COAR Internship Report: Pumpkin Palooza And Into The Streets

1. Please list your previous COAR and other volunteer experience.

I have been involved with COAR for the previous two years. During the fall of my freshman year, I was involved as a volunteer for COAR at our annual events Pumpkin Palooza and Into the Streets. During the spring semester of my freshman year, I applied for the COAR Internship and learned about the operations of COAR. After the internship experience, I wanted to continue to make a difference through COAR and applied to become a staff member. I have now been a staff member for two consecutive semesters and have been a proactive member throughout the event planning process and in meetings. Outside of COAR, I currently volunteer weekly with the Young Women’s Leadership Program and

We have done a great job this year with our social media coverage, but there is still room for improvements with gaining more likes (on Facebook and Instagram) and increasing web traffic from students and community members so our information will get attention. Also as the recently appointed SGA Community Outreach Director, I want to consider Becca Cain’s improvements and try to transition Good Neighbor Day to be hosted by COAR (with the approval of Dean Rucker and the Director of Service). I think that COAR has the ability to really approve upon a good event and make it great with the coordination of staff. Another area I see room for growth and improvement is the COAR internship. Over the course of my time as a staff member I have heard from numerous interns that the internship lacked clarity at times and structure (daily/habitual things to do in the office). With the help of staff, I want to reconsider what we as an organization want the interns to gain from the internship and see how we can improve the experience to better our interns for staff positions.

7. What do you think of how COAR staff works at this time? Do you have any improvements or suggestions for us on how to be more