Invisible Children HQ, San Diego: Bright eyes. Bushy tails. A few slightly sweaty palms (and that’s just the staff) – today is the summer 2014 intern class’ first day. These are the full time volunteers who, for three months, will be powering the mission to end the LRA conflict.

The Summer 2014 interns dive straight into training with Jess (centre, with the empty seat on her left), our Executive Assistant/ People Operations.

I know they’re good looking, but honestly, we don’t hire based on that: the Summer 2014 interns dive straight into training with ringleader Jess Morris (center, with the empty seat on her left).

Invisible Children’s films have never had credits. In the days when documentaries with calls to action were unheard of (these were the dark days of the early 2000s, people), we released our first film, The Rough Cut. Where the credits should have been, we put an invitation. We asked for people’s time, talent and money to end Africa’s longest running war.

It set the precedent for a company built by volunteers – those so driven to end the atrocities of the LRA that they’re willing to do whatever it takes, including work for free. This rag-tag bunch of dreamers and idealists still exists, but so does a bona fide intern program complete with job titles and professional development.

In typical Invisible Children style, we jumped in deep with both bagel eating and impromptu life lessons from our execs Jason, Ben and Carver.

Carver told the newbies, “don’t just exist.” Go after it. Ask questions, teach yourself new skills and be responsible for getting as much out of this time as possible (Exhibit A: staff member Jessica Goldsmith who, as an IT intern, taught herself to code. She’s now an essential part of the web team).

Jason’s first tidbit of wisdom: “Intention rules your life.” Rather than stumbling through life without purpose, he encouraged the class of summer 2014 to have a vision for their life, and for each day, and go after it.

Ben told the story of how how he gave up on a promising career with some of the U.S.’s top financial firms to live in his parents’ basement and work for free to build Invisible Children with Jason, Bobby and Laren, so convicted was he by The Rough Cut and his friends new life-mission. He told the incoming class that

“We have high standards, but those standards are about who you are as much as what you do.”

The energy, insight and skill that interns bring into the office is seriously valuable. Here’s to a summer of stopping the LRA.

Want to know what it’s like to work at Invisible Children? Follow @INVISIBLE & #lifeatinvisible to see what we get up to, plus hear first about internSHIP and job openings.