Wednesday: 10-4pm Thursday: 9-12pm 1-5pm Friday: 9-5pm

Brianna Fuller

1/27/19

Journal 2

This was my first week working at Make-A-Wish. On the first day, (1/23/19), I had

orientation from 10am-4pm. During orientation we went over what each of us would be doing as

interns, and were introduced to the foundation through many videos and presentations. We were

given a crash course on the history of Make-A-Wish and what I will be doing as a medical reach

intern. Towards the end of the day, we were given a tour of where each of our desks were. There

was one desk that stood out from the rest, and this was my desk of course! My supervisor had set

up snacks, put my name large above my desk, and decorated it for me, which no one else had. I

felt so special, and this made me very excited to work for such generous and sweet people!

On the Second day, (1/24/19), this was my first day doing some of the things I will be in

charge of. I spent a majority of my time filing for the day, and doing some tasks for my

supervisor. The filing system is very overloaded, and they have an abundance of files for the

children’s past wishes. I also, spent a lot of time doing courses the foundation requires, quizzing

you over the foundation and what it stands for. Setting up my emails, and getting everything set

up took up my entire day. There are many emails, and databases I had to get accustomed to!

On the third day, (1/25/19), this was the day I did a lot of work. My supervisor had

previously left me with many files, but is not there on Friday’s so I had to figure things out for

myself a little bit. Basically, my job is doing welcome calls to inform parents when their child’s

wish has been selected to be granted. I have to pull up the child’s information on the database,

gather as much information as I can on the child, and then proceed to call the family. During the
call the parent’s will either be extremely excited, or very upset because they think you are telling

them this is their child’s last dying wish which is untrue. A big misconception is that Make-A-

Wish only grants wishes to children who are dying, so this is why some parents react negatively.

Once they react, I explain the steps that follow, and then once I answer all of their questions, I

send them a welcome email with a ton of information that we went over on the phone call. I then

update their file with what I did, and the database as well. I did many of these calls on Friday. I

have only had positive reactions so far, but this is by far the coolest part of my job! I had to learn

a lot about this foundation in order to be able to answer as many questions as I can that parents

may ask me. Studying all the information helped prepare me for the calls I had, and helped me

not be so nervous when I had to make my first few calls! I was nervous to talk on the phone, but

I did really good, because I knew my information and if i had a question I could ask so many

people for help. I am excited to see what the rest of my time here has in store for me, and I am

nothing but happy with what I am doing, and how I am impacting the kids, and their families

lives just by an informative phone call!