Journal 2

Wednesday: 10-4pm

Thursday: 9-12pm 1-5pm

Friday: 9-5pm Brianna Fuller 1/27/19

Journal 2 This was my first week working at Make-A-Wish. On the first day, (1/23/19), I had orientation from 10am-4pm. During orientation we went over what each of us would be doing as interns, and were introduced to the foundation through many videos and presentations. We were given a crash course on the history of Make-A-Wish and what I will be doing as a medical reach intern. Towards the end of the day, we were given a tour of where each of our desks were. There was one desk that stood out from the rest, and this was my desk of course! My supervisor had set up snacks, put my name large above my desk, and decorated it for me, which no one else had. I felt so special, and this made me very excited to work for such generous and sweet people! On the Second day, (1/24/19), this was my first day doing some of the things I will be in charge of. I spent a majority of my time filing for the day, and doing some tasks for my supervisor. The filing system is very overloaded, and they have an abundance of files for the children’s past wishes. I also, spent a lot of time doing courses the foundation requires, quizzing you over the foundation and what it stands for. Setting up my emails, and getting everything set up took up my entire day. There are many emails, and databases I had to get accustomed to! On the third day, (1/25/19), this was the day I did a lot of work. My supervisor had previously left me with many files, but is not there on Friday’s so I had to figure things out for myself a little bit. Basically, my job is doing welcome calls to inform parents when their child’s wish has been selected to be granted. I have to pull up the child’s information on the database, gather as much information as I can on the child, and then proceed to call the family. During the

call the parent’s will either be extremely excited, or very upset because they think you are telling them this is their child’s last dying wish which is untrue. A big misconception is that Make-AWish only grants wishes to children who are dying, so this is why some parents react negatively. Once they react, I explain the steps that follow, and then once I answer all of their questions, I send them a welcome email with a ton of information that we went over on the phone call. I then update their file with what I did, and the database as well. I did many of these calls on Friday. I have only had positive reactions so far, but this is by far the coolest part of my job! I had to learn a lot about this foundation in order to be able to answer as many questions as I can that parents may ask me. Studying all the information helped prepare me for the calls I had, and helped me not be so nervous when I had to make my first few calls! I was nervous to talk on the phone, but I did really good, because I knew my information and if i had a question I could ask so many people for help. I am excited to see what the rest of my time here has in store for me, and I am nothing but happy with what I am doing, and how I am impacting the kids, and their families lives just by an informative phone call!