my year of learning at habitat lakeside

By Charlie Allis, Habitat Lakeside marketing intern

​Over the past year, I have spent about 470 hours as a marketing intern for Habitat for Humanity Lakeside. Throughout this time, I have gained valuable hands-on experience that helped me grow both professionally and personally.

Throughout my internship, I worked on a variety of projects. Most of my responsibilities focused on marketing tasks such as creating social media posts, which taught me how to properly take product photos and how to write a effective caption, and writing blogs and press releases, which improved my writing ability and allowed me to better understand what it takes to create a compelling piece of writing. I also spent a lot of time designing posters as well as helping with other tasks around the office and even working in the ReStore or occasionally on home-build sites.

Working on such a large variety of tasks enabled me to develop many new skills that will benefit me no matter where my career takes me. It also helped me to understand everything that goes into the marketing process for a nonprofit organization, which will be beneficial to me when I begin my career in marketing.
One of my biggest accomplishments during my time with Habitat for Humanity Lakeside was proposing, creating, and helping distribute a customer engagement survey for the ReStore. The goal of the survey was to gather direct feedback from customers about their experiences shopping at the ReStore. I spent weeks researching the best method to present the survey, creating the survey questions, then distributing it to our customers. After crunching the numbers, I presented the survey results to ReStore staffers and offered recommendations based on the data.

This project helped me learn more about analyzing data and figuring out what the answers to our questions actually mean — and the hard work and thought that go into creating a survey. I have taken many surveys in my life and now look at them with new respect.

Beyond the marketing experience, one of my favorite parts of working at Habitat for Humanity Lakeside was the people. The staff and volunteers always brought a positive attitude to work every day, creating an environment that was warm and welcoming. I especially enjoyed talking with employees and volunteers about all the interesting items that we have in the ReStore. For instance, going on a few donation pickups with ReStore staffers gave me a firsthand look at what people donate and even why. This experience showed me just how unique everyone’s donations can be.

Another thing I enjoyed was seeing the community come together during events like Rock the Block or the Raise the Roof Gala. Watching so many people work together toward a shared goal showed me how Habitat Lakeside’s mission benefits the community.

This internship confirmed for me that I wanted to pursue a career in marketing. It gave me the opportunity to develop important skills, gain real-world experience, and better understand the significant role marketing plays in an organization’s success and connection to its community. I am grateful for everything I learned during my internship with Habitat for Humanity Lakeside and to everyone who helped make the experience so memorable.

Charlie Allis at work in the Sheboygan ReStore. He plans to attend the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee this fall.