REFLECTION PAPER

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Shelby Turner

Dr. Kaninjing

KINS 4306

11 April 2021

Reflection Paper
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Introduction.

My name is Shelby Turner and this semester I had the privilege of interning at the

nonprofit, Just One Africa. Just One Africa is located in Alpharetta, Georgia. This organization

was started in June of 2012 by Clay and Amy Churchill. The Churchill family went on a mission

trip with their church in March of 2012 and saw the hardships the people of Kenya faced. They

felt called to help change the world for better, and they are doing just that. Their main purpose is

to provide clean water to those in Kenya and they also have many other sustainability projects.

Through their partners and volunteers, they are focused on changing the world just one person at

a time.

Even though Just One Africa is a small organization, they are making incredible impacts.

The staff includes Clay Churchill, executive director, and Amy Churchill, director of operations.

The partners in Kenya are John and Leah who are the founders of Valley Light Home, and John

and Dorcus Parit who are the founders of Lenkai Christian School and the Hope Beyond

Foundation.

Just One Africa serves in Kenya. Some of the areas in Kenya they have impacted are:

Kimana, Voi, Mombasa, Loitokitok, Amboseli, Mai, Mahiu, Nairobi, and many other locations.

In Kenya, there are water ambassadors that volunteer with the local leaders. The water

ambassadors know their community and are crucial when it comes to the community needs

assessment. Clay and Amy never assume what the community needs, they rely on the locals to

tell them what the needs are. Other clients served include the children at Hope Beyond, Valley

Light, and Lenkai Christian School. There is a sponsorship program for the students at Lenkai.

The sponsors play a huge role when it comes to donating money for the students to attend school.
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Just One Africa has a beads for water program. When you buy a bracelet from JOA, it

provides 200,000 gallons of clean water. When COVID began, they created these beads for

water kits. These kits included beads, string, and an information packet. This gave people the

chance to make their own bracelet that provided people in Kenya with clean water.

When people buy items other than bracelets, they are providing donations to other

sustainability programs. The money from the items goes toward providing students with new

school supplies, bunk beds, farming equipment, teacher training, livestock, and more. Just One

Africa is an amazing organization, I am excited to see what the future holds for them. Amy and

Clay are doing life changing work and I am honored to have taken part in some of their journey.

Description of Experiences.

My role at Just One Africa was titled research and communications intern. My main

focus was assisting on a social media campaign for World Water Day. The most fun and

rewarding part of this internship was knowing I was changing the lives of so many people.

Through the World Water Day campaign, my newsletters and content post was able to reach over

thousands of people. Through this campaign I was able to raise money for water filters that

would be life changing for the people in Kenya. The most challenging part was learning how to

communicate through a nonprofit point of view. I am all about statistics and facts, nonprofits are

all about stories. I had to learn how to raise awareness and funds through stories because people

connect with stories more than statistics when it comes to nonprofits. I wish I would have done

more preparation as to knowing more about social media. Operating a social media for an

organization is completely different than running my personal social medias.

Perception and Evaluation.

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I honestly did not have any expectations going into the internship. I wanted to have an

open mind as I started this season of my life. If I were to have gone into Just One Africa with

expectations, they would have exceeded them. Everyone has been so kind and helpful. I have

learned so much during my time here.

The organization was very open to my ideas. For example, I had the full lead in creating

the World Water Day landing page. Clay and I talked about how to brainstorm ideas and I took it

from there. If I was stumped or needed help on a block layout, Clay and Amy would both pitch

in their ideas. Another example would be the newsletters I created. I would create the newsletter

by myself and send it to Amy. Amy would make edits and that helped me know how to better the

next newsletter.

My internship supervisor was amazing. Amy always checked in on me and made sure I

knew she was there if I had any questions. Even though she is a super busy lady, she made it a

priority to make time for me if I needed her to. All the advice and knowledge she has given me

over the past months has been super helpful and I can carry that with me after the internship.

In my first week here, the program director put her notice in. I think if she were to still be

working here, I would have had a completely different experience. She was my initial internship

supervisor who took on the previous intern. Having her here would have allowed me to learn

more than I did learn here. Considering all the circumstances, Amy and Clay did an amazing job

and it was nice I got to learn from them because they are the founders of JOA.

I would recommend this internship setting to future interns. It is a smaller organization,

but because of that I was able to learn more and connect with the people I worked with. Some

students have gotten in touch with me to ask about Just One Africa. After talking to Amy, they

will not be able to take any summer interns because they will be traveling for the majority of the
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summer. Hopefully students will have the option next fall or spring. This would be a great

internship site for GCSU, especially since we have so many students from this area. This

internship is meant for people who want to change the world and want to work globally. I have a

great appreciation for small nonprofits now.

I would consider nonprofit work as a career choice. It may not be my first career choice

out of college, but I want to work for a nonprofit at some point in my life. Because I was the

communications intern, I learned about health communications. This aspect of the internship has

made me consider a career in the health communications field.

Internship Preparedness.

I was well prepared academically for this internship placement. The GC Public Health

professors taught me skills and lessons that I could take into my career. I think I was most

prepared for understanding the community needs. Learning about the community needs

assessment helped me most because I got to see how nonprofits rely heavily on a needs

assessment. I was least prepared for understanding social media marketing and how it is involved

in public health.

The courses that prepared me for Just One Africa were global health, women’s health,

community health, and environmental health. All my classes prepared me well for presentations.

I presented to a club in New York via zoom and I was delighted with how I did. Through my

environmental and global health classes, I was able to know more about the water crisis than

other interns. The women’s health class prepared me because Just One Africa is involved with

protecting girls from female genital mutilation. I would have never known what FGM was if it

were not for Dr. Butler.

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The School of Health and Human Performance is doing a great job at preparing students.

I would recommend having mock interviews as a requirement for most classes. This way we can

be better prepared when a real interview happens. Another thing I would add to the program is

more career exploration for careers that only require a Bachelor’s Degree. Most things in the

public health career require a Master’s Degree, it would be nice to see what jobs are available

without that.

Internship Performance.

I gained many skills and knowledge while interning at Just One Africa. Because I made

so many newsletters, I got to enhance my creative and writing skills. Throughout our World

Water Day campaign, I was able to advance my skills on Canva and Giphy. I learned how to

create social media stickers that can be used on Instagram and Facebook.

Overall I was pleased with my performance on assignments, projects, and presentations.

While the team was in Kenya I had to really crack down on my organization and time

management. Amy gave me specific assignments with deadlines that I always met. The overall

quality of my work surprised me. I was pleased with how well everything turned out. As time

went by Amy had less edits on my newsletters and was pleased with how they all turned out. I

was most pleased with my design for the World Water Day landing page. Amy and Clay were

very pleased how it turned out.

After graduation I will take all these skills I have learned with me. I think I need to

sharpen up on my presentation skills. Even though I did well at presenting, I could improve in

public speaking. Another skill that would be beneficial to improving would be my writing.

Nonprofit writing is different from school writing. It would be best for me to learn how different

organizations write to their target audience.

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Personal/Professional Insights/Benefits.

My internship has impacted my personal goals by wanting to be more involved with

nonprofits. I would love to have the opportunity to volunteer for nonprofits that have the same

passion as myself. The internship has impacted my career goals by thinking about a career in

health communications. This was a route I had never thought about before interning at Just One

Africa. Academically, I am excited to go back to school for health promotion. Going back to

school will allow me to learn new lessons and skills that I could one day put into action at a

nonprofit.

Personally, this internship has made me more dedicated to helping others. I have always

wanted to help others, but this internship has just enhanced that. I feel more confident as I am

about to enter a career before going back to school. My communications skills have definitely

improved over the past four months. I now do not have any issues asking for help or speaking up

if I have an idea.

I have gained insights into how nonprofits work. Before this internship I did not know

much about nonprofits and how they operate, but I am full of that knowledge now. My favorite

takeaway is that nonprofits communicate with stories, not numbers. Another insight I got was

how Just One Africa works in communities. Through the social media campaign I was able to

learn about how JOA works in communities in Kenya. They rely heavily on their Kenyan

volunteers to lead programs and that builds trust within the community. Lastly, I have learned a

great deal about the water crisis. At GCSU I learned about it through a textbook and lectures, at

JOA I got to learn about through personal stories and talk about it with Amy and Clay.

I am so thankful for the opportunities Just One Africa and Georgia College have given

me. As I go into my future endeavors I will take all the skills and knowledge I have gained over
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the years. Not only am I ready for the next chapter of my life, but I am also well prepared

because of GCSU.