Young Ambassadors 2025 Practicum Blog

  ☙❂✵Week 4✵❂❧ ❦    Hi guys! Wow, it's my final week of my internship, and I am not ready for it to end. I'm still working with marketing and development, as well as some more projects with Excel. I've helped many people renew their memberships and been in contact with some pretty important donors, like the former mayor of Fresno and other important business people in the Central Valley. Hi Sudan! ❦    On Tuesday, my boss decided to take me on a little field trip over to a marketing agency building down the street. The building was historic, and actually used to be a theater. I learned a lot about the various roles within a marketing agency, ranging from web developers to an audio engineer. I don't have many pictures of the building since people were working and it was a bit of a short tour, but I did get this picture of a rhino statue. I got to learn more about the businesses in downtown Fresno, and it really opened my eyes to a place that I had assumed I knew ...

  ☙❂✵Week 3✵❂❧ ❦    Hi guys!  This week marked a complete change of pace for me, as I moved from the educational programs team to the marketing and development team. The staff at Arte is small and tight-knit, so even though I switched desks, I still saw everyone daily. Now, I get to experience the behind-the-scenes work that keeps a nonprofit alive, from consistent marketing to maintaining meaningful connections with the community. ❦    I was first assigned to assist in entering over 250 followers' usernames into a Microsoft Excel sheet for a Shakira tickets giveaway.  Unfortunately, the only picture of me I got this week. ❦    My next few tasks involved using volunteer liability forms and any other paper copies to turn them digital, and taking advantage of the opportunity to teach myself how to use Excel. ❦     Time management became a big theme for me this week. With multiple small projects on my plate, I had to lea...

☙❂✵Week 2✵❂❧ ❦     Hey guys! Week 2 is over, and it was pretty stressful (in a good way)! I showed up to work on Tuesday and attended a Teaching Artist Education workshop held at Arte Américas. I got to meet some really cool people and made a vision board/digital collage of what community means to me and how I identify myself.   I even added some pictures of you guys, as I am very honored to be part of the YAP network! This is the social contract we created on day 1 ❦     Wednesday was day 2 of this training, and we learned a lot about how to create curriculum that meets state education standards, particularly in English Language Arts. We were assigned to grab any kids' books in the room and look for the best ways to engage a classroom with storytelling and art activities. I chose to stick with Paletero Man since we are all assigned to read it anyway! This allowed me to use some critical thinking on the best ways to approach different age levels ...

☙❂✵Week 1✵❂❧ ❦     Hi guys! I hope everyone had a great first and second week at their internships!! My internship began on July 16th, which put me a bit behind everyone else. ❦      My first day at Arte Américas consisted mostly of a tour of the newest exhibition, "F. John Sierra: A Retrospective."  F. John Sierra is a local artist and actually one of the founders of Arte Américas; this exhibition explores his life and impact on Fresno, California.   ❦      My second day was spent preparing for the Arte Pero Later program, an event that takes place every Thursday when Arte opens later in the day. The event was a plant swap, where attendees brought plants and swapped with others. We watched a documentary called The Garden , and I highly recommend that everyone watch it.  ❦       Day 3 was another event, the volunteer party! All Arte volunteers were celebrated and treated to pizza. I had a lot of fun meeting...