Communication Assistant

for the Office of Annual

Giving and Alumni
Engagement
Kate Borowski
 Communicati
ons Assistant
About the Internship…
I assisted in creating engaging content for
Annual Giving through social media posts, e-
appeals and text campaigns. I researched and
developed strategies for current students and
alumni to find the best type of engagement
through digital communication. While in office,
I provided customer service to alumni through
phone call, email and walk-ins. With the
change of schedule this semester, a lot of my
responsibilities changed as I was to spend
time attending webinars to research social
media strategies. My role as the
communication assistant was to oversee the
interns, and train with them to fully
understand their projects so I could be of help.
Objectives
My three learning goals for this internship were…

● Gain leadership skills

● Time management & prioritize
● Social media giveaways & promotions

I was able to learn these through my responsibilities and projects in the

office. With the use of scheduled meetings, deadlines, and
experimentation in social media, I was able to fulfill my learning goals.
Projects
● Alumni Profiles
○ Search Functionality feature for Alumni Spotlights
● Social Media
○ LinkedIn request
○ Creating engaging content
● Tracking e-appeals
○ Email engagement
● STAT (Student Today, Alumni Tomorrow)
○ Facebook
○ HawkSync
Alumni Profiles
The alumni profiles are spotlights of alumni
about their time at Montclair, and their
current career path. There are about 2-3
spotlights done per month. My responsibility
was to take the information from the profiles
and using a program called Raiser’s Edge, I
searched the alumni in the database. With
this, I was able to find the categories needed
for the search function; Major, School/College,
Degree, Year, Industry and Region. This allows
for alumni to go in and find profiles by those 6
categories.
Social Media
My main responsibility with the
social media was to review LinkedIn
requests. We have a LinkedIn page
and private group in which only
Montclair alumni are to be approved.
This involved using Raiser’s Edge
and verifying their graduation year
and current job. My other
responsibilities included overseeing
comments, and finding engaging
content on SmugMug for the
Instagram page. For some events, I
had the opportunity to create for the (Picture from SmugMug) (Graphic made for
Instagram story using Canva. Instagram story for Earth
Day)
Tracking E-appeals
E-appeals are fundraising emails that was sent out to alumni, staff, and
more. We often asked for donations for giving day, senior gift, and other
fundraisers. I assisted in tracking and reporting the e-appeals. With this
I tracked how many people opened the email, clicked on the links,
unsubscribed, and any donations made. This can be seen through
numbers and through percentages on an excel sheet.

I was given a calendar with scheduled e-appeals and I would wait one
week after the emails were sent to report the statistics. This task was
not as tedious and other, and I only did them about once a month.
 STAT: Student
Today, Alumni
Tomorrow
“The Office of Alumni Engagement and Annual
Giving is proud to work with the student alumni
council known as STAT! This group serves as
ambassadors from our office to your fellow
students by sharing information about events,
activities, campaigns, and other important
information in person and through social media!
STAT members are also asked to volunteer at on
campus events and activities throughout the
year. We are proud to team up with various
campus partners for this as well! Seniors can join
the Senior Class Gift Committee to help raise
money for Montclair students in need. Members
raise awareness and funds for the Senior Class
Gift Campaign, which supports causes including
the Emergency Scholarship Fund, the Emergency
STAT Continued...
Something I managed while covering STAT was the Facebook page. The
Facebook page was mainly used to post events and motivational
content.
I made this Event I
graphic posted to the
using Canva. Facebook
page.
Overseeing Communication Interns
As the communication assistant I oversaw the two other
interns, Afrah and Joey. Because this was my second semester
with this internship, they were taking over many of my old
projects and responsibilities. With any new projects, I would sit
in on training with them so if they had any questions, they
could come to me before going to Jenn or Stacy. Some things
they took over from my old projects are class notes, event
calendar, institution research and proofreading.

Overtime, I have built a friendship with both of them and it

made working together easier and fun! It gave me insight on
how to be a good leader, role model, and mentor. I am really
glad Jenn and Stacy trusted me with this. For some things, Joey
and Afrah would come to me for questions, review and
approval. While I would communicate with Jenn on some things
and update her frequently, I am glad I was able to take on this
leadership/ management role.
Social Media Giveaway & Promotions
While there was a change of plans this semester
due to the transition to remote working and
online learning, the office was unable to fulfill
this project. Before this change, I researched the
best social media promotions and which
platform was best for each type. I constructed a
list of the research and gave an example with
each type of promotion and the best way to
utilize it to gain online engagement with our
alumni. Jenn and I did sit down in a meeting to
discuss and pick out the ones best for our
audience. I am sad this project could not to be
followed through but I still gained knowledge on (Two of the favorites
the topic! picked)
What I learned...
Even with the change, I feel as if I have met all of my objectives and learning goals. I was able to fulfill each
project to my best ability and gain experience that I will continue to take on future endeavors.

● Leadership skills: I gained this through overseeing the two interns. I felt it was important for me to set an
example for the new interns while making them feel comfortable in the workplace. I sent out daily reminders,
communicated with them frequently, and worked with them daily to make sure they were getting the work
done while meeting deadlines. I learned a lot about what it means to be a good leader. A leader is someone
who works with teammates, not to be authoritative but to serve as a mentor and need assistance.
● Time management & prioritize: This is something I frequently struggle with, and each semester I’ve
made it a goal to work on. This semester was more of a struggle and I found myself becoming forgetful due to
the change of scenery. Jenn has reminded me on multiple occasions of grammar mistakes, project reminders,
and deadlines. Luckily, Stacy and Jenn are very lenient and I am grateful I get to learn from these things. While
the change is no excuse, it has taught me that no matter where your working or the situation, it is important to
remain organized, and still prioritize responsibilities.
● Social media giveaways & promotions: While this project was cut short, I did learn a lot about this
through doing my own research and constructing a document full of different promotion strategies. I also
learned how to target audiences and how to best utilize social media platforms for the best engagement.
Objectives
I believe I reached every one of my objectives. Within the office, I met their objectives
of fulfilling deadlines, finding better communication tools, covering social media and
experience what it would be like to work in an actual office.

I met each of my own objectives and I was able to be more creative, and sit on many
meetings to learn more about the office techniques.

Each of my projects I put a lot of hardwork and effort into, and tried to make the
project be the best it can be. Each day I worked on something, I thought about I can
make it better than it was before.

I learned a lot about myself and about the communications world. These are things I
will continue to take with me throughout the rest of my life and career.