22 April 2013

#Wayabovemypaygrade

So my internship with WVN has been amazing so far! My supervisor is very enthusiastic, and has been thrilled with everything I've done so far... which has been a HUGE confidence boost after my 300+ job applications have all ended in rejection. This has been a great way for me to get my foot in the door, while maintaining the flexibility in hours and location that I've needed over the last couple months.

I'm in charge of Partnerships and Outreach, but I'm still just an intern, and I've only been with them for about 6 weeks. I have been under the impression that I am only in charge of preliminary research of potential partners, initial contact with them, and then the liaison between WVN and our partners, which is enough to be a full-time job in and of itself.

Last week I finally started contacting organizations from my exponentially growing list. Today I heard back from a group that was in my top 5 of "Must-Haves" for WVN partners. They are interested and want to chat more! So I forwarded the response to my supervisor, the executive director, and figured she'd take it from there.

Nope. She wants ME to negotiate the partnership. This HUGE opportunity that could help catapult WVN onto the main stage of NGOs... and I'M IN CHARGE?! hahahaha Yep. I'm terrified. I'm a VOLUNTEER INTERN who has only been with WVN for 6 weeks. I've never even met anyone from WVN in person. Never participated in one of our projects. Never observed the details of a partnership behind the scenes. Never negotiated anything other than baptismal dates and nap times with stubborn investigators and cranky children, respectively.

Yep, way out of my league. And way above my pay grade.

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