Over the past four months I have had the pleasure of working with Ride for Joy in Caldwell as a Non-profit Program Intern. In the 2020/21 school year I was enrolled in my first year of a Master of Public Health program. Seeking experience working with a non-profit, and having a love, though not a lot of experience with, horses, I applied to this internship position. Since then, I have seen the work and the love that goes in to the maintenance and lessons provided at Ride For Joy. My internship allowed me to see the basics of the Non-profit realm: Volunteer recruitment, training, and scheduling, social media, fundraising, grant writing, etc, but the part of this experience that has had the biggest impact on me have been the people. Candace, the volunteer and outreach manager, has a great perception of people and their strengths and weaknesses. She made a point to help me work on the things that made me uncomfortable, pushing me outside of my comfort zone and helping me grow. The instructors are passionate about what they do and love their jobs, but they are also some of the most patient people I have encountered. Finally, the volunteer base is filled with people who just want to help and give back.
My experience in my Public Health program started in the middle of a public health crisis. This, paired with a lot of the things in the curriculum, had given me a fairly bleak outlook on the world. Working with Ride For Joy, and specifically, seeing the impact they have on the kids and adults they work with, and seeing the amount of love and time and patience that goes into keeping Ride for Joy moving, reminded me why I chose the major I did. My time with Ride For Joy has been an inspiring combination of learning, playing, horses, kids and great people and I am grateful for having had the chance to be a part of the services they are providing for the community and the education they are providing to their interns.
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