Hi y’all,
I can’t believe that I am at the midpoint of my internship!! Where did the time go? I’ve had the most amazing summer so far.
As per my internship goals I am progressing on my learning objectives quiet well. I think that I have been able to integrate my five objectives into my work by keeping them in mind when completing projects. For starters, I have developed a deep understanding of advocacy campaigns. At the Brady Campaign, I am expected to work with our three campaigns simultaneously and be able to change tasks between them with ease. Also, I have been introduced to a variety of new outreach strategies that have been useful and utilized in non-profit work. With taking on these new strategies, I have had the chance to analyze the techniques in order to evaluate their efficiency. Finally, I have gained a much deeper understanding of the issues surrounding gun violence and its prevention. This internship has shown me how devastating the impact can be on a community and has encouraged me to continue working within the movement.
Monitoring growth can be difficult at times since it can only be measured in a relative way. However I know that I am growing from this internship because I am now taking on tasks with ease and also creating projects of my own. I am able to recognize areas within our organization that need help and am able to start working on those ahead of time. It is pretty cool because now I am innovating projects and then asking my supervisor for approval, which shows initiative!!
Actually, one of the projects I am working on started off this way. I have been working on breifings for the various Brady Campaign chapters that contain facts regarding the GOP proposed health care bill and target reasons why it would be detrimental to the gun violence prevention movement if it were to be passed. This has been a really great assignment because I have been able to take information that I learned in my public health class at Tulane and apply it to my work. For example, I was able to explain the importance of current ACA provisions and how they were able to positively affect the lives of gun violence victims; however without this knowledge, the briefings that I created would never have made sense or had been as cohesive.
This internship has helped me develop as a female leader by encouraging me to take on more policy roles within non-profits. It is allowing me to interact with policy makers and policy leaders with confidence. This is crucial for breaking gender standards since most policy makers are male. The information that I have gained here will be transferable to my future studies as a public health major. I am gaining an immense amount of knowledge about gun violence and the gun violence prevention movement that I look forward to using in my future academic work. In terms of skills, I am getting to work with a program called Every Action, a standard data-base for many non-profits. Luckily, I have some previous experience with this application, but now I am gaining a much deeper understanding of how the program works. This will be helpful for the rest of my life and will be a very important skill for future employment opportunities.
OH! Also last week I spent a lot of time at the Capitol building rallying against the GOP proposed health care bill for the Brady Campaign and I had the chance to meet Sen. Bernie Sanders!! Attached is the picture. It’s a pretty cool job if you ask me!
Well that is all for now!