Recognizing new opportunities and springing into action, while intimidating, can come with much reward. Piper Embrey (Junior), Kyleigh Tuma (Senior), Hannah Hardy (Junior), and Chelsea Quinn (Junior) are all working their very first semester as interns to assist Habitat for Humanity at Clemson’s Pearce Center for Professional Communication. While none of them have experience working at the Center or with Habitat, they excitedly accepted the challenge and dove into several projects together.
Pickens County Habitat for Humanity encourages the notion that anyone and everyone can make a difference in their community, no matter the experience level. This mindset inspired the interns from the start and stood as a reminder that even if they weren't swinging a hammer on the job site, their contributions behind the scenes could make just as much of a difference.
As interns, one thing that they value is that no day looks the same. As current students at Clemson needing to simultaneously manage their class schedules, they are given authority over when they work as long as they reach a certain number of hours and meet bi-weekly so that they can efficiently collaborate and prioritize projects.
Pearce Center interns utilize resources given by the Pearce Center to create engaging content for Habitat to spread awareness for events and encourage an ultimate spring to action. As interns, they design engaging social media posts for Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. With studio partnership with Adobe, the interns have recognized that this is an invaluable resource that opens doors to experiment with a variety of tools and platforms. Aside from producing social media content, they also love to write! Each month, interns are tasked with helping write Habitat’s monthly newsletter by conducting interviews with volunteers and Clemson faculty. Behind every social media post and newsletter remains an inspiring story highlighting unique yet equally important contributions made to impact the community.
Staying organized is very important as an intern at the Perce Center. Interns work on a variety of projects with a variety of clients, so creating an action plan to recognize short term versus long term projects, assign responsibility, and recognize necessary resources to complete assignments becomes of utmost importance.
For Chelsea (Junior) the experience was deeply fulfilling: “Working with Habitat for Humanity this semester has been an incredibly rewarding experience. I’ve loved being a part of something bigger than myself and watching our efforts turn into real impact in the community has been really awesome. I am thankful for all of the skills I have developed while working with Habitat and am excited to use them in future careers!”
Piper (Junior), echoed this sense of purpose and momentum: “It has been a wonderful experience collaborating with Habitat for Humanity this semester. I have really appreciated the chance to be involved in Habitat’s mission and being able to see how our community can come together to create change. I am excited to take this same passion into my future roles beyond this opportunity!”
For Kyleigh (Senior), this final semester with Pearce and Habitat brought both reflection and gratitude: “While I am sad that my experience as an intern at the Pearce Center working with Habitat is coming to an end, I am beyond thankful for such a wonderful opportunity as it has provided me with an amazing learning experience and much reward in spreading awareness for events while watching the community come together to make a difference.”
Piper, Kyleigh, Hannah, and Chelsea stand as proof that sometimes all it takes is picking up a pen and paper to use your voice and build something powerful. Whether you are painting, building, making donations, cheering on your peers, or even spreading an encouraging word, you can contribute to solving the affordable housing crisis.
And Hannah appreciated the practical skills—and deeper impact—behind the work: “Along with getting hands-on experience with professional writing and marketing, it has been an amazing experience working with nonprofits like Habitat. I really enjoy knowing that our work can help positively impact others.”
