Auburn Student Gains Professional Experience with the University
Elizabeth Gray landed more than she bargained for with her internship in Auburns University’s Office of Development. Gray, a senior majoring in Communication, began the internship in August and has since acquired useful knowledge and professional skills from her experience that will prove to be beneficial to her in her future career.
Although Gray has already learned so much from every aspect of her position, there is one particular job responsibility that has allowed her to take advantage of many opportunities. Gray has had the chance to become very involved with the office’s “It Begins at Auburn” campaign. The goal of the campaign is to raise money for the university’s colleges, schools and departments. There are 18 different constituencies the university will appropriate funds to and each one has its own goals for which program the funding will be redistributed.
Gray’s position specially focuses on working with the major gifts or large sums of money being donated to the office. Her job is to advocate for the donors and make sure the money they are donating is being allocated to the programs they care about. The majority of Gray’s daily job responsibilities deal with donor relations, such as contacting the donors, writing agreements for endowments, and in general building good relationships between them and the university.
Gray is grateful for her internship and enjoys every aspect of her position. Since she began working for this office, she has decided to pursue a career in development upon graduation in May.
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