Makhosazana (“Khosi”) Xaba ’03

Student Intern

Internship: Fall 2003
Site: South Africa Partners
Location: Boston, Mass.

Hometown: Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
Major: International Business

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Internship: South Africa Partners

December 2003 graduate Khosi Xaba couldn’t have been happier with her senior internship, as it has pointed her toward exactly what she wants to do in the world of work. An international business major, Xaba hadn’t thought of the nonprofit sector as an option before signing on with South Africa Partners for her internship. South Africa Partners’s mission is to identify and facilitate strategic partnership opportunities between institutions in South Africa and the United States.

At South Africa Partners, Xaba, a native of Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, was given a broad range of tasks to perform. The most significant was responsibility for planning a forum to celebrate the ten-year anniversary of Democratic South Africa, which will take place on April 27, 2004. The South African embassy in Washington, DC, chose South Africa Partners to host the Boston-area commemoration, scheduled for sometime in May 2004.

Xaba (left) at South Africa Partners

To accomplish her assignment, Xaba first needed to define her mission and the best way to make it happen. Since South Africa Partners deals primarily with health issues, she suggested that the forum focus on the progress Democratic South Africa has made in terms of health. Her supervisor agreed, so she then set about working on everything that goes into planning an event: choosing the participants and the site, planning logistics and refreshments, and working on promotion, for which she created a brochure.

“It's been a great learning experience for me, and a challenge,” reports Xaba. “To see an end product like my overall plan and my brochure and have my supervisor like them has been wonderful. I was taking a public relations course at PMC, and one chapter we studied covered events planning. To be able to take what I learned in the class and use it in a practical way was great.”

Xaba feels her internship has given her the key to her future. “I had never considered the nonprofit sector as an option,” she reports. “Now I want to be in a career where I can mix my business knowledge with social responsibility, probably in a corporate foundation or an international nonprofit.”

She already has her first job set up! Through an Agency for Educational Development (AED) fellowship, South Africa Partners has received funding to hire Xaba for one year, during which she will also be flown to Washington, DC, once a month for networking opportunities with global nonprofits such as UNICEF, the UN, and Oxfam International.

Home for the holidays before starting this exciting new chapter, Xaba reminisced about her years at PMC. “I’ve really enjoyed my time at PMC,” she said. “I went to an all girls high school, and when I thought about how much I had learned there and been encouraged by my classmates, I chose Pine Manor. There I was able to push myself to the highest possible limits and feel there really was no ceiling. Now I believe I can do whatever I plan on doing.”