1. Social Justice Internship – Catholic
Charities Volunteer Relations
By: Clarissa Schooley
My Experience at Catholic Charities
During the 2018-19 school year, I worked at Catholic Charities as a Volunteer Relations
Intern in Loyola’s Social Justice Internship Program. This year-long program counts as an
engaged learning class, combining class work with hands-on experience. My learning
objectives included:
1) Becoming proficient in SalesForce, Constant Contact, and OneCause
2) Developing my own leadership style
3) Communicating more effectively through email and creating better Excel worksheets
Thanks to my amazing supervisors, I feel that I have successfully accomplished my
goals. They gave me so many helpful tips and led me by their patient and loving
examples.
Reflecting on the Fall
Semester
During the fall semester, I worked with two
supervisors who coordinated Catholic
Charities Celebration of Giving, a
Christmas program for families served by
the agency. My duties included:
• Using SalesForce to process documents
about client demographics
• Inputting volunteer applications into
Salesforce
• Organizing client documents into
binders
• Taking inventory and making a
spreadsheet of supplies for the event
• Promoting the program at Chicago’s
Irish Fellowship Breakfast
• As a side project, I interviewed everyone
in the Volunteer Relations department
to get a better overview of the team
What made the fall semester so special
was getting to help with one of the
biggest events that the agency has.
Seeing the work that goes on behind the
scenes was so inspiring. Another
highlight was getting to help pass out
food at Supper Night, as seen in the
picture above. Getting to know some of
Catholic Charities patrons was a great
reminder of why social justice is so
important.
Reflecting on the Spring Semester
My spring semester at Catholic Charities brought new tasks and a new supervisor. I
worked one-on-one with the manager of the Junior Board. My tasks included:
• Helping plan and execute Casino Night, the Junior Board’s biggest charitable event
• Setting up OneCause, the auction and non-profit event planning website the agency
uses
• Communicating with JB members and volunteers, assigning and organizing their roles
for the event via email
• Inputting JB member applications into SalesForce and email addresses into Constant
Contact
• Running SalesForce reports and creating spreadsheets
Getting to meet members of the Junior Board at Casino Night and interacting with
the guests was a major highlight of the spring semester. I gained so much practical
experience in charitable event planning and had the privilege of working with an
excellent team. Building organizational skills was another overarching goal of the
spring semester. My supervisor, Noreen, taught me a wide variety of skills that I will
take with me in my future career endeavors.
