NatalieRose Brogan

Organizational Management
Lynn Cooper
12/9/2015
Service Learning Assignment
Humanitarian Disaster Institute
1.

Work Log

9/28 - 3 hrs - Read and researched background information on Humanitarian Disaster Institute
(HDI) including origins of the organization, mission, recent blog posts etc.
9/30 - 5 hrs - Attended Nonprofit Social Media Workshop at NorthPark University
9/29 - 1 hr - Introductory meeting with founder, Dr. Aten. Heard job descriptions, goals etc.
10/3 - 3 hrs - Read Umpqua article, emailed contacts within HDI, wrote potential posts
10/6 - 2 hrs - Read articles/speech from Dr. Boan, contacted him to elaborate
10/13 - 1.5 hrs - American Red Cross Fire Prevention Week. 104th Anniversary of Chicago Fire
posts
10/23 - 1 hr - Read information sent to me by Katherine. Background info and sent emails to Dr.
Boan/Katherine
10/27 - 1.5 hrs - Team meeting. Met new members, heard from Dr. Boan about recent
experiences.
11/3 - 2 hrs - Communication Team Post, took photos of Dr. Clark. Sent emails to team and to
Katherine.
11/10 - 2 hrs - Team meeting, discussing strategies with other team members, creating content for
social media posts.
11/14 - 1 hr - Communicating with HDI contacts to get information for upcoming posts
11/17 - 2 hrs - Team meeting, heard updates from Katherine, communicated with other interns,
divided up tasks.
11/21 - 2 hrs - Researched topics and wrote potential social media posts
11/24 - 1.5 hrs - Team meeting, preparing posts in advance for thanksgiving.
12/1 - 2 hrs - Discussed with the team, brainstormed ideas and wrote social media posts for
Giving Tuesday.

12/6 - 2 hrs - Team meeting, talked to incoming interns about my responsibilities, finished up
social media posts.
2.

HDI is a college-wide interdisciplinary research center at Wheaton College dedicated to

helping the vulnerable and underserved domestically and internationally, across a wide
spectrum of relief and development challenges. HDI partners with the local church in disaster
relief. HDI started after the founder, Dr. Jamie Aten and his family had moved to South
Mississippi just 6 days before Hurricane Katrina hit. They were unaware and unprepared for
what was happening and left him thinking there needs to be a change. Dr. Jamie D. Aten is
founder and co-director of the Humanitarian Disaster Institute and Rech Endowed Chair of
Psychology at Wheaton College.

3.

The mission of HDI is to equip congregations and faith-based organizations to better

prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters. They provide training and education to
clients such as churches, faith-based organizations, humanitarian organizations, private
research organizations, individual scientific collaborators, academic centers, and state and
federal agencies. Stakeholders include staff, volunteers, donors, grantmakers, clients,
beneficiaries, and the community. The current state of this operation is growing. Funding is
increasing so they have been able to expand recently.

4.

My divisional placement of this organization was in the communication department as a

Social Media/Marketing intern. My supervisor was Katherine Anderson who was recently
hired by HDI to take over their communication department. She was fairly successful at
enabling me to do my job. She was very good at email communication and regularly
responding. The beginning of the semester was much more challenging for me as my tasks
were still rather elusive. Katherine was brand new to the organization as well, so it took a little

time to figure out an effective structure. I have had experience in social media so I knew HOW
to post, but the biggest challenge was figuring out WHAT the organization wanted me to post.
5.

HDI launched a $2.4 million research project, supported by a $1.9 million grant that they
just received from the John Templeton Foundation, to explore how adversity fosters human
resilience and growth. Their multi-year research project, Earth as a School: Finding Meaning,
Relating to God, and Experiencing Growth After a Natural Disaster, will focus on the effects
of natural disasters on peoples spiritual and psychological lives. This is the overarching work
that the organization is doing, but I was not necessarily connected to this part of the
organization.
They hired 3 more interns while I was there, and were in the process of launching their

website as well as a new blog called Resilire. There were no critical incidents that I was aware of
during my time there. However, the experience was a little unique in the sense that I did a
majority of my work from home. Katherine doesnt have an office, she just works from home, so
we followed suit. I think I would have been aware of more incidents if I were to be in an office
with other HDI staff when I worked. I am excited for the future health of this organization, as I
saw many improvements of the climate of HDI over the course of the semester. The leaders
began to communicate more effectively with the people under them. As Katherine got more
comfortable in her role, she was able to more articulately communicate with us what needed to
be accomplished.
6.

There were not especially notable developments concerning the socio-emotional

dimensions of my division. For me personally, I have a difficult time having surface level
business relationships. I like to know people on a deeper level. An important interaction for
me was when Katherine and I went to North Park University for the Social Media Workshop. I

got to interact with her in a more personal way than we usually did at our business meetings. It
was helpful to be able to pick her brain on different topics and hear more about her previous
experience. It helped me trust and respect her more as a boss. I wanted to perform well for her
because I knew her better.
7.

From this experience, I have learned that more communication is better than little to no
communication. I learned that I work better when I have expectations and goals clearly laid
out for me. Ambiguity and loose deadlines often make me unproductive. I learned that I
actually enjoy working in groups and dividing up tasks to complete and assignment. Ive also
learned that a healthy climate and culture of an organization is very important to me and is the
difference between wanting to stay involved or leaving. At the beginning of the semester I
couldnt wait to be done and felt very replaceable. Towards the end of my time at HDI, I felt
increasingly valued and that made a big difference for me.