Business student serves the homeless in Big Apple, gains career experience during internship

Placed in the heart of a big city in a time of need, Liberty University senior James Manring has used his spring semester internship through the school’s New York City Fellowship to simultaneously train for his career and serve the homeless.

A presentation by Liberty’s Career Services office piqued his interest in the fellowship, as a chance to start his career in a big-city atmosphere. Manring, a business finance student, secured his placement with NYC Relief, a nonprofit that helps the homeless population in the city.

“After you’re accepted into the fellowship program, they help you with your resume and interview skills,” Manring said. “And they help you get connected to certain organizations, especially ones who like to use Liberty as a pipeline for interns.”

The first two weeks of the internship placed Manring directly in the community as he served in a mobile soup kitchen, helped in clothing drives at shelters, and aided in a partnership event with the Salvation Army.

While volunteering at a clothing drive, Manring sparked a conversation with a homeless man named James, an experience that perfectly illustrated the reason for Christ-centered outreach.

“He knew every in and out of the city and its music, art, and history, and he was a man living on the streets who was really intelligent and happy to have someone to talk to,” Manring said. “I was able to pray with him and share the Gospel with him, so it was an incredible experience that I’ve really never had before and that I won’t be forgetting.”

While he continues to take advantage of volunteer service opportunities, Manring has spent the majority of his time in the accounting department of NYC Relief, seeing firsthand the financial practices that keep nonprofits in operation. Manring hopes to work in a nonprofit in his future career, and he said this introduction to the process has been helpful.

“I eventually would like to run nonprofits, but I need to get some public experience first … and here, I get to see firsthand all of the ways that the money and entire organization work every day and get hands-on training,” Manring said. “A lot of the classes that I’ve taken, both the finance ones and courses like evangelism and Bible, have come in handy at a Christian organization like this and have prepared me to use that knowledge to share with others.”

Manring worked within the office every day for the first month and a half of the internship before the COVID-19 pandemic caused closings throughout the city. Before the shutdown, he enjoyed sightseeing in the Big Apple in his free time, including attending a Brooklyn Nets game and walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, among other activities. He has now transitioned to working remotely from the university’s fellowship housing.

“For the last week or so, I’ve been able to do the finance work from home to limit exposure, and NYC Relief has been deemed an essential organization because a lot of homeless shelters are getting shut down for people being quarantined,” he said. “About three days a week, I’m still going out and volunteering while taking all safety precautions.”

For more information about Liberty’s New York City Fellowship and Washington Fellowship, visit the Career Services homepage.