Established in 2017, 4 The Children is a Durango-based non-profit serving the five-county region. 4 The Children is an umbrella organization for the local Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) program, the Safe Exchange and Supervised Visitation (SEPT) program, and the Child Advocacy Center (CAC). 4 The Children strives to protect childhood today for stronger families tomorrow through these three programs. http://4thechild.org/
Southwest Area Health Education Center: Southwestern Colorado Area Health Education Center (SWCAHEC) is a non-profit organization that strives to improve rural health in the eight SW counties of Colorado. SWCAHEC has a strong emphasis on supporting rural primary care, community health, and on developing a pipeline of students who will eventually be our region’s health professionals. https://swcahec.org/
Reflection: Skills I used during my internships were perseverance, creativity, Independence, and communication. During my first internship I was doing a lot of work on my computer and for me it was hard to sit there for several hours on a computer but I persevered and got my work done. With my second internship since I was putting together a forensic room and remodeling a medical room my mentor kind of gave me free reign to tell her what I think would improve the rooms and she allowed me to paint and somewhat decorate it how I wanted to. With that I was able to be more creative and do more hands-on work. Most of the time I was working independently so it gave me the chance to push myself more to get things done. I tend to slack off at school when given independent work time but I found myself getting right to work and taking short breaks once I completed my work. Also at my second internship for 4 The Children I had to get to the office earlier than everyone else so that I would have enough hours to complete my internship and my mentor allowed me to have a key to open her office and get to work. Again I noticed that I was still doing my work even when no one was around to supervise me. Getting to know my mentors better and other interns I was working around helped me to be more comfortable and communicative. I would constantly ask my mentor what else they would like me to do or work on.
Overall I enjoyed my internships. The people I worked with were super nice. But I didn't get all the experience that I wanted. When interning at Southwest AHEC I got to attend board and staff meetings which was important to experience because those kinds of things happen at all jobs even though It wasn't very enjoyable . I even got to go to a couple of Narcan training sessions which I enjoyed getting to communicate with our community about the opioid crisis. Even though I gained knowledge about nursing I wish I could have had more hands-on experience with nursing. One of my favorite things I got to do was get first aid and CPR training because it's something I can put on my resume and it's something that is always important to know especially since I have a strong interest in nursing. But a downside with that internship was that a lot of the work that was given to me was mostly on my computer so I was spending several hours a day sitting at a desk working on my computer and it wasn't very enjoyable for me. I ended up switching my internship and for last week I was with 4 The Children. I spent a lot of time cleaning and organizing as well as painting. I liked it because I was staying busy and was always doing something (not on a computer). I wrote thank you notes to companies who have donated items or money to 4 The children. I was a little disappointed that I didn't get to spend time with the kids. But I gained a great understanding of what 4 The Children does and made me more interested in Social work.
My biggest takeaway from my internship was that I do not want to work in non profit organizations only because it does take a lot of work. It can be a burden on non profits financially and also non having a lot of help from employees makes the job much bigger and harder. Another takeaway is that my passion for wanting to help people whether it be through nursing or through social work has become stronger. Which will make it much easier for my future education because I have a better idea of what I want to pursue. When I worked with southwest AHEC I researched about midwifery a lot because It is a strong interest of mine and I learned all about the education route I would have to take, which is helpful to know because now I have an understanding of how long it will take for me to be certified in that career.
The importance of having an intern can be super helpful at least in my case. Theres a lot of work with in non profits that has to be done. You can't always be a part of the important stuff but there's other things that your mentor needs to get done but doesn't necessarily have the time for that you can accomplish to help them out. For example at Southwest AHEC I helped Kate get things ready for their Health Career Institute, and for 4 The Children I put together a room for the organization. In both of these cases it was things that needed to be done that my mentors didn't have a lot of time to do because of their work load. So it was nice knowing that I was helping them out rather than adding more work to their plate. With interning comes responsibility and you have to be more professional which I would also say was a strength of mine because you want to leave with a good impression otherwise it will make it tougher for future interns.