My name is Evan Fekete and I am a 20 year old college student at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California. For the past 6 weeks, I’ve been working as a Project, Policy and Communications Intern with Sculpt as part of my semester abroad in London. While the weather has been a bit grim, I’ve loved my time in the UK and especially my time with Sculpt. I’m studying Political Science and have been wanting to gain experience in the nonprofit sector, so Sculpt was a perfect fit.

I joined Sculpt at an interesting time in their evolution because they had recently completed their European projects and were just beginning to develop local initiatives in South London. This ended up working in my favor, as it meant that I had the freedom to try a wide range of responsibilities and could observe how social initiative projects get off the ground. My tasks included researching potential project partners, developing project recruitment plans and materials, drafting official statements and policy consultation documents, and even working in the field to deliver Sculpt work experience programs.

I visited two schools in Croydon, a borough in South London where our Chief Executive, Dr. Claire Bonham, is a local councilor. At these schools, we provided mock interviews and client consultations so students could gain experience in professional environments. I found these trips to be the most valuable part of my whole experience because I got to observe the direct impact of the work Sculpt does. I discovered through my conversations with these young people some of the struggles they face and the dreams that they have for their futures. The experiences that Sculpt works to provide will better equip them to pursue their goals and give them the tools to succeed as they grow into adults. To be able to make even a small difference in the lives of these students was immensely rewarding.

I now understand why Claire, Jess, Charli, Alex and Marie are so motivated by their work.