I can't believe it's already been a month since I started my internship with Clark! I suppose that only being there 10 hours a week can make it seem like it's going by quickly, but I'm also really enjoying myself, which definitely helps! Because my internship takes up so little time in my schedule in comparison to my other two positions, I often forget to blog about what's going on there, so I figured it's deserving of it's very own post! :)
Students
Clark's student population is extremely unique to any others that I've worked with before. From simply being on campus, you can tell where their priorities and interests lie. During the time I've spent on campus this past month, I've noticed that these students genuinely enjoy being engaged on campus and want to leave their mark while they're here.
Social justice and acceptance are clearly very important to these students, and they aren't afraid of their own voices. While I was on campus a few weeks ago, a student group put on a program revolving around consent and the education of why it's important. While other student populations may have shied away from this topic, these students embraced it - there was a line to get the opportunity to share their thoughts on the matter! I love the passion of the students here, and I'm excited to see this passion shine through in many different areas.
Projects
I know I haven't gone into too much depth about what I'm doing at Clark so I'll give you a rundown. The office that I'm interning for, Student Leadership and Programming, is hoping to build up it's leadership programming for students, and my main focus right now is to explore how that can be accomplished in the best way for Clark students. Over the academic year, the hope is to begin offering some instances of leadership training for students as well as improve upon the resources we have for leadership education. It's still a little foggy about how it'll eventually look, but I've been doing tons of research of leadership programs from other colleges and universities and brainstorming ideas of how to make it unique to Clark.
One of the biggest projects I've begun so far is creating a blog for the office! I'm hoping to engage students not only through their readership but through recruiting some contributors as well. I think that while it's great that we, as staff members, are hoping to provide training and knowledge for our student leaders, it's also important for current student leaders to be able to share their voice with the rest of campus. Having students lending their experiences to those that are just beginning to hone their leadership skills will also allow growth for their own leadership as well. The blog hasn't launched quite yet, but I'm starting to gain some interest from students who are willing to contribute, so I'm excited to see where it goes!
Everything is still in its early stages, but things are starting to gain a bit of traction and direction. I'm happy that I'll get to be at Clark for an entire academic year and to see the these projects through 'til May. It will be interesting to see where it all goes. I'll be posting another update next month, so stay tuned!
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