2. Cover Letter
Dear Professor Rowe,
Knowing how to communicate and interact with people is crucial for any
job, especially one as important and communicating-intensive as working with
a public relations firm. Whether its creating a social media pitch or helping to
pitch ideas for other events, I believe that I can make a contribution to
Chapman ImPRessions.
Throughout my career as a Communication Studies Major, I have had the
chance to hone and cultivate my communication skills. I am highly motivated
and confident that I have the ability to learn and adapt quickly. My public
speaking past has given me valuable speaking skill and has taught me
beneficial conflict management strategies; as well as knowing how to
communicate with people across different cultures and backgrounds. I am also
very technologically savvy, meaning that I know a great deal about social media
websites and online platforms that could help increase awareness about your
public relations firm.
At Chapman University, I am involved in the National Society of
Leadership and Success, and a member of Alpha Gamma Delta. By being in
these organizations I have learned to interact with a wide range of people, as
well as learning how to best utilize everyone’s unique strength and abilities. It
3. Resume
Professional Work
German Language SchoolofMarin
Teacher’s Aide August 2010 – May 2012
- Worked with children ages 3-6 and 6-10
- Read books, sang songs, taught German vocabulary, graded papers, and worked
with staff and faculty
- Initially a volunteer position, but was offered a paid position in July 2011
Vice-Presidentof the NationalHonor Society
Volunteer Work August 2011 – May 2012
- Delegated tasks and organized weekly meetings and activities
- Coordinated Secret Santa, Thanksgiving Food Drive, and Valentines for the
Elderly
Tutor at Chapman Tutoring, Learning, and Testing Center
Tutor September 2013 – Present
- Math Analysis for Business
- Precalculus
- German
- Spanish
Skills
- Fluent in German and English and Advanced in Spanish
- Organized and dependable
- Technology-savvy with Mac and applications in Mac such as Word, Excel, and
PowerPoint
- Experience communicating and working with groups and individuals
Education
Marin Catholic High School, Kentfield, California
Student August 2008 – May 2012
- Attended a Catholic, College-Preparatory School in Kentfield, California
- Earned a high school diploma with outstanding honors in English and
Language
- Maintained a 3.9 GPA
- Member of the National Honor Society and California Scholarship Federation
- Award for Outstanding English Scholar during Senior Awards
4. Situational Analysis
Catherine’s Kids is a non-profit organization founded by Jerry McTaggart
that takes in orphaned children with many different medical disabilities and
helps to care for them. The organization lives by this mission statement: “To
transform the lives of underprivileged or abandoned, medically fragile special
needs children by providing a loving and nurturing home where their emotional,
medical, educational, and spiritual needs are met, giving them an opportunity to
live to their full potential.” The goal of Catherine’s Kids is to create a just and
joyful life for the children living in the orphanage by attending to their physical,
emotional, and spiritual disabilities. Some of its core values include God,
Partnership, Compassion, Trust, Commitment, and Service. Catherine’s Kids
currently cares for children with many different medical disabilities such as Sever
autism, Spina bifida, and Cerebral palsy.
Their main competition are internationally-recognized orphanages such as
Love without Boundaries (China), Kid’s Home International (Kenya), and Maisha
International Orphanage (Kenya, but funded by the United States.)
Catherine’s Kids currently does blog posts about once every two weeks,
Facebook updates about once every two weeks. They had a fundraiser that raised
over $70,000 in Oct. 2013 and have another fundraiser coming up at the end of
Dec. 2013.
Catherine’s Kids, because it is a relatively new organization, still has a lot of
areas of improvement: 1) Catherine’s Kids could be more consistent with their
Facebook updates and blog posts to keep viewers updated on how the children in
the orphanage are doing and how the organization as a whole is doing 2) Aimed to
getting Catherine’s Kids on more social media platforms, such as Twitter 3) Show
the distinction of how Catherine’s Kids is different than any other nonprofit
organization that works with children 4) Outreach to organizations in the San
5. Goal/Objectives
Goals:
Increase awareness of the Christian non-profit
organization, Catherine’s Kids, while encouraging
involvement from donors, volunteers, and those who wish to
help this organization achieve its mission of providing life-
long care for orphans with special needs. We will measure
involvement from our donors by analyzing the number of
new donors and measuring their donation and
contribution. Our goal is to increase the number of donors
by 10%.
Objectives
- Create publicity material in the form of a brochure and
distribute it to local churches in Orange County by Nov. 22
- Have this same flyer for McTaggart and other board
members to give to churches in San Diego by Nov. 4
- Send out two press releases to 10 non-profit bloggers every
Tuesday until Nov. 18
- Pitch a feature story to OC Register by Nov. 18
- Facebook posts every Tuesday and Thursday until Nov. 21
* Throwback Thursday for the Thursday posts
- New design for a cover photo for their Facebook page by
Nov. 13
6. Audiences
- Upper, wealthy, middle-class who can donate and help
spread the word
- Members of Christian communities and churches who
have a place in their hearts for children
* The Fields Church, Westview Church, The Resolved
Church, The Ethnos Church, The Faith Bible Church,
Harbor Presbyterian, City Church, Grace
Church, All Peoples Church, First Baptist Coronado,
Kaleo Church
* We will personally reach out to: First Christian
Church of Orange, St. John’s Lutheran Church of
Orange, Holy Family Cathedral, and Covenant
Community Church
- National and International funds that are given
specifically to children and orphanages
* UNICEF USA, The World Orphan Fund, Orphan Grain
Train
- Companies and organizations either locally in Southern
California or nationally that have a CSR fund
* Microsoft, Google, The Walt Disney Company, BMW,
Apple, Daimler, Volkswagen, Sony, Colgate-
Palmolive, LEGO group
12. Implementation
Twitter
- Coming up with Twitter posts every Tuesday
* Alex is home! Thank you for your prayers and support! Any
donations are appreciated fundly.com/Catherine-s-
kids?noguide=1 #catherineskids #prayforalex
#postthanksgiving
* UPDATE: Alex had his first meal today! Thank you for the
support and keep continuing to pray for him #prayforalex
* We are praying for Alex following his open heart surgery.
Updates soon #prayforalex
Facebook
- Coming up with Facebook posts every Tuesday
* We continue to be truly thankful for Alex’s recovery and
being able to finally have him home. Thank you for your
on
goi
ng
14. Contact Information for Churches
First Christian Church of Orange
* 1130 E Walnut Ave
* Orange
St. John’s Lutheran Church of Orange
* 185 S Center St
* Orange
* (714) 288-4400
Holy Family Cathedral
* 566 S Glassell St
* Orange
* (714) 639-2900
Covenant Community Church
* 221 N Waverly St
* Orange
* (714) 997-2811
17. Strategy and Purpose for Implementations
Facebook/Twitter
- Strategy: To look at Catherine’s Kids websites and to talk
to Jerry to find out updates about how the children were
doing
- Purpose: To increase and spread awareness of Catherine’s
Kids and to keep the donors aware of the childrens’ health
Donation Websites
- Strategy: To research online what some good donation
websites are, as well as how much each one costs per year
and the effectiveness of it
- Purpose: To get Catherine’s Kids established on a couple
donation websites in order for donors to be able to donate
online. In addition, to provide Catherine’s Kids with more
money to help fund the childrens’ health and medical costs
Contact Info for Churches
- Strategy: To look up local churches and to get their
contact information. After retrieving their contact
information, we then called the churches to see if they were
willing to accept our brochure and if they would help us
spread awareness about Catherine’s Kids.
- Purpose: To increase awareness about Catherine’s Kids, to
increase donations, and to get local churches involved
18. How to create a Newsletter
- Strategy: Look up effective newsletters online and see how
they were constructed and what makes them effective
- Purpose: To be able to publish a monthly newsletter with
updates and volunteer opportunities. Additionally to spread
and increase awareness and make people more motivated to
volunteer, donate, or volunteer & donate.
19. Evaluation
I learned a lot of lessons from working with Catherine’s Kids.
First and foremost, I gained valuable knowledge and first-hand
experience on how to deal with real-life clients, and how to come
up with a strategy and implement it. I also learned that even though
you might have a plan, it won’t always work out the way that you
want it to; you have to accept it for what it is, and make the best out
of it. I also learned that it is key to communicate with not only your
group, but also with the main staff from the organization. Even
though this was difficult and proved not to be easy sometimes, it was
still really fun and I learned a lot form it.
If I could start this from the beginning and do it over, I would
create a spreadsheet of the goals and objectives from the very
beginning, and share them with the founder; this is to make sure
that everyone is on the same page. I would then delegate the
responsibilities to each group member, and every week we would
have a check-in to see how everyone is doing. I would also set
timelines early on stating when I need to get everything done by,
and make sure that everyone is in agreement with these deadlines.
To Catherine’s Kids, it was an honor to work with you, and I
want to thank you for giving me this opportunity. This truly is a
great example of an organization that is striving to bring good to the
world, and you are doing a great job so far, especially considering
that Catherine’s Kids is not that old of an organization. I would say
that it is really important to keep up your social media presence:
Update Twitter and Facebook at least once a week to keep potential
and present donors, and to captivate future ones. I would also hope
that you have more fundraising events, where you truly explain the
meaning and depth behind Catherine’s Kids, and why this is such
an important organization. Finally, it is so crucial to push donation
websites because that is your main source of revenue, and will
really help Catherine’s Kids out in the short run and the long run.
