Summer Internship Review

This summer I worked as a Marketing and Strategic Planning Associate at World Vision’s U.S. headquarters near Seattle. World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. In 2006, World Vision served more than 100 million people, worked in 97 nations, and more than 3 million children benefited directly from child sponsorship. World Vision employed 23,000 staff members and raised $2.1 billion in cash and goods for its work.

At World Vision I worked closely with the organization’s marketing leadership team. My primary responsibility was to assist product managers in establishing three-year marketing and operations strategic plans by completing market and trend analysis. The product managers, in conjunction with my project team, ultimately presented their plans to the Senior Vice President for approval. In addition to this work, I assisted multiple product categories on various projects, including the creation of a metric-based core report, category launch plan, and financial models.

What I enjoyed most about my summer experience was the opportunity to learn from outstanding leaders and practitioners. In addition to daily interaction with marketing directors and product managers, I had lengthy one-on-one conversations with the entire executive team, including World Vision U.S. President Rich Stearns. My experience at World Vision proved to be an exceptional opportunity and helped me clarify many goals for my career going forward.