Hello again everyone! What a crazy past few weeks it has been. I had to press pause on my lovely internship due to a concussion caused by a fly softball. I was bed-bound for a while and just recently started up with my internship. To do a little recap, I was working with a fellow intern Loic on the different activities to be used as fun ways to end the group sessions. A really popular activity was a word find I created with the words educate, equity, love, me, us, and justice. The kids had the option to either leave or stay and do the word find and every student stayed. The bootcamp is going very well, and Loic is doing an amazing job with keeping everyone interested and running it while I have been out.
I was also working on getting some updated bios on past interns who have worked with the Rodham Institute, and adding these updated to the website. You can go see all the past interns on the website! Here is a link:
https://smhs.gwu.edu/rodhaminstitute/internships-practicum
Here is a photo off the website of past intern bio Madie Alexander!
I have also had a ton of time to think about my time spent in D.C. and I am still awed by the work Rodham is doing. I was solely focused on this institute and more specifically on how to create this bootcamp that is now in motion. This relates the work they’re doing for youth. The newer generations deserve a lot of attention because that is how we make change over decades and change peoples lives forever. The Rodham Institute newsletter touches on topics that they are working to improve, and also has information on awareness months such as National Breast Feeding Awareness Month and National Immunization Awareness Month. Here is a photo of what this email looks like:
Overall, I am interested in public health and my time with Rodham has really peaked my interest in the medical side of public health as well. Another place of interest for me is Telluride AIDS Benefit. Lately, there has been a move to stop using the term “AIDS” and work towards using HIV, because most people with HIV don’t have AIDS. There is so much stigma around the word AIDS, and it makes people living with HIV feel uncomfortable.
Another thing I noticed during my time spent in the city was the homeless population. I did some research and talked to a couple local organizations helping the issue in San Miguel County and realized that the issue goes way deeper than homelessness. It touches on so many more issues that, when I walked through D.C., I would never have seen. Some of these issues are drugs/addiction, sex trafficking, and many others. The problem with this, however, is that it is so well hidden that public knowledge is minimized.
I have recognized a ton of patterns in a lot of public health issues, and the emotion coming from people struggling circulate around a fear of judgement of their own situation. Along with feeling alienated and alone in their world, this isolation is what we need to work to abolish. Stigma creates inability and unwillingness to open your mind to other peoples’ struggles without fearing for your own position.
The upcoming things for me in my internship are creating a judge template for the student film making festival, getting those bios, and continuing my work with the bootcamp, along with anything else I am needed for! Thank you for reading my blog!
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