Sara Gelrud Volunteers at the Orthodox Union

Engaging in foundation research and customer relationship management are just a few of the responsibilities that Junior Sara Gelrud undertook while volunteering at the Orthodox Union throughout the month of July.

“Being president of the Jewish Student Union here at school has given me the opportunity to be more involved in JSU nationally, so when I was told about the internship program I knew that that was what I wanted to spend my summer doing,” Gelrud said. 

During the three week period, Gelrud worked for the Orthodox Union’s branch in Jerusalem, Israel. The internship began each day at eight a.m. and ended at three p.m. from Sunday to Thursday. Daily tasks entailed calling past donors to see if they would like to renew their donations, along with learning about the organization as a whole.

“Calling people everyday gave me a lot of experience in customer relations. Not to mention, the foundation research helped me improve my grant writing skills. I am proud to say that I was able to raise a fair amount of money for the foundation,” Gelrud said. 

Not only was Gelrud able to take much from the internship on an academic level, but also on a social level. 

“I made a lot of connections with the people that worked at the Orthodox Union. There were also four other girls working with me in the office. We worked really cohesively as a team, and I think we were able to learn a lot from each other,” Gelrud said.  

Now that Gelrud has returned from her time at the Orthodox Union, she is excited to bring back all of the information she has learned and use it to better her own community.

“I raise funds for the Miami Youth Climate Summit, so the grant writing experience and training I gained over the summer will really help me with my endeavors in the fundraising process of the Miami Youth Climate Summit,” Gelrud said.