Name: Ingrid Engelhardt
Class Year: 2022
Major: Growth and Structure of Cities
Hometown: Saint Paul, MN
Internship Organization: Mitzvah Circle
Job Title: Social Work Intern
Location: Norristown, PA
What’s happening at your internship? We would love to hear what kind of work you are doing!
Mitzvah Circle is a non-profit that provides clothes, baby gear, diapers, cleaning supplies, and household items to families in Montgomery County. The goal of the organization is to provide items that are often not covered by government assistance. My job, as one of the social work interns, is to call potential clients and complete their intake forms. Some calls are with new clients who have never been served at Mitzvah Circle. This intake means I will ask for a complete family history. Other times the client has already been served by Mitzvah Circle, so the call is more of a check-up to see how the family is doing. The intake I enter is then used by the volunteers who pack the items for each family.
Why did you apply for this internship?
I applied for this internship because I knew I wanted to work in the non-profit sphere, and this program seemed like a great fit for me! I also knew I wanted to work with people, and I have thought about a possible career in social work. I thought this internship would be a great opportunity to see if social work was the right career for me.
What has been your favorite part of this internship?
My favorite part has been learning from my boss. She has let us listen to calls she makes immediately and empowers us to learn by doing. I am making phone calls to clients, rather than just listening. This has provided me with experience and insight into whether a career as a social worker would be a good fit for me. This real experience has taught me a lot and has allowed me to learn through doing rather than just studying.
Another thing that has been my favorite part of my internship is packing for families. During the first two weeks of my internship, my boss wanted all the interns to spend time packing so we understood what the organization was doing. When packing for a family, you pick out the clothes to give, toys, household items, and other items the client has requested. I found it to be fun to get to pick out stuff for a family and I enjoyed being in the back packing items for families. I do not get to pack as much anymore, but now and then my boss will send us in the back to pack something. I always enjoy packing and think it is a nice way to be on my feet away from a computer.
What is something you have learned from your internship that you didn’t expect?
I have never used Salesforce before this internship, and it has been a new skill to be able to use this program. The intake requires me to be detail-oriented because it is easy to forget to enter something or to mess something up in Salesforce. I did not expect that a lot of my day would be working on Salesforce and making sure I have entered all the client's information correctly.
What is most rewarding about your internship?
I enjoy talking to people and this internship has been perfect for that. It is really rewarding to talk to clients on the phone and to be able to listen to them and try to provide them with some of the items they need.
Visit the Summer Internship Stories page to read more about student internship experiences.