Zachary Harrison

4/21/19
Reflection Paper

Introduction: Your name/name of agency/organization, history, staffing, clients served, mission

or purpose/function, etc. as applicable to the setting.

My name is Zachary Harrison and I successfully completed my Georgia College Public Health

internship at a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization named the Do Good Initiative. The Do Good

Initiative non-profit was applied for in 2009 to run in congruence with a community driven

coffee business Land of a Thousand Hills. Land of a Thousand Hills (LTH) began as a coffee

distribution company importing their high quality beans from the country of Rwanda. The coffee

company LTH was named from the extremely hilly terrain of the area from which the coffee

beans grow, land of a thousand hills is a popular reference name to the origin of the coffee beans

surrounding lake Kivu in Rwanda. Beginning as a small coffee distribution center in the

basement Jonathan Golden’s Atlanta home, the company has grown to be a multi-million dollar

coffee organization that aims to support the Rwandan community that provides the coffee beans.

There are nine franchise coffee shops open around the United States, five of which are based in

the Atlanta area. This network of coffee shops allows for the continued serving of cups of coffee

that have a purpose. Coffee with a purpose, a common saying within this community-driven

business. The organization embodies the mission statement that is “Create Purposeful Work.

Cultivate Flourishing Communities. Craft Beautiful Coffee.” and we aim to represent the motto

“Drink Coffee. Do Good.”. The corporate office staff that handles the back end business work is

composed of a team of five individuals. The Do Good Initiative non-profit is managed by my

director, Jonny, and myself. In the summer of 2018, the Do Good Initiative created a new project

to bring to the coffee farming community in Rwanda called Do Good Health. Do Good Health
aims to construct an all health inclusive medical center providing health care to a rural

community of 30,000 people in an area with limited access to care.

Description of Experiences: What was your role as an intern? What was the best (fun, exciting,

motivating, rewarding) part of your internship and what was the most challenging (aspect you

found most difficult)? What do you wish you could have done more or less of?

In the beginning, the director and I sat down my first day on site to discuss responsibilities and

direction of my internship. My main role was to operate with my director as an assistant to our

daily operations. I felt that I was an idea generator. In the non-profit sector, especially a smaller

newly established non-profit, creativity amongst projects we conduct to build a rapport with the

public and organizations is crucial to success. Before we had a period of a month holding

fundraising events, we were focused on reaching out to organizations to share our story. I made

more calls to churches than my fingers wanted to dial. This was the most challenging. Striking

up an organic conversation between strangers on the phone involving money can be a difficult

conversation to smoothly have. I would struggle with a polite and intriguing manner in which to

ask the person whom I just struck up conversation with on the phone. Bringing candor and

positive energy advocating for this non-profit into a phone conversation was my biggest

challenge. Thankfully, I have an office full of supportive and smart staff that was willing to help.

A huge take-a-way from asking for advice on how to raise funding over the phone was to be

calm and collected. Never talk over people. Listening is important. Most importantly, the ability

to find common ground and mutual benefit. My fraternity has a saying embedded within our

program that follows “for the mutual benefit and advancement with those we deem worth of our

regard”. Those words were paralleled with the advice my co-workers were giving me. You have

to find a mutual benefit and opportunity to grow together. My calls were more successful from
there. I wish I could have done less of making calls to fundraise and more of planning events.

The fundraising events we planned were always an enjoyable time filled with teamwork and

expert creativity. I had a fulfilling feeling each time we would be packing up the event after a

successful evening. Although, I do not believe event planning is my forte. Non-profits are

versatile in that successful ones are jack of all trade operators. There is never one specific job

that I was asked to do, but a network of responsibilities ranging from all areas of expertise. I

hope to operate a non-profit for my own in the near future. Once I register and begin, I will be

sure to hold the most creative and exciting fundraisers out there!

Perception and Evaluation of the Internship: Provide reasons for your answers please (i.e.
why or why not). Did the internship meet your personal expectations? Was the organization open
to your ideas and contributions? How effective was supervision from the internship site
supervisor? How could your experience have been improved? Would you recommend the setting
to future interns? Would you consider a career in a setting such as this?
I was blessed with an internship that not only met my expectations, but highly exceeded.

Allowing freedom of responsibility within an organized system is the breeding ground for

success. Coming into the internship, I expected to work alongside fellow Georgia College

Alumni. I was excited for the opportunity to work with colleagues from the same University.

This fact alleviated me of first day jitters. The other employees were also very welcoming in my

arrival. The organization was fully open to my ideas and contributions. I learned that people will

always respect your ideas and contributions if you approach your communication with a

business-like distinction. I will never try to harp or push ideas. However, when I express an idea,

I enjoy having a full length discussion concerning the pros and cons of said idea. Anytime we

have an idea to contribute to the business or group, there a is a pitch involved. We gather around

in the separate workroom and express our ideas amongst colleagues. I was nervous for my first

pitch but have gotten much better with my pitch confidence. My director and I would work

cohesively a majority of the days. We would always start the morning with coordinating our
goals we want to accomplish for the day or week. Always talking and communicating to develop

the most successful plan of action so that we do accomplish those set goals. My supervisor was

effective at motivating me to be a better me. In my focus around tasks that need to be done and

being a mentor to the public health world. The non-profit sector can be more cut-throat that I

initially anticipated. My director always makes sure to keep the channel of communication open

and invites challenge into my work in a positive manner. In regard to improvement upon my

internship experience, I was presented with all of the opportunities I feel that would improve me

as a person and professional. I presented information to groups of people allowing for my

presentation skills to be improved. We consistently worked on creating partnerships with

different organizations. These were two skills I was aiming to improve. Therefore, the only thing

I would consider to improve my internship experience would be that my site was closer to home.

A fort-five minute commute back and forth to the office was not a fantastic way to spend time. In

the future, I would love to consider the field of non-profit work and community driven business.

Though, I now know that I will be living very close to work to avoid a commute!

Internship Preparedness: How well prepared were you academically for the placement? In
which areas did you feel most prepared/confident? Least prepared/confident? What courses did
you use the most, find most helpful, and what sort of skills learned in those courses were most
relevant to your internship placement? What else can GCSU/School of Health and Human
Performance do to better prepare Public Health students for real life application of public health
concepts and for future employment?
The non-profit, Do Good Health, I have been interning for has found it’s success through

an accurate assessment and exhibition of public health academia. I believe the major level

classes were most insightful in my success at this internship. Global Health was a class in

particular that I drew the most knowledge and expertise from to fully understand the operations

surrounding building a medical center in an international setting. I felt most prepared in the skill

of appreciating and operating within a multi-cultural environments. There were a wide variety of
people with whom I dealt business with from an even wider range of cultures. Community

Health was a course that I also drew knowledge from to exhibit proper behavior and

communication to be successful and respectful in an area of work that attracts a tremendously

passionate multi-cultural work force. I felt least confident when I was meeting with Emory

graduate students that we were partnering with to create an Ebola Outbreak program. The two

Emory students were developing a disease prevention program to implement in the medical

center, and we sat down to discuss progress. I am comprehensive to the conversation that

followed, but I felt as if they were more alive in the work they were doing. Essentially, they had

much more passion in their work than I have ever felt. I feel passion for helping others in this

field of public health, but I feel that my passion does not correspond with pure academia. I have

recently discovered a personal mantra to not be discouraged that you are not ‘smart’, or that

‘smart’ should not be defined by pure “text-book” intelligence. I have accepted that there are

many types of intelligence and I hope to grow in all areas, but I have realized that I need to focus

on my ability to perform as a highly intelligent communicator. The Georgia College School of

Health Sciences could focus more on stressing the wide variety of jobs offered in public health.

Also, a suggestion would be to have a class similar to community health earlier in the degree. A

class that would be predicated around the evaluation of student’s talents and interest, and then

have them conduct a smaller internship to evaluate if they enjoy their time spent. Yes, in the

classroom we have had professionals visit to discuss their careers, but not enough. Career and

interest placement should have a wider focus!

Internship Performance What new skills and knowledge were acquired as part of your
internship? Were you satisfied with your performance on assignments, projects, and
presentations (quality, meeting deadlines, efficient time management, etc.)? Honestly rate the
overall quality of your work. What skills do you think you need to sharpen, hone, develop to be
as successful as possible after graduation?
I developed an anxiety or nervousness around junior year of college surrounding presenting I

front of groups. I do not believe that this anxiety was revolved around the size of a crows. I could

perform the same being in front of five people or a thousand. Thinking introspectively, I think

that my fright comes from the scheduling of the presentation. The mere fact that I know I am

presenting this day, at this time was nerve-wrenching. I never had trouble speaking in front of

people or commenting in class. If a professor asked a question in a class setting, then I would

answer it as confidently as possible. Organized presentations are troubling to me. I over-think to

the point where it is destructive. My mindset leading up to the presentation is focused on creating

a narrative for my presentation instead of an outline. If I could, I would script out every word I

would say during the duration. It is pretty easy to read from a teleprompter! A skill that I have

learned to think of more of a blessing than a curse, is self-awareness. I believe that a self-aware

personality can be destructive because symptoms may include negative self-consciousness.

Instead, I want to use that self-awareness to improve upon what I know to be my weak points. I

want to harness that self-awareness into something that will aid in my further development of

other skills. Furthermore, I am satisfied with my work at Do Good Health. I believe that my

belief of good work is reciprocal with the organization. They have asked me to stay on full-time

after my internship! My attention to detail needs to drastically improve. The so called ‘easy-

stuff’ can fly by my mind and I could easily forget to do something small, but vitally important.

Attention to the small details will be my demise if I do not start being more attentive. My

patience with people and willingness to solve conflict instead of avoiding the conflict needs

improving. I can be short-tempered and jump to conclusions. Before I act, I need to hone in on

my ability to read and recognize a situation for its entirety. I think that the skill to please people

is entirely important in gaining support and buy-in into a non-profit organization. People love
other people with good energy. I want to be able to throw all negativity out the window post-

graduation to begin to build a beautiful life for myself and others.

Personal/Professional Insights/Benefits: Comment on if/how the internship has impacted your

personal/professional/academic goals? What impact did this experience have on your personal
growth (skills, confidence)? What insights have you gained regarding the organizations or
populations you worked with (i.e., community health education, public health, environmental
health, services for seniors, youth, women, etc.)?
After working with a non-profit, I gained insight to the impact an organization with a purpose

can make. In my short twenty-three of life, I have realized that there are extremely wicked

people within this world. In accordance, there extremely good people to counteract that evil.

Also, good is infectious. I have never been the most philanthropic person. I saw the impact at a

small communal level in Harrisburg last year in Health Promotion & Program Planning.

Interning at a non-profit working internationally I have spoken with a large amount of health

professionals who are changing the world for the better. I enjoy that in any walk of life, there is

ability to create purpose and do good. I learned about community driven business. I want to give

back to the community in a way that provides for sustainability and health. I think that I am

going to dive deep and aspire to create my own community driven business. From working at a

non-profit that deals with health-care access in underserved Rwanda, I have gained insight to the

communities of Rwanda. Post-genocide, a country that was recently torn from atrocious acts

could easily fall apart. They are strong people. I think that because they are also forgiving

people. I have read accounts in a book written by the owner of LTH telling the personal stories

of forgiveness he encountered in his time in Rwanda. Their resiliency is truly inspiring to be

strong and aid towards their growth knowing that they can be a flourishing community. I hope to

travel to Rwanda with the team in July for the grand opening of the clinic. A trip that was offered

to be paid for by the company. A great opportunity for me to visit a place that I have never been
and see a community like no other. The offer stems into an insight that relates to always

attempting to be at your best. I was prompt to make a great first impression and continue to bring

energy to the office. An amount of effort I see as a win, considering that Do Good Health would

like to invest in me by offering a once in a lifetime trip.