Week #2

Week one at the Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy was great! I will be splitting my time between development and the Immigrant Justice Program teams. As a development intern, I will be working on grant writing, social media management, and fundraising campaigns among other projects. With the immigration justice program, I will be providing support to the attorneys as they are preparing for immigration court; additionally, I will be doing a lot of interpreting and research. My managers have outlined certain expectations and projects. Furthermore, I set the expectation for myself to complete all the projects outlined. I also hope to network with different individuals at the organization. I plan to do this by attending all the social events planned for the summer and specifically those organized for interns. I also want to ask other coworkers and fellow interns to have coffee with me so that I can learn from their professional experiences. In this way, I will be able to build professional relationships with people outside of my areas. My third expectation for myself is accountability. I want to be able to constantly update my managers on the progress of each project and approximate deadlines for each.

My first week in general was amazing and I had many meaningful moments including a social event hosted by the Executive Director of the organization. I was also able to attend a Diversity Symposium where I was able to meet many Latinx professionals from the Charlotte community. While these experiences were memorable, the highlight of my week was being able to interpret for a client. The client had an extremely tough story and I was honored to be in the presence of such a strong human being. Hearing a story of such perseverance puts in perspective how fortunate many of us are to be living in a country where we have the possibility of going to college and having an internship. Women, in countries like Honduras, are not so fortunate since it has one the highest femicide rates in the world. Meeting this client was the highlight of my week because despite all odds, they were able to flee their home country to come here and start a new life. I am lucky to have been able to meet them.

 

Fun Fact: Since I will be splitting my time between two teams, I will be in two different buildings which are down the road from each other!