Personal Contribution – Week 6
Since the first week of interning at Youth Life, I have been able to see how my work contributes to the greater mission of the organization. Due to the nature of the organization and my role as an intern, I have had a direct hand in teaching the students that attend the Youth Life summer program. Before each week begins, I design and prepare activities and lessons to teach my students. If we are to put this in terms of the prompt, my “project” at my internship would be to reinforce academic concepts that my rising first grade students learned the past academic year. During my lessons each week, I see how my work, time, and effort helps my students develop a stronger understanding of academic material from kindergarten. My efforts in designing effective lesson plans each week, therefore, has certainly paid off, since I have been able to see the students in my class grasp a stronger understanding of academic topics.
As I approach the final week of my internship, the effectiveness of my efforts has becoming particularly evident. For example, in my math class, we have been focusing most of the summer on learning basic addition and subtraction facts. Compared to the first week that I was working with my students, they have begun to really comprehend and learn what I have been emphasizing throughout the summer. Additionally, I have been able to see them become more confident in what they know as they have developed a deeper understanding the topics covered.
Ultimately, all of this day-to-day work – teaching my students, creating lesson plans, and enforcing discipline – has worked to further the Youth Life mission. My presence and instruction has helped the students at Youth Life develop stronger academic skills, fight the “summer slump,” and have a fun summer. Seeing my students develop these skills, as well as truly enjoy their time this summer, has been incredibly rewarding. I am very thankful for having the opportunity to intern at Youth Life, and am excited to see how this experience prepares me for future professional roles.
I have no doubt that you contributed significantly to the Youth Life organization and your students. Teaching is a project, but it is so much more. And teaching little ones like you’ve been working with, that takes some serious patience. I know how dependent Youth Life is on volunteers throughout the academic year and so I know how invaluable it is to YL to have interns over the summer as the volunteer pool (at least from UofR) dips significantly. I encourage you to write down examples of strategies you used to get/keep students engaged, ways in which you dealt with challenging situations, etc. so that you have specific examples you can draw from when interviewing (for graduate school, jobs, etc.). Even if you are not looking to pursue teaching opportunities, I guarantee you that if you used an example from YL and could make the skills, competencies, abilities that it highlights relevant to whatever program or organization you’re interviewing for, they’d be impressed.