’ve had here and how people have taken the time to mentor and teach interns. This internship has been well-organized, structured, and encouraging - people keep telling me how lucky I am.” 

MORGAN

“Being at GA has given me a confidence boost and lessened my social anxiety in the workplace.  I’ve been able to advocate for myself and talk with other people about work-associated things but also what’s going on outside of work. Not only did I pick up the hard skills from the internship, but I’m also going away with a ton of soft skills.

GA’s internship generally was a huge step up from what I expected it to be like because it was very structured and everyone has been so supportive. I feel like DC interns are generally overlooked because there are so many of us, but I didn’t feel that way here.” 

What was it like to balance your internship with your school and what were some tools for success? 

BILLIE

“As a second-semester senior, I’ve had a bit of senioritis- but that’s not to say I haven’t enjoyed and done well in finishing out my courses. Actually, I’m taking this cool Harry Potter course where we read all of the books and find examples of identity-based politics to explain real-life events and phenomena. It’s been a new way to understand and explain things like privilege, race, class, and other similar topics. Back to the question, working part-time and finishing my courses hasn’t been too difficult. At this point in my schooling, I’ve gotten good at time management.” 

MORGAN

“Overall, it was manageable, but that’s because I knew how to manage my time. I’d break down the days and set aside time for homework, so I could be productive when I came into the office.”

What was the most unexpected thing you learned during your internship?

BILLIE

“The most unexpected things I learned were the computer and coding skills. I didn’t have many computer skills beyond operating my computer for coursework and general things. Now, I have experience coding in STATA and HTML!” 

MORGAN

“Similarly to Billie, learning STATA was an unexpected experience and little other skills here and there. I didn’t come in with a ton  of marketing and comms experience, but I grew in those areas as well.” 

What was the most exciting project or event you worked on and what did you learn from it?

BILLIE

“Working my first end-of-quarter fundraising deadline was an exciting experience. Since it was later in the internship, I had the opportunity to step up, write, code, load, send, and see incredible results for our amazing clients. It was a true culmination of my skills that I was able to flex and see successes!”

MORGAN

“One of my favorite days at GA was going on an in-person sales call with Angie Pati (Executive Director of Nonprofits) and Katie ( Digital Director). We met with this incredible nonprofit and it was so cool to be in the room and hear from people who are super passionate about voting rights for Latinx people in their communities.” 

What advice would you give to future interns who may be interested in working with GA? 

BILLIE

“I would really try to meet with everyone in the office ASAP because even now, I’m learning so much from my one-on-one meetings. Everyone here has a ton of knowledge and different backgrounds, so there's always something new to share and learn from each other."

MORGAN

“In a similar sense, make sure to ask people what they’re doing. People at GA want to tell you what they’re working on and what they do in their day-to-day. It’s really informative because you get a sense of different types of jobs and different workflows.” 

What are you doing after this? 

BILLIE

“I’m graduating of course, but regarding GA, I’m planning on taking the skills I learned here to get a job! The goal is to work in fundraising for politics whether it’s on a committee, PAC, or a campaign. Right after graduating, however, my parents and I are spending a weekend in Cancun to celebrate!” 

MORGAN

“In the fall I’m going to be studying abroad in Barcelona which is really exciting! From this internship, I’m going to take direction. Since I’ve been at GA, I’ve learned about opportunities in DC and outside of DC that I want to experience at some point. Whether it be working on a campaign or on the Hill, I’ve gained an understanding that political fundraising is a career and there are many different types of roles I could play.” 

THE TAKEAWAYS

Both interns expressed deep gratitude to GA and are excited and grateful for what they have learned during their internship experience. They gained valuable insights into campaign fundraising and nonprofit development that they plan to carry into future internships for Morgan or job experiences for Billie.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank our interns for their hard work and dedication throughout the semester. It has been a pleasure to work with them and we are confident that they will continue to achieve great things in their careers. We wish them nothing but the best of luck in their future endeavors.

Want your own spotlight or do you know someone we should feature? Email morgan@grassrootsanalytics.com