Hello! My name is Amanda Smith and I am currently interning at HOME, Inc.!
I attend Drake University as a Magazine Media, Digital Media Productions, and Graphic Design major! I am involved in multiple things on campus. I’m in Kappa Kappa Gamma, Student Activities Board, a St. Kate’s bible study participant, and most importantly, an Engaged Citizen Corps member! What is that you may ask? Drake University teamed up with AmeriCorps, a service providing organization, to give a couple students the opportunity to change the community.
Growing up, I was always involved with community service. I’d work at food pantries, food drives, visit nursing homes, etc. So this program immediately drew my attention! After getting into this program through an application, each member gets paired up with a local non-profit, mine being HOME, Inc.! Throughout the year, each member is required to dedicate 300 service hours to their specific organization.
I am so blessed to have been paired up with HOME, Inc.! So far, I have had an amazing experience. Being a journalism major, I have really been able to grow within my field. I operate HOME Inc.’s social media pages and help out my supervisor, Kourtney, wherever she needs me! That being, we just had our Hunt for Housing event and so I crafted the scavenger hunt which was a huge success! I also type up success stories and blogs. I tend to just help out Kourtney with the market aspect to HOME, Inc., which has been an absolute joy!
When initially getting paired up with different organizations, what drew me to HOME, Inc., was how much help they needed with marketing. It was like perfect fit. When doing acts of service, it’s important to be able to benefit from the service as well as benefit the community. Reciprocal growth is vital to developmental success.
Another factor I was drawn to was the fact that HOME, Inc., deals with affordable housing. I grew up watching shows like Extreme Home Makeover and my dad actually helped out a bunch at Habitat for Humanity. So never hearing about HOME Inc., made me really want to try and help to change that. HOME Inc., has done some pretty amazing things within Des Moines and I am doing everything I can to get the company out there!