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Intern Story
Intern Story
Intern Story
Intern Story
Intern Story
Intern Story
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2012-2013 Interns |
Intern Story
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A Snowball's Chance Dreaming Change by Jessie Moore "I wish I was a snowball," said 8-year-old Jose dreamily, "so I could go rolling down that hill." He then proceeded to demonstrate just what that would look like, though fortunately on a much smaller hill then the one he had first indicated. While I was smiling on the inside, I was forced to lecture him on the importance of standing up and walking to keep up with the rest of the group. It was his first time ever seeing snow outside of the television screen--in fact it was a first time for most of the kids from Rakestraw Center's after school program. Rakestraw is located in South Central Los Angeles, perhaps one of the first places people think of when they hear "inner city" or "gang activity." Rakestraw kids, from the time they hit puberty, are familiar with the question "Where are you from?" (i.e., "What is your gang affiliation?") as they are asked to "step up" at the corner down the street. Hearing gunshots in the distance as they are preparing for bed is hardly cause for concern, as it happens almost every night. Schools are so overcrowded that they are forced to use the track system-sometimes going up to track F, which means that there are 6 possible "school years" going on at once. There's no guarantee that all of the kids in one family will go to school at the same time. Suffice it to say that the children from South Central are faced with many challenges inherent in the community they're growing up in. There is a hardness in these kids that they are forced to develop to survive. In the midst of this, Rakestraw is a safe place for them to come; somewhere they can be off the streets if only for a little while. I was given the task, through my job with the Urban Foundation, of developing a series of field trips for the after school program at Rakestraw. The goal in developing this was to take kids out of their community, if only for short periods of time, to places they may not have the opportunity to experience otherwise. Our first trip was to the snow, where the kids experienced a snowshoe hike through the Children's Forest just outside of Big Bear. Clothing was donated by Patagonia, food by Vons and Food 4 Less, and transportation by Councilwoman Jan Perry. The look on the kids faces as they learned about the different kinds of trees, the feeding habits of woodpeckers, and the various colors of squirrels made all the effort put into preparing the trip more than worth it. Smiles grew even wider when it was finally playtime and many snowball fights ensued. A trip soon followed to watch the Los Angeles Galaxy play soccer at the Home Depot Center, and ideally later trips will include excursions to the library and a park outside of the city where the kids can play sports without the concern of losing balls in the street or into the neighbor's yard. The Rakestraw children do not know what Ameri-corp is, or what EUIP stands for, nor are they aware of how much work went into providing these opportunities for them. They do know however, that a change of environment brings a change of ideas, and that a change of ideas can spark dreams-even dreams as lofty as one day becoming a snowball. |
Intern Story
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Change? Yes We Can, After All by Sara Palmer Though I knew that I would learn a lot during my year in EUIP, I did not expect that it would affect me as much as it has. My placement this year is at the Los Angeles Child Guidance Clinic, an agency that works with emotionally and mentally handicapped children in south central LA. I have been working with children since I was in high school, and have always enjoyed the challenges that they bring. These challenges pale in comparison to what I face everyday at LACGC. It would be a lie to say that I enjoy every minute of it, but it would be an even bigger lie to say that I wish I was working somewhere else. I have grown to both love LA and my job and the experiences both have given me. When I first arrived at LACGC, I was surprised and frustrated with my clients. I had never worked with such difficult children before. I wasn't respected or listened to. Children no taller than my hip were attacking me! It took a few weeks to get used to the way the clinic is run, but after I felt like I could handle where I was, I wanted to improve it. I thought the children at the clinic deserved higher quality food, so I set out to develop a menu that would be suitable for them. I looked through research papers, read books, and emailed organizations to find out more about the different recommendations experts have about nutrition for children. I was able to find people who were willing to give of their time to help our clinic improve the menu to cater to our clients. I was worried that perhaps my project would never happen--my mother, who works for the Department of Health of Hawaii, has always told me how hard it is for organizations to change. However, a few months later, paperwork now finished, my little project is a reality. It has altered my perspective that change takes forever, and now I see that things can be different and change can be embraced. I am extremely glad I took this year off before graduate school, and it's not over yet! I have enjoyed both my job and living here in Inglewood and I hope that the rest of my time left here will be as eventful. |
Intern Story
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Where Our Hands Find Work by Bethany Ulrich I didn't mean to disrespect the California Assemblyman. But how was I supposed to know what he looked like? It was one of my first days as an intern at Community Health Councils and I already was not feeling so hot about how useful or meaningful I would be in completing the year-long job before me. Am I smart enough? Am I charismatic enough? Am I strong enough? I didn't recognize the California assemblyman when I was in front of a bus of 50 people, prepping them for a public hearing concerning oil drilling in their neighborhoods. I had heard rumors I was to hand the mike over to the political leader for a pep talk, but hadn't heard confirmation he would be there. Thus I accidentally treated the senator and his assistants hanging around the bus like regular Joe Shmoes and was surprised when one of them took the mike and identified himself as the said assemblyman. Challenges like these constantly hold my inadequacies before me. With this and other frustrations, I realize that my skills and interests may not completely line-up with those that it takes to do my current job. But the challenges have me learning and growing in ways I did not expect. Through my internship I've been introduced to whole worlds I never knew existed: public health, environmental issues, macro social-work, health disparities. Plus, I get to witness the glow of residents who communicate to elected officials for the first time; I get to eat lunch and take walks with my extremely knowledgeable and experienced co-workers; I get to meet with top LA environmentalists and hear about what proposals they are making to the mayor. At one time, this may have bothered me: that I wasn't doing the most fulfilling work right out of college. But I like to think that Samuel's words to Saul before he became king, might apply to me too: "...do whatever your hand finds to do, for God is with you" (Samuel 10:7). Maybe I don't have to be doing the absolutely most fulfilling thing that is my life-passion-in order to do meaningful, useful, blessed work. Maybe in the slow moments of life, when I mess up and struggle and am not doing what some people may call my "life-passion"--God is still relevant and alive now. I don't need to impatiently wait for the day where I'll figure out exactly where my place is in society, but that my place is here and now, and it is good. Whether my hands are typing another oilfield update or helping out a coworker or stuffing envelopes, dialing up community members, or accidentally ignoring assemblymen-my work is blessed and may be more meaningful and useful than I think. |
Intern Story
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One More Story by Bryce Fisher "Then they stuck this huge needle into my liver and filled three liter containers with poison that was inside of me. The doctor told me, 'You're lucky to be alive. If you drink again, you're gonna die.' And there were all these other people, lying there in the other beds around me for the same thing. Every once in a while, the nurse would wheel one out, and send them down the elevator. None of the doctors would tell why they were wheelin' people out, but then one of the other patients told me they died." -St. Joseph Center client Getting to hear the stories of people I work with makes this year away from loved ones rewarding. They remind me that I'm not just sitting in an office while the sun is shining over the beach; but rather that I'm connecting people to housing and something like the life they lost. But most of the time, as a case manager in the homeless service center at St. Joseph's, I just sit and type and make phone calls, and I need reminders that all the paperwork means something to someone. While I was meeting with one of my clients, we started talking about furniture. My client said he didn't have a bed, so I offered him one from our thriftstore for free. He said, "When I was using drugs, I put all my energy into using drugs. So now that I'm clean, I'm gonna put all of my energy into living well. I save up and buy everything new." I got to visit his apartment recently. He does live very well, and he'll have a bed soon. I could tell you about my client who used to be a stripper and has a story for every street downtown or the family of six that wants to adopt two more or the man who keeps guinea pigs in his shirt or the transexual woman who hit on me or the paranoid woman who sleeps all day and uses action figures to inspire her writing. They help me see that "crazy" people aren't always different from me just because we put a label on them. At the end of this year, I want to leave with more than my story. I want to take as many of my clients' stories with me as I can. Now that's my idea of living large. |
Intern Story
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Changing Lives: Worth it. by Caitlin Frazier When I confirmed for my year as an Episcopal Urban Intern, I knew I would have some new experiences. But I had no idea how formative those new experiences would be. As I begin to reflect on EUIP, I can look back and see major changes in my life. They include: a significant shift in location and setting, from an Oklahoma suburb to west Los Angeles; a feeling of self reliance as I moved to a new city and developed a home; a much greater knowledge and experience base of social services in general and HIV/AIDS in particular; and a much more open mind. Over the past 10 months, I have worked at Common Ground: The Westside HIV Community Center as a Prevention Advocate. The job involves many tasks but my specific responsibilities are: working with homeless youth at a drop-in, teaching high schoolers about HIV and conducting HIV tests. Working with homeless youth has been the biggest challenge. The young adults I encounter have often been living on the streets for many years. I have had difficulty building relationships because of the drastic differences between myself and the population I serve. One of greatest rewards of working with the youth has been the appreciation I have gained of my own life. The fact that I grew up for 18 years with my parents in a loving suburban home and always had much more than I needed is a significantly more amazing fact than I have previously appreciated. Working in high schools teaching about HIV has been a great strength builder for me. It has allowed me to fine tune my public speaking and presentation skills. I have to do a lot of thinking on my feet when the students have questions. These are skills that I know will aid me in any career path. HIV testing has been my favorite part of my job. I find the challenge of the test setting invigorating. The tester only has approximately 25 minutes with each client who comes in to test. During that time, you have to enhance the person's perception of their own risk for HIV, set a goal for risk reduction, push the stage of change of the individual, communicate information about HIV, and fill out a questionnaire. In addition, the tester is constantly monitoring the anxiety and emotions of the client. It's a constant juggle and when I leave a testing room, I'm always thinking about how I can do better on the next test. My job can be stressful and is often emotionally draining. But preventing just one person from becoming HIV+ is worth my work. I take inspiration from an evaluation that my coworker and I received during a trip to a high school where we taught about the transmission of HIV and STDs. Taped over my desk, it reads, "You two are great. I am honestly going to change my lifestyle because of you guys. Thank you!" |
Intern Story
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EUIP really did change my life. Working with homeless people on LA's skid row opened my eyes to how much need exists right here in the US. I was already a Christian when I came to the program--but EUIP shaped the kind of Christian I want to be. One whose life, one way or another, is shaped around establishing justice. I'm not there yet. But EUIP showed me what it means to strive for that. |
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