By: Abby Bowe

West Virginia Wesleyan is well known in Buckhannon for its student involvement and desire to connect with the community. However, the college has many service opportunities for students, even outside of this continent such as through the Children’s HopeChest Organization.

West Virginia Wesleyan partners with this Christian-based nonprofit organization to help students obtain internship credits while also making a difference in the world. Sadie Nichols, a junior Biochemistry and Political Science double major at the college, was an intern through WVWC partnering with Children’s HopeChest. She was involved with the organization during the Fall 2023 semester and obtained 1 credit for the internship.

Nichols described the organization’s purpose as to “instill everlasting change through two-way transformation sponsoring kids and instilling hope. They become provided with a support system they can continue to build upon for the rest of their lives.” An opportunity like this may simply be checking off credit to a college student, but the work performed may change someone’s life on the other side of the world.

While there are a variety of ways to get involved with this organization on your own, when doing it as an internship through the college, students have the opportunity to choose between a couple teams. Nichols herself was on the Marketing team which allowed her to “make social media graphics, write her own blog for their campaign, and draft emails to churches and other businesses”. Other teams included finance, sales, information technology, and others so that many students can cater this internship to their interests. 

To further the feeling of truly being a part of the Children’s HopeChest, while staying in Buckhannon, Nichols informed that she had one-hour, short meetings via Zoom with advisors that were stationed in Colorado once a week. This gave the interns the opportunity to provide ideas that were utilized in the organization’s large end-of-the-year campaign and even give updates on their individual tasks, according to Nichols. She even has accepted the opportunity to travel to Uganda over the summer and experience first-hand impact of the work she has accomplished through this internship.

For anyone who would need an internship credit for their major, or is simply interested in being a part of this organization through Wesleyan, look into the Children’s HopeChest. The plans are to continue and provide this opportunity, open to all students and for 1-3 credits that can be catered toward your major if you should choose so.