My Internship Experience: Reyna Quiroz

From the first day I started at Habitat for Humanity Tucson, I knew that I picked the perfect non-profit to intern for. Interning in the Marketing & Communications Department taught me so many valuable skills that I know that I can apply in my future career endeavors. I was beyond moved to see how hard everyone at Habitat for Humanity Tucson works to better the community and strive to make decent affordable housing possible for so many Tucson families.  

When I thought about Habitat for Humanity the first thing that came to mind was, it was the non-profit that makes affordable housing possible to so many people. But I was so surprised to learn that there are many more services that Habitat for Humanity Tucson provides. When I first started my internship, my mentors Laura & Melissa educated me on all that Habitat for Humanity Tucson does. For example, I learned about builds that Habitat for Humanity Tucson has, such as Faith Build. Where people of all faiths can find a way to love and serve their neighbors through volunteering at a build site.

I also learned about a fantastic program called, A Brush With Kindness, that helps families and individuals who need assistance making repairs to the home they love but cannot do these repairs themselves due to financial or physical limitations.  

A fun part of my internship was conducting interviews and making blog posts! For my first interview, I had the pleasure of Interviewing Marikay, a recipient of A Brush With Kindness. It was amazing to hear her story and to see how the home repairs really transformed her life. I learned from my mentor Melissa about how to conduct an interview in a way that is not intimidating for the interviewee so that they can be comfortable to share their story with me.

I also learned that being an active listener is essential when conducting an interview. It was a privilege to hear her story and many others. Another task of mine was to transcribe recorded interviews. It was moving to hear their stories and then transform them into a blog post to share on our website and social media. 

Learning how to create a blog post was a new adventure for me! It was interesting to see how you can create a blog post from scratch on WordPress and customize the layout to your liking. I also gained experience in writing in a new format, blog style. Writing multiple blog posts during my internship was enjoyable. These blog posts serve an essential purpose because these stories of families and individuals who have received help from Habitat for Humanity Tucson attract more volunteers, donors, and future applicants.  

I learned a great deal about social media and how essential it is for Habitat for Humanity Tucson.  A daily task of mine was to post on our social media platforms. Laura taught me how to post engaging content that would interest our existing followers and attract new ones. I learned how to create attention grabbing titles with accompanying photos, the power of a hashtag, and learning about analytics.  

Learning about analytics was very useful. It is a great tool to see which posts are responding best to our followers. Prior to my internship I had no experience with analytics, and it was fascinating to see how analytics show how many views a post is receiving, the impact and impressions it is having, and even the demographics of the viewer. It is a great tool to see what changes you can make to the post or future posts so that they are more successful and can make a bigger impact.

Besides conducting interviews, creating blog posts, and keeping our social media up to date, I also learned how to create short videos. Melissa showed me a program called Adobe Spark and how I can use it to create videos to post on our social media pages. Creating a video from scratch was really rewarding once you see the final product! I was even able to make a video thanking all our volunteers and donors who helped make World Habitat Day 2019 such a success! 

Throughout my internship I was able to learn so many new skills and photograph/record events. I am so thankful that I selected a non-profit that is so connected to its local community and wants to see its members succeed! I am grateful for my mentors Laura & Melissa who have taught me so much about working in the Marketing & Communications Department. I would highly recommend future University of Arizona students to pursue an internship with Habitat for Humanity Tucson because everyone here is extremely passionate about what they do, they can show teach you so much! 

Watch Reyna’s final video project.