April 16, 2020
By Gillian Kenah
For Mary Liberty, a sophomore majoring in accounting, service means “realizing we are all in this together, and giving to those what you would hope would be given to you.” This reflection comes after her summer 2019 placement at the Crime Victims Assistance Center (CVAC) in Endicott through a nonprofit internship opportunity supported by the Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) and the Fleishman Center for Career and Professional Development called B-IMPACT (—Individuals Making People and Communities Thrive).
In her role, Liberty interned in the CVAC education department, where she worked under
four education specialists, attended community events such as presentations at local
schools and created marketing materials for their Paint the Town Purple campaign.
She also updated an informational packet on community resources and researched information
for community presentations.
Liberty has long enjoyed volunteering and serving others, and she says her B-IMPACT placement “was the perfect opportunity for me to see how I could make volunteering a life-long career while also benefiting the local community.”
Liberty said she gained skills such as problem-solving, teamwork, communication and much more as a result of the internship seminar and her weekly hours at the CVAC site.
“Sometimes when I wasn't assigned a project to complete, I still had to find a way to be productive and make the most out of my time,” Liberty said. “I would usually do research on crime statistics that could be used in their PowerPoint presentations.”
Liberty added that she communicated with CVAC during her placement to express her needs, what she was hoping to get out of the process and the skills she initially brought to the site.
CVAC extended the opportunity to Liberty to continue her internship after her placement had ended, moving her into the fiscal department, where she was able to apply skills gained through her background as an accounting major. After this additional experience, she presented her work managing CVAC’s inventory records to the department and gave them helpful tips for moving forward.
“Service means doing what I can to make this world a better place,” Liberty said. “This course was an amazing experience where I got to explore my future career paths, benefit the community and develop powerful leadership skills.”
Register for fall 2020 B-IMPACT internship and seminar
Do you have a passion for community service? Are you interested in a career that makes the world a better place? A career in the nonprofit sector may be for you! B-IMPACT (-Individuals Making People and Communities Thrive) is a unique CDCI internship seminar for students interning in the nonprofit sector. Students in this specialized online seminar will have tailored professional development content designed to explore nonprofit career paths and gain exposure to nonprofit management topics.
To participate in the program, students must secure an internship at a nonprofit organization, request CDCI credit, and indicate that they wish to enroll in the B-IMPACT nonprofit internship seminar. The seminar will be offered online for four credits starting in fall 2020. To register, email cdci@binghamton.edu.
Need help finding a nonprofit internship? The Fleishman Center can help you find an internship!
Photo-banner: B-IMPACT participants participated in a day of site visits at nonprofit
organizations in New York City as part of the program. Left to right: Mary Liberty;
Alison Twang, CCE associate director; Megan Tapia; Julie Thomas; Ruby McEwen; and
Cassie Spencer, Fleishman Center assistant director, internship and career education,
visited Room to Grow, a nonprofit focused on ensuring babies born into poverty have
everything they need to learn, grow and succeed in life.
Photo-right: Liberty (second from the left) and members of the CVAC team table at a Stand for Children event during the summer of 2019.