Good luck to our summer interns!
Every year, we bring on summer interns to assist with the day-to-day of RAPS, both to take a bit of a load off our regular employees and volunteers, and to make sure our operations are doing the greatest possible good by taking advantage of the creativity and fresh insights that come from the younger generation.
Last newsletter, we thanked our three RAPS Cat Sanctuary interns. This week, a huge thank you, goodbye and good luck at school this year to our “business interns” who worked this summer with our administrative team: Daniel Feldman, Cindy Chen and Eric Lu.
Why did you choose RAPS?
Daniel: I chose RAPS because I’m all about providing value and I could see how tangible all of RAPS’ activities were and the benefit they provided to the community. In addition, I felt the organization was not too large for me to make a genuine impact.
Cindy: When I was browsing internship opportunities, RAPS caught my eyes. RAPS is a non-profit organization and every dollar in the organization will be re-invested in helping save more little lives. I would like to become a part of this organization and help it grow!
Eric: I love animals and have always wanted to try working in the non-profit sector. I felt that the mission and vision of RAPS as an organization would attract a team of really caring, compassionate people, and I was excited to work in such an environment!
What did a typical day look like for you in the summer?
Daniel: One of my favourite parts about the job was simply the variety of everything I got to do. One day I would be at the sanctuary creating content for social media, the next I would be helping out at the thrift store, and the day after that I would be helping build our biweekly newsletter and designing materials such as adoption certificates and our calendar!
Cindy: My typical day for this summer internship starts with a lot of data cleaning, analyzing surveys, and bringing the results to visualizations for easy interpretation.
Eric: I had the exciting opportunity to work at many different areas of the organization! Some days, I was at the Cat Sanctuary spending time with cats and attendees, while I spent other days working on our databases at the head office or helping out at the thrift store on Francis.
What is your favourite moment from your internship?
Daniel: As the summer went on, we were getting more and more visitors to the sanctuary on weekends, and it really warmed my heart to see this many people (COVID-safe of course!) showing love to all of the cats and the cats reciprocating, almost like an embodiment of RAPS’ overall impact in the community.
Cindy: My favourite moment this summer was when I was helping out at the Cat Sanctuary. Ollie always sleeps beside me under the tent.
Eric: Daniel and I had just set up some shelving for the head office and had finally finished after working most of the day. We had to recycle the cardboard on the floor below and, being the ambitious interns we were, wanted to take all of the cardboard in one trip. We managed to get it all in the elevator to the point where we couldn’t even see each other or press the elevator buttons through the mountain of paper!
What are you up to in the fall?
Daniel: I am entering my third year studying business at UBC.
Cindy: I am going back to school to finish my MBA degree.
Eric: In the fall, I’m returning to UBC to continue in my second year of study in the business program!
RAPS summer interns are made possible through the Canada Summer Jobs program of the Government of Canada. If you are (or someone you know is) a student who adores animals, keep an eye out next spring for call-outs for our 2022 summer intern program!
