Midpoint

Hi! I’m about a month into my internship with the Nature Conservancy and have about a month left to go. Most of my work up to this point has revolved around preparing for the Washington coast Works Sustainable Small Business Competition boot camp that will take place at the end of this month. I’ve been doing a lot of the coordinating with the conference center that we will be at as well as making sure the materials are available to the participants.

 

First off, I am definitely working on all of my learning objectives. I have learned a lot about coordinating and planning events, as well as making sure all the little details are taken care of. I have been engaging with the other people in my office, as well as my internship supervisor. Two of my learning objectives will take place during the boot camp because I’ll be listening in to all the information about creating sustainable small businesses and learning more about environmental organizations. For all of these things I am monitoring my growth through a workplan that my boss and I created that lists all the tasks that we have accomplished, as well as everything that has yet to be done.

 

Right now I am most proud of learning how to do all these tasks on my own. I feel like I have grown a lot through my internship and think that a lot of the skills that I have learned will carry on to future jobs. I also am excited for the boot camp because there I will have the opportunity to learn a lot more about small businesses.

 

All of the skills that I am learning will be transferable. First, after the boot camp I will have learned a lot that can be applied to the things that I learn in economics. I hope to write some sort of paper at some point about the positive effects of creating small local businesses in rural communities as opposed to big industries. I also am gaining more information of where I’d like to be in the future. I picked two broad degrees of study in order to give myself as many options as possible. I would like to continue to work with rural communities in an economics sense.

 

I’ve also added some photos of the building that I work in.

 

I finished working with Fund 17 about a week and a half ago. I’m really proud of the work I did! I completed the legal resource document, and it will be used to as training material for the Fund 17 interns this Fall, and also as a reference guide for fellows consulting with clients. Impact assessment was a real challenge, but I’m glad I got some exposure to it. Reaching the last client to complete the satisfaction survey was a real challenge, but I luckily got it taken care of. The only date that worked for the client to complete the survey was after the end date of my internship, but it was nice to put in the extra work to reach our goals of having those surveys completely finished.

This experience was a great exposure to the complexity of the law. I got to dive in to the various areas of the law that a small business touches, from the Cottage Food Law to General Liability Insurance. I would love to get to see these areas of law in practice, and an additional experience I would like to take on is to consult clients on the legal issues I learn about. I also liked when a lawyer contacted us for a meeting and told us about her career. My advice for students interested in a legal career to meet with a lawyer to learn what the day-to-day job is like, and also to get exposure to different types of law to learn what you’re drawn to. My advice for a student that wants to work for a nonprofit is that they shouldn’t expect immediate results from the work they do. They also should make sure that the work they do truly positively impacts the people they want to serve, and the best way to do this is to learn about impact assessment. It’s not the most fun part of the job, but it’s one of the most important!

I’ve been back in sleepy Houma, Louisiana for over a week now; looking back through my photos and journal entries from last month makes the adventure seem like a dream. However, I know that the lessons I’ve learned are real and will be carried with me from here onward.

I remember the first patient I tried examining on my own in the internal medicine ward. I was nervous and my Vietnamese was tentative, but I carefully went through all the appropriate steps which I had learned just moments before (look through the patient’s file, observe visual signs, feel the neck and quadrants of the belly area, ask about medical history and lifestyle). Becoming familiar with procedure for new patients and developing my examination skills were top learning priorities for me as I was entering the internship, so I took every chance I could to don the white coat and take a look at patients. In the neurology department, I saw many stroke victims and thus by the end of that week I’d begun to notice the signs and read x-ray charts for stroke of the brain (you can see one below!). Some of my favorite investigations fell under this diagnosis, only because they involved extensive and clever examination. My mentors watched and guided me each day, often with amusement. Although I was sad to leave a department at the end of the week, just when the staff and I were becoming friends, I left my internship having friends all over the hospital. During the last week, I never went to lunch without running into a familiar face. Contrast that with my first lunch at UMC – my mentor was busy so I walked the side streets alone, paranoid that my clothes would label me as a naive foreigner, and still clumsy with Vietnam đồng denominations (which certainly outed me as a naive foreigner).

An x-ray chart for a stroke patient. Names and personal information have been blacked out.

In every department I would find physicians eager to discuss health care politics with me. I spent many lunches, free time in the office, and walks between patient rooms exchanging information with physicians, professors, and students. We talked about the medical school system, method of payment for doctors, health factors, and patient attitudes in both the U.S and Vietnam. Nearly every patient came in with preconceptions about what their diagnosis should be, or was found to have self-prescribed medication after their last visit. The pharmacies in Vietnam require no physician signature on prescriptions, so patients are able to buy any drug at any time. This, of course, leads to complications in diagnosis and treatment. I learned that effective communication was more than half the job.

I suspect this summer is one I will continually come back to, as I make connections between what I have seen and what I will learn in the classroom. I have yet to see much of the terminology and mechanisms I was exposed to during my internship in school, but I know I will eventually come across them. Having hands-on, visceral experiences to link to readings will solidify the knowledge in my mind. For this reason I hope to continue to build more real-world experiences in the medical field by perhaps working as a scribe or volunteering at different hospitals. One day, I would love to travel again with a program to help administer health care. Foremost, I am excited to learn more about everything I have encountered this summer.

For anyone interested in shadowing at UMC or in the industry at all, I highly recommend developing personal connections and reaching out to administrators and physicians directly. Not only is it cheaper than going through a sanctioned program, but it also allows for more control over what you will be learning and accomplishing, and is likely to strengthen and extend your professional network. In such a competitive environment, standing out and maintaining strong networks gives you a special advantage. The more important advice, though, is just to go beyond your borders and do something you love in a new place you might come to love.

Many of my learning goals for my summer internship with teachNOLA / TNTP Academy revolved around communicating effectively with those that I interacted with, and becoming knowledgeable with the tools that I was using to complete my tasks, specifically Excel. As my internship continued, I became a lot more confident with composing emails and communicating effectively with those around me. I learned it is important to repeat necessary things because not everyone will catch it the first time. I learned that even if you think an individual will ask a follow-up question or already should know the information, it is important to supply them with as much information as possible the first time you confer with them, as to limit any more confusion. Pretty much every task that I did involved recording information in an Excel sheet, or pulling information from another Excel sheet. One thing I learned to do with Excel was a VLOOKUP. This function allows you to draw information from a file of interest and transfer it to the file you are using automatically, with the use of a common identifier. This function saves a lot of time and unnecessary transferring from one document to the other. Another one of my learning goals was centered around asking fewer questions, and being more thorough in the questions that I did ask. I learned that the more comfortable you get in a position and the more confident you become in your abilities, the easier the question asking becomes, the fewer the trivial questions become, and the easier the answers are to understand.

During the rest of my time at Tulane, I plan to help where help is needed in my life. Many of the everyday tasks that I completed aside from my long projects were things that really just were helping get things done that other people maybe didn’t have time to do. Myself and the other interns made posters to hang up at PST and we helped with the folding and distribution of the end of training T-shirts. We also were at hand to help with anything the staff needed during the big hiring fair for the fellows as well. During the rest of my time at Tulane I also plan to just enjoy myself. Watching how stressed each of these fellows were about making sure they got through the program, and figuring out where all the money was going to come from to pay for it, made me realize how I am not ready to jump full-force into adulthood. I’d rather just enjoy the time I’ve been given to relax and be naïve, and take advantage of that time. In the future, I look forward to learning more: more about where I am at, more about where I want to go, and more about what I can do to contribute to society.

If anyone is interested in interning with teachNOLA / TNTP Academy, this is what I recommend. Be flexible. Take advantage of all the opportunities you get to help anyone. I wish I would have taken more opportunities to see what it is that actually happens during Pre Service Training, rather than just what is behind the scenes. Be on time. You can get a lot more work done, and have a lot more opportunities to do new things if you make the most of your time, including getting there early. Enjoy the job you are doing. The staff is great and more than willing to help with any questions you may have.

If you are interested in the field of non-profits I would explore the vast number of opportunities. There are many non-profits that offer a number of different services. If there is one thing I learned from my internship, it is that there are many different branches on a tree. Everyone each has their own job and their own leaves to support so explore.

I learned that to become a more effective problem solver, you have to be firm and flexible at the same time. You have to try to understand each individual’s problems while still trying to get your job done, which is heavily dependent on deadlines. It is all a balancing act, and it is important not to judge any one person because their situation may be a little more difficult than another’s.

I have had a great summer with teachNOLA / TNTP Academy. My favorite part was getting to interact with the staff, the fellows, and my fellow interns. I have learned a lot, and I look forward to implementing what I’ve learned in the future wherever it may apply.

Hannah

 

 

 

With a month behind me at my internship with the International Center for Migration, Health and Development, I am beginning to see how much I have gained from my time here. Back in April, I drafted my learning goals with the intent of taking full advantage of the vast opportunities that surround me in Geneva. I have striven to do so, and find that seizing these opportunities always pays off, whether they be weekend trips to France or conversations with (initially) intimidating superiors. These experiences let me know I am progressing in achieving what initially brought me to Geneva: the chance to explore my interests and gain concrete knowledge of the ~working world~ towards which I am headed, and to shake off the uncertainties that may prevent me from embracing possibilities that come my way.

One of my learning goals was to better understand the role NGO’s and intergovernmental organizations play in “international development.” My understanding of this much-used term has been expanded from my experiences speaking with those at the ICMHD and other interns at a variety of organizations, from other non-profits to the UN. From understanding the UN bureaucratic system, to possessing deep knowledge of a culture, I am learning about many of the factors that influence the efficacy of “development” ventures. This is valuable knowledge in my pocket, which I am able to reflect upon when I (force myself to) write down my experiences so they may inform the work I may be doing one day.

Making connection others which allow me to having such conversations is something I am proud of since I have a tendency towards being reserved. I have met some amazing people in Geneva, from whom I have learned so much (it also doesn’t hurt that I’ve also had some incredible times with them). Those around us have incredible stories to tell and it always pays to listen. Since many of the other interns I meet are older have much more experience than I have (most are masters students), I am learning so much about their experiences, what they would have done differently, experiences that have shaped them etc. Not only am I seeing the possibilities for my future, but I am seeing how a passion for promoting human rights can play out in people’s lives. Many of the interns I meet are driven by a desire to do good and experience as much of the world as possible. This only reaffirms my own desire to do so, which will help drive me through my future pursuits, especially as I continue to be involved in the Tulane and New Orleans community.

I am seeing that the skills I am gaining here will be invaluable after I leave Geneva. On the professional lean of life, I am currently working on gathering information for an ICMHD project aiming to create a comprehensive source of knowledge on rare cancers in Europe. The depth of research I have had to learn to do will help me in much of my academic career within itself. Seeing the work that goes into such a project on many different levels will inform my understanding of public health project, which will ultimately be essential to my ability to work in this field. It is a sizable project, which I have learned to break into pieces as I work towards wrapping up this task. Long-term projects have always been a challenge for me, but I will be far more confident approaching them after this experience.

Finally, I can’t say enough about how living on my own (or at least to a greater extent than I ever have before) has helped me become better organized, better with money and more comfortable with the prospect of being a full-fledged independent. I’m on a tight budget but have managed to feed myself, I have experienced a lot of what Geneva has to offer and can already see myself handing dorm life much more effectively than in the bumbling phases of freshman year.

To boot, being abroad in a city as international as Geneva has allowed me to interact with people from an incredible range of backgrounds, which will give me invaluable knowledge of other cultures and worldviews. I have a greater understanding of the experiences that shape others and have thus expanded my view of those who differ from me.

In other news, my computer crashed recently, so I don’t have any pictures to share right now, but will be sure to upload some as soon as I can. Time previously devoted to Netflixing, however, is now spent hanging out in the hostel’s communal kitchen talking to very cool people, or wandering Geneva’s exceedingly charming old town. Which will always be a plus.

I can’t believe that my internship is already halfway over…this summer has gone by so quickly! So far at my internship I have learned more about my writing and future career than I have in any time that I’ve been at school.

I see the evolution of my writing through every published every article that I write. My progress is measured by the corrections my boss makes to my articles and how I’ve gotten to work on more intense and important projects as my internship has progressed. I’ve been very lucky to not only be doing digital journalism, but II’m currently working on research for a print article that will be published in September, which will give me print and research credit to add to my resume.

I’m extremely proud of the fact that I got to create, photograph, and publish my original avocado toast recipes, all with the support of my boss. It’s a refreshing change of pace to be treated like an adult in a work environment—I’m not constantly supervised and my supervisor trusts me enough to make decisions for my articles and research on my own. If you want to check it out, here it is! http://www.bostonmagazine.com/health/blog/2015/05/22/avocado-toast-recipes/

I’m excited to see how my writing skills continue to evolve and to further my knowledge about journalism. This internship has made me realize that writing is really a passion a mine; and I’m lucky enough to combine it with my other favorite topic: health. I’m looking forward to making the most of these last few weeks of my internship.

Hello from Butare, Rwanda! My time working in Rwanda with Engineering World Health has reached it’s half-way point.

It is hard to put the things that I have learned into words because every day is full of things that I have never experienced—every moment I learn something new. I spent the first month of my time in Rwanda taking classes in Biomedical equipment repair, French, and the native Kinyarwanda language. Here’s a sampling of Kinyarwanda:

Muraho hello

Murakoze thank you

Mwaramutse good morning

Amahoro peace

Komera stay strong

I know enough Kinyarwanda to greet people, talk about family, buy things, and find my way around—enough to survive here. I can tell my accent is getting better because occasionally Rwandans will start chattering away to me. At the same time, this shows me how much more I have to learn.

I worked alongside some Biomedical Equipment Technician (BMET) students at their school in Kigali, Rwanda. Their program is very focused on training technicians, where the Biomedical Engineering program at Tulane focuses more on equipment design and understanding of theory. The students that I worked with were very, very smart. I think it’s a shame that they do not have the design training that I have. They understand the problems that developing hospitals face better than I will and would be well suited to design solutions given the resources.

This month, I am working at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Butare (CHUB), a large teaching hospital in Huye, Rwanda.

CHUB is a fairly advanced hospital for the developing world, but it is very different from any hospital that you would find in the United States. The pace of work is much slower, which is good and bad. I like the slow pace because I have time to talk to doctors and nurses about their work and their lives. Rwandans are very friendly; what Americans my consider intrusive questions are very common. People I’ve just met often ask me if I’m married and am I catholic. It definitely took some getting used to.

My partner, Carisse, and I have spent a lot of time updating an inventory to be used by Engineering World Health and the hospital itself. Today we took inventory of a storage closet. It was packed full of mostly working equipment that is not needed because CHUB recently received a donation from the CDC of a bunch of new equipment. Carisse and I are trying to figure out a way to redistribute this unneeded equipment to other hospitals in Rwanda that could benefit from it. On Friday we will meet with the hospital director to talk about our ideas. We will also ask him if there are any secondary projects around the hospital that he would like us to work on while we are here.

This internship has definitely improved my troubleshooting skills and my confidence in my technical abilities. One of my first days at CHUB, my partner and I worked with a local technician to trouble shoot an ophthalmoscope that was not working. We determined that the problem was in the power supply, and that someone had switched the live and neutral electrical leads. We whipped out our soldering iron and heat shrink tubing and quickly fixed the problem. Of course, not all repairs are as simple.

This experience has shaped me and surprised me in many ways. Rwanda is a pretty wonderful place to live, and it is developing very quickly. There are beautiful paved roads (much nicer than New Orleans’ roads!), getting access to phone and internet is probably easier and definitely cheaper than in the US, and cold bucket showers really aren’t so bad. Plus, monkeys hang out at the hospital. (!!!)

I’m already starting to get sad about leaving this beautiful, beautiful place that has taught me so much.