As I begin writing this mid-point blog entry, I cannot believe that my internship is already half over. It has been such an incredible experience for me so far and I truly do not want it to end. I have been so lucky with the opportunities that I have had to learn and grow so much through this experience.
My first learning objective for this internship was to complete 40 hours of domestic violence training and understand the resources available in New Orleans to survivors of such trauma. I completed this training along with the other interns, staff of the New Orleans Family Justice Center and many other professionals in the field during two weeks in the month of June. This was a great learning opportunity because it provided me of an understanding of the problem: from what constitutes domestic violence through each and every step taken to help a survivor create a safe, permanent environment for them to thrive. My next learning objective was to compile current data on the Speak Up Program. The data had been gathered by my supervisor, Jennifer Taylor, this past school year and it included the results of pre and post tests taken before and after she taught her teen dating prevention curriculum. What I did was enter all the results into the computer, analyze the data and graphs and then put them into a write-up that easily demonstrated the positive impact that the program had to show the school in question and the health coalition that the Speak Up Program is in collaboration with. That was a really fun task because I took proof that Jennifer’s work and program have positive outcomes and got to show them off to our collaborating partners and peers.
I have also already achieved my third learning objective, which was to develop a questionnaire to implement in high schools in order to gather data on the prevalence of teen dating violence as well as the current knowledge and attitudes that teens in Orleans Parish have towards dating violence and resources that are available. While I have designed the questionnaire, the brunt of my internship responsibilities has become using this questionnaire as a basis for developing a study and getting the study IRB approved. This has been an extremely challenging process because IRB approval involves many difficult, tedious steps and is especially cumbersome for studies, which involve minors, as this study does. While I have yet to receive approval at this point, I feel very good about how far I have come because I am just about ready to submit the entire application for review, marking the end of the first step in a process that has already taken me weeks and countless hours of work and collaboration amongst numerous outside parties. This is definitely what I am most proud of accomplishing up until this point.
In going through this intense process with the IRB and designing this study, I have managed to achieve my fifth learning objective, which was to have a better understanding of the direction I want to take my thesis. I now intend to go forth with this study and use the information to write my thesis, including how to revise the current curriculum in response to the data. My thesis can then serve to benefit my supervisor and the high school we will specifically be working with, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School. My fourth learning objective I will likely not achieve because it turned out to be unrelated to my work. Luckily, there is another intern working with me from Duke University. Her name is Payal and we share a cubicle. I adore working with Payal and her task has been to do more outreach, such as what I had initially stated in my fourth learning objective. She has been working hard emailing and contacting schools and various education boards to try to network and also create a comprehensive dating violence policy for schools to address issues of dating violence occurring among students in order to keep them safe and in school.
I can tell that I have really learned a lot from this internship because of how far I have come in my work with the IRB process. I have had to use my investigating skills in order to research a process that was unfamiliar for me and very intimidating, and then I had to rely on those skills to carry me through with very little guidance other than the help I took initiative to seek out. I feel as though I already have learned so much more than I knew about how to conduct an investigation from scratch. At the same time, I have gotten the opportunity to talk to and learn from all of the different positions in the Family Justice Center, which has taught me about every aspect of getting a victim of domestic violence the help they need, from legal services to counseling. I’m ecstatic about everything that I have learned because I know that the ability to conduct a study on my own as well as this in-depth education that I now have regarding domestic violence recovery will be greatly applicable to my future career in public health and hopefully in a job working to serve survivors of domestic violence.