Practicing Safe Skin: My First Week with the Melanoma Foundation
My name is Brandon Tomlinson, and this summer I have the pleasure of interning with the Melanoma Foundation of New England—MFNE. The Melanoma Foundation provides education, awareness, and support for melanoma patients and their families. Currently, the MFNE is embarking on a new project, providing sunscreen to people in public spaces. Through public sunscreen dispensers, the Foundation wants to enable everyone to ‘Practice Safe Skin.’ This is where I come in. I, along with the other interns, will be managing marketing, sales, and operations of the flagship program.
I have already put Babson’s education into practice at the Foundation, including use of ERP systems, databases, and other operational terms and principles. Putting this education into practice so soon makes me feel like Babson truly prepares its students for the real world. In addition, the Foundation has me finding contact information for different organizations and towns that may be interested in providing sunscreen for their communities. At first I was nervous to call people to sell a product, but once I started to believe in the social value that the MFNE is providing, it became much easier to have a conversation with community leaders about the benefits of sunscreen availability.
It is amazing to me that going to the spring internship fair and following up with a great nonprofit has led me to this opportunity. To any fellow student that is looking for an internship, I highly recommend using Babson’s resources, because you never know what opportunities they can help provide you.