Empowering Youth Communities
By Rachea McDonald ‘26The NAACP Youth and College Division seeks to create a society where all individuals have equal rights without discrimination based on race by developing a new generation of civil rights and community leaders.
In my role as a summer intern I was in control of a $50,000 budget to create "swag" boxes to send out to all Youth and College chapters across the nation. The items in these boxes were meant to not only advertise, but to also help Youth & College chapters across America encourage young people to vote in the upcoming election. My job consisted of choosing items, creating designs, finding quotes, creating a detailed monetary breakdown of the budget, and coordinating with coworkers on how to bring these boxes to life. I was also in charge of organizing a large excel file that would provide every chapter across the NAACP (both Youth and College and Adult) with their specific voting links/information. Smaller projects that I was responsible for included creating graphics, editing and giving speeches, being a brand ambassador, and helping to run and organize the 115th National Convention.
Through this experience I learned that I enjoy speaking to people (both 1 on 1 and in large groups) about the issues affecting the Black community and other minorities and exchanging ideas and personal stories. Carrer wise this internship helped me to solidify that I definitely want to work in public service to aid Black and other minority communities. I learned new skills such as large budget handling, design creation, and decision making. I was also able to hone in old skills such as communication, organization, writing, editing and speaking skills. Finally, my favorite parts of this internship were going to the 115th National Convention in Las Vegas and being able to give a speech alongside my boss, as well as being able to hear President Joe Biden speak in person.
Internship funded by the Ajmera Intership Fund.