Jessica Cooper

Executive Summary

Part One

The Millennium Water Alliance (MWA) is a consortium of 15 leading charities dedicated to

helping communities develop safely-managed drinking water, sanitation and hygiene education
for the worlds poorest people in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Founded in 2003, MWA seeks
to advance high standards for program quality, transparency and accountability, and work with
its member organizations to bring to scale sustainable water, sanitation and hygiene education
solutions. Essentially, MWA works with its member organizations to pilot and implement
innovative WASH programs. Currently, the organization focuses on its two main programs in
Ethiopia and Kenya, with its members working globally. It also focuses on advocacy efforts in
Washington, targeting the House and Senate as well as USAID.

As Program and Communications Intern, I worked with field programs, policy advocacy and
overall communications materials, including the website and social media. I assisted the WASH
Program Officers, Program Director and Director of Advocacy and Communication with various
responsibilities in WASH programs and requirements to donors. In my position, I wrote new
pages for the website as well as performed general maintenance tasks such as updating the home
page and fixing issues with design. I wrote blog posts, organized an internal data system using
SharePoint, created photo documents and presentations, edited multiple grant concept notes,
proposals and press releases, edited and selected photos for the Annual Report, supported
advocacy efforts through drafting, editing and creating mail merges for letters to congress, wrote
a communication plan, supported knowledge-management by creating and entering quantitative
information into excel sheets, created graphs and conducted research, among other miscellaneous
tasks. This internship expanded my knowledge of the WASH community and online platforms
such as SharePoint and WordPress, attended networking events in Washington, practiced editing
and design skills, and gave me hands-on experience working in a small nonprofit.

Part Two

1. At the beginning of my internship, I set goals and objectives to measure my improvement

throughout the summer.
Goal: Improve my professional writing and editing skills and ability to write
different types of material through on-the-job training and practice
Objective: Write at least three different types of material for publication: blog
articles, web pages, newsletter or other internal communication such as grant
proposals
Objective: Edit articles for grammar/ spelling/ AP style. By the end of the
summer, a majority of the edits I make should make it to the final publication.
Over the course of my internship, my professional writing skills improved in a
tangible way through my on-the-job practice and hands on experience. As I specified
in my objectives, I was able to measure this progress by writing a variety of materials
and editing internal and external communications. I met my objective of writing a
 blog post and a web page. Although I did not write a newsletter or a grant proposal, I
did write internal communication in the form of a communication plan that will be
sent to the entire staff. I also had the opportunity to write and edit advocacy
communication, such as letters to congress and press releases. This exceeded my
original objective of writing three different types of communication. All my efforts
were sent through rounds of revision by my supervisor and the communication
director, ensuring I learned from each task. I also edited a number of documents,
including grant proposals and press releases. After I revised a grant proposal, I would
ask my supervisor for feedback on how many of my revisions had been helpful. One
of the best ways to track my progress was when an article was going through multiple
arounds of revision. Each time, I could see how many of my revisions had made it
through to the next round. I learned some things werent worth fighting over: my boss
was a big proponent of the oxford comma, and would replace it any time I tried to
edit it out of something. I also saw that, as I progressed, the pieces I were writing
were making it to publication almost as-is.
Goal: Learn to work with different mediums for publication
Objective: Edit and format written work to resemble professional publications
using InDesign, used for grant pitches and conferences
Objective: Create graphics and infographics the company uses in publication or
on social media
This goal was a bit harder to measure throughout the summer. I used InDesign less
than I estimated, instead focusing on formatting posts for the WordPress platform.
Although this was not my original objective, it gave me experience with a platform I
do not always get a real-world opportunity to work with. I had to write, edit and
format work to resemble the other professional content on our official website. A
tangible way for me to measure the second objective was to see how often the
graphics I created were used in official documents. Over the course of my internship,
I created graphics using excel, Canva and PowerPoint. The graphics I created went on
the website, as well as onto publications. Most notably, I learned how to use
quantitative data to create graphs using Excel. Although this does not technically
count as a graphic, expanding my knowledge of excel by learning how to create more
complex charts, freeze cells, etc. is one way I worked with different mediums.

2. Although this was not my first internship, it was definitely the most rigorous, and my
closest experience so far to working in a full-time, office environment. I believe I had a
very successful and enriching summer internship experience. This opinion is validated by
the fact that MWA extended my internship into a part-time position for the fall,
something I am very excited about. My Program & Communications Internship allowed
me to practice valuable skills that will benefit me in my post-grad career. I created
published material, leaving me with work samples to add to my portfolio. I worked to
update MWAs WordPress site and continuously learned about the platform in the
process. The experience strengthened my abilities to be adaptable and resourceful, as well
as to know the difference between a good question to ask and a problem I could solve on
my own. This internship opened my eyes to a more political side of communication I had
not previously experienced. Ive had the opportunity to attend meetings and conferences
in the Washington, D.C. area, as well as communication strategy meetings. I had always
 considered working for a nonprofit in the future, but despite interning for a government
organization last school year, had never seriously considered how advocacy, legislation
and policy can play a role in communication. I am not sure whether I will enter public or
private sector for my career, but my experience with advocacy in this internship caused
me to consider nonprofit communication work with new eyes. My internship also
reaffirmed my decision to enter the communication field. The opportunity to work more
with website design, press releases, written content and social media, and the fact that I
succeeded while doing it, provided me with newfound confidence to tackle the
communication career field after I graduate.

3. With my internship, there were two main people who I worked with: my supervisor,
Laura, who worked as the program director, and John, who worked as the communication
and advocacy director. MWA is a small organization, and all six of the US staff (with the
exception of the executive director) worked in the same office. This close environment
allowed me to get to know each of the staff on a personal level, and helped me feel more
comfortable quickly. It also facilitated open channels of communication between me, my
supervisor and the director of communication. If I needed help with something, or they
needed to speak with me about a project, I simply went to their offices. Our other main
method of communication was email. My supervisor took a hands-on approach to my
learning. She was always available if I had a question, and consistently checked in to see
how my work was coming and if I needed anything. I was given a good amount of
responsibility. My projects did not feel like busy work; instead, the press releases, web
pages, graphics, grant proposals, etc. I created and edited were implemented by the
organization. For example, my supervisor often sent me grant proposals or concept notes
to revise before she sent them to major donors. This not only helped improve my editing
skills, but showed she relied on my work to secure important funding for MWAs
programs. MWAs location in downtown Washington, D.C. also allowed for my
involvement in events that taught me more about the WASH community and provided
networking opportunity.

4. See submitted documents

5. I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized assistance on
this assignment/examination.

Signed: Jessica Lynn Cooper

Recommendation

Millennium Water Alliance

Contact: Laura Brunson, laura.brunson@mwawater.org

I would recommend, with little reservation, a program and communications internship with the
Millennium Water Alliance.

The Millennium Water Alliance is a small nonprofit based in downtown Washington, D.C. The
staff is friendly, easy to work with, and clearly want you to succeed. My supervisor worked
closely with me to ensure my internship was mutually beneficial. I easily learned just as much as
I contributed.

There is always plenty to do, with my work ranging from long-term projects to smaller, daily
tasks. By the end of my internship, I had created a variety of deliverables, including press
releases, web pages, spreadsheets and a communication plan. I was given enough responsibility
to feel like the work I was doing mattered (almost everything I wrote or edited ended up
published in some form). I was also given enough structure that I never felt overwhelmed, or like
I couldnt ask for help.

The entire staff, especially my supervisor and the communication director, with whom I worked
most closely, are all very knowledgeable about their fields. The offices location in the middle of
D.C. made it easy to attend networking events and meetings, which my supervisor encouraged.
Throughout the course of my internship, I expanded my knowledge about WordPress, practiced
editing, worked with Excel and Microsoft Office, made graphics and networked, all of which
will help me in a future communication profession.

Working for a small nonprofit also comes with limitations: our WordPress infrastructure is old,
and this left me with limited functionality to work with. As a communication student working in
the WASH sector, I constantly had to learn new vocabulary or theories. In the end, however,
even these obstacles helped teach me to be resourceful.

As a whole, the benefits of interning for MWA far outweigh any limitations.