Week 9: Final Reflection!

The final week of the internship went very well. The internship overall was a great experience for me. I learned a lot about working as a victim’s advocate, working for a non-profit, and working in general. I now know how to perform the majority of tasks as a victim’s advocate, with a little assistance. I discovered the flexibility of working with a non-profit. And finally, I learned what it is like to work nine to five each day and build relationships with co-workers. Reflecting on my original goals from Week 1, I think I accomplished, to some extent, all of my goals. First off, I believe I learned how to be professional. Dressing up for the internship, communicating with co-workers, and helping clients all helped me improve this skill. Throughout the internship I built relationships with my supervisor as well as everyone else in the office. I even got offered a job a few times! As for my goal of narrowing my career interests, I believe I widened them. Going into the internship, I thought I had wanted to work with law enforcement but wasn’t too sure if I had really wanted to and if so, didn’t know what I wanted to do in law enforcement. Now, after the internship, I believe I want to work with crime victims, human trafficking, and possibly children. I would consider doing these things for non-profits or law enforcement organizations. With that being said, that leads into my most memorable experience: attending the superior court hearing mentioned in Week 2. That case, involved a victim of rape, who was a minor, and trafficked across the US. She was also Hispanic which brings me to another thing I realized I want to do. I want to improve my Spanish language skill. After taking the three required classes at Wake, I thought I was finished. However, as I worked with Hispanic Outreach at the C4FVP, I realized that my Spanish is not as good as it should be to fully address clients’ needs and that I might need to consider a study abroad in a Spanish-speaking country. That was the biggest learning experience for me; working with Hispanic clients. In the end, this internship was very productive, exciting, and influential to my career exploration! For all students who plan to do an internship next year, I have one piece of advice: Don’t be shy or scared to take the lead at your internship because you feel you are “only an intern”. Be willing to complete tasks, learn new things, and even challenge (to an extent) the way things are run in the organization and it will take you a long way. Because I did those things, I believe I made better relationships and built networks that will benefit in the future when looking for a job.