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Business students in Liberty’s new humanitarian aid program complete internships with disaster relief groups

Lydia Vernon poses in front of a Samaritan’s Purse road sign

In response to a high demand for nonprofit and disaster relief workers, Liberty University’s School of Business launched the humanitarian aid (HA) concentration under its B.S. in Business Administration in the spring. Even as a young concentration, the new program has already helped students secure and complete competitive internships in the field.

Students have interned with God’s Pit Crew in Danville, Va., and one student interned with the mega nonprofit evangelical Christian organization Samaritan’s Purse, in Boone, N.C., which has just over a 2-percent internship acceptance rate. Samaritan’s Purse partnered with Liberty in the creation of the concentration, providing the blueprint.

“I feel like with the heart of Christian college students, this is a great program,” said Dr. Roger Bingham, a residential chair for the School of Business. “This program fits very well with the mission of a Christian university. … We have a responsibility to serve others. It’s our Christian calling and duty to help take care of other people.”

Senior business and graphic design student Lydia Vernon completed her 10-week summer internship with Samaritan’s Purse. Her responsibilities included developing interactive graphics for the organization’s volunteer e-learning modules.

“I definitely think having the humanitarian aid concentration helped me get the internship, because it’s super competitive. I don’t think I would have gotten it otherwise,” Vernon said. “The humanitarian aid class that I took set me up perfectly. BUSI 477 (Humanitarian Affairs) was a great overview of everything, and it showed the complexity of humanitarian aid as an industry.

Lydia Vernon (third from right) alongside other Samaritan’s Purse interns

Vernon also worked on the international side of Operation Christmas Child (OCC), a ministry project of Samaritan’s Purse that collects and distributes shoeboxes full of presents to underprivileged children around the world.

“It was one of the best experiences of my life,” Vernon said. “I want to use business and digital marketing, or whatever I do, for God’s glory and to help people, but having this concentration was so helpful in landing this internship. The internship helped me figure out what I wanted to do more precisely.”

In BUSI 477-Humanitarian Affairs, students are learning how to identify various challenges that impede the delivery of essential services in a humanitarian response; identify the major actors in humanitarian aid and disaster response at the local, state, federal, and international levels; demonstrate a biblical worldview of reasons why humanitarian aid is needed; and much more.

Other courses offered this fall include BUSI 409-Nonprofit Management, BUSI 371-Supply Chain Management, BUSI 455-Conflict Resolution and Negotiation.

“Part of what we talk about in HA is taking care of the immediate crisis. But there’s a whole element of development and how you take people beyond that point,” Bingham said. “It’s very three-dimensional. And it’s much bigger than what people see on the news.”

Senior Mikahla Klug completed her internship with God’s Pit Crew, located one hour’s drive south of Liberty. One of her primary responsibilities was to restructure the organization’s flow of goods and develop and digitalize its inventory system.

Liberty students Libby Smith (left) and Mikahla Klug (right) at God’s Pit Crew headquarters in Danville, Va.

“There were a lot of layers to this organization, but it was just a really good opportunity,” Klug said. “There are so many necessary steps that I think people just overlook when they think of disaster relief. But there’s a ton of logistics that go into it.”

Klug also commended Liberty for offering the humanitarian aid concentration, because it provided a broader understanding of nonprofits’ roles in crisis.

“It’s such a cool degree because it gives you such a different perspective. But it also prepares you so well for a job not only for humanitarian aid, but also in the nonprofit sector. It’s wonderful. I hope that it is able to pick up more speed.”

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