Throughout the next few weeks, we want to give the UWBucks Community a chance to meet our six awesome interns! Each Wednesday, we will feature a post by an intern telling you a little bit about themselves and their mission for the summer. This week is Laiza Santos, a college student from Philadelphia!
My name is Laiza Santos and I am a Community Impact intern for United Way of Bucks County with the 21st Century Learning Program. This summer, I will be focusing on developing the communication of the 21st Century Community Learning Center program, both with their students and the surrounding community, through social media and other community engagement ideas.
I am a rising senior at La Salle University, majoring in Communication with a concentration in Public Relations. I chose this major because the prospect of working with the community and finding ways to engage certain audiences sparked my interest. I love to find innovative and creative ways to spread a message. I am able to do this with my internship here at the United Way, as I have been with my work and other endeavors past, present and future. This is what makes my work enjoyable. I also find a passion in writing and the use of descriptive words to create a word picture for others. They can relate their feelings to what I am trying to portray and that passion feeds in to my creative side.
My drive and motivation to continue developing my career lies in the foundation I have through the women in my family. Growing up around strong Latina women who are actively involved in their own communities, through their careers and personal lives, while still maintaining a true sense of self, instills in me an undeniable amount of inner strength to achieve anything I set my mind to. My values and beliefs are centralized in the notion that I am a woman, a Latina woman, capable of not only being an influential person in my society but in the world, if I want to be.
After attending a social media conference presented by UWBucks and SoMeBizLife, I was completely astounded by the way UWBucks interacted with their audience. I made sure I kept connected with some of the staff through social media. I found out about the internship through Twitter and was immediately encouraged by my family and others to go forth and apply for the opportunity. Now that I am a part of the United Way of Bucks County internship program, the first two weeks have already been a great learning experience on so many levels.
This summer I am anxious to see how my experience will be shaped by the networking opportunities, events and projects that I will participate in and create with other members of our 21st Century team. Throughout my internship, I hope to build relationships and memories with others in the office that will carry on even after these ten weeks come to a close.
About the contributor: Katie Pilot is the Marketing Intern at UWBucks for the summer. She is a rising senior at Villanova University with a major in Communications. Due to her passion for social justice, particularly the importance of education, she is excited to help get the word out about UWBucks’ great contributions to the county in hopes to get more people involved.