Making an impact on 3 million students

By Abby Wilson ‘10 and Dan Pfeiffer ‘10

It’s not every day that a student is able to use his or her skills to make an impact on 3 million other students. Even more rare is the opportunity to make an eternal impact. But that’s exactly what we do every day as interns at the Great Lakes Regional Headquarters of Campus Crusade for Christ in Indianapolis.

Campus Crusade is an international ministry devoted to encouraging college students in their faith in Christ. We’ve been involved with the organization on Bradley’s campus since we were freshmen. This summer, we’ve been given the opportunity to take what we’ve learned from our classes and go behind-the-scenes to work in Operations.

Abby, an English major, is working as a writer for the region. Her responsibilities include writing content for both the main regional Web site and smaller regional Web sites as well as helping provide creative vision. Dan, an Interactive Media major, is working as a video editor and Web designer for the region. He has been shooting and editing video of students’ testimonies to package together into stories of what God has been doing in the Great Lakes Region. Along with seven other interns from South Dakota to Korea, we’ll be helping to spread God’s message of hope.

Our big project for the summer is the 2009 Winter Conference, an event attended by nearly 2000 students every December in Indianapolis. Our job is to come up with a theme for the event and create all the conference materials and promotions - including flyers, videos, graphics, and a Web site. These materials will be made available to nearly 500 campuses across Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan.

When we’re not working, we’re spending time growing together as a team and reaching out to our neighbors and the city. There is another summer missions project in Indianapolis running a day camp for kids in the inner-city. Last Saturday, we partnered with them to host a free lunch and steel-drum band concert in a local park. Our desire was to serve the community and share with them what has become the most important aspect of our lives - that God sent his son to die for our sins so we may reunite with our creator.

We look forward to bringing back everything we’ve learned from this summer and sharing our experiences with fellow students in the fall. Our internship has allowed us to experience the business world first-hand and work under real-world pressures as we know our work will be seen by thousands of students. With just over a month left in the internship, we know that many surprises and new experiences are still to come. Seeing the difference it has already made in our lives, we can’t wait to see what comes next. As the pace picks up and the challenges mount, we excitedly look forward to how God will move and what amazing things will come from it.