How i Prepped My Internship...

I have done a lot to prep work for my internship before I left. I worked a lot with one of the educators named Anna. For Anna I did a lot of spread sheets, and I left her with ideas about what could be done, as well as, a more organized space for the person who comes in and takes my place. I have put all of the work in a folder filled with work that only I had done so that it was easily accessible for whoever needed to find it. For the company, I have left my ideas for how to make the internship and organization as whole more successful. I suggested to the organization that every intern that comes in should have a project to accomplish while they are at the organization. This would have certainly benefited me, however, in the end; I left the organization with little bits of work on different projects. The reports that I had done for the organization told the organization suggestions on being more orderly as well as what I saw that I was good and also those projects that I thought needed more work. I think the reports also helped to leave the organization in good order. I truly hope that I helped my organization because I can see it succeeding and increasing its success rate. It certainly is one of a kind, and I am so glad to have been a part of such an encouraging team.

Oh, What An Internship...The Final Blog

The past two weeks have gone by so quickly. I have been trying to compact so many activities in the short time that I am here. Last week me and my roommate ventured off to Lloret de Mar in Spain, and then this past weekend, we ventured to the beautiful location that is Venice. There is so much to see and so much to enjoy while living in London, it is close to so many interesting countries. This has certainly been one of the best aspects of living in London.

My final week has definitely been interesting so far. I got a visit from an Anglo American representative on Monday; this visit was supposed to happen weeks and weeks ago. I honestly do not know the point of Anglo-American and why they came so late. They were supposed to visit earlier to see if our internship was appropriate and their reason for not doing this was scheduling. It was a little frustrating to hear that they were coming for a visit because I honestly didn’t think they were coming, and they only contacted our supervisor about the visit. This visit was definitely something that I didn’t feel like I needed, and it confused me very much. The only good aspect was that I got to talk about how good my internship was.

In my internship I have learned so much about myself and about the people around me. I have learned that it is important to be vocal when I am not happy about something, or when I am not doing any work. There have only been a few days where I have been observing the classroom. When this occurs, I have learned that it is a good idea to take the initiative and go ask another teacher if they need my assistance for anything. Usually I go to Anna who is the educator for the retail department in the program. She is new to the organization, and she always seems to need my help. She is one of my favorite people to work with because I feel like I can be open with her, and I also feel like I am helping her most.

Third Blog....Last Week at Camden Job-train: July 7, 2008

I thought this week would be pretty well planned out, especially since I was given a project to accomplish. This is certainly not what happened. I worked mainly with the teacher in the retail part of the program. I helped her to organize her students in many ways. I aided the students in fixing their folders and their Curriculum Vitae. These are both important aspects to the students work, and help them in getting both work experience and hopefully, eventually a job. The CV as they called it in England is the same thing as a Resume to us in America. After this, I helped the teachers, named Andrea and Anna, to get organized with the department. I made many spread sheets on different aspects of what the children needed before they could move on and graduate from the program. I made one spreadsheet on the student’s placements, and one on needed reviews for the teachers; reviews are basically progress reports that the teachers have to make. The students were assigned placements based on their interest and location, many of them went to a retail clothing store, while a few others went to a grocery store that was across the street from where they lived. It was a very exciting thought for the students, and I cannot wait to hear about their experience, and also about how they feel about the work they were given. I also hope that many of these children get the chance to get a valid work placement, or job, after this is over, which seemed likely based on the site visits that I went on.

Another activity that I did last week was when I had a group discussion with some of the students about America and the culture. One of the classes that I sat in on was with an educator named Dave who did classes on personal development. He was excited to have two Americans in the job train center and wanted to have discussions to take advantage of this (another intern joined me last week from West Virginia University). One of my favorite aspects of the internship is interacting with the students. They all have skewed ideas of what the United States is like, so it is interesting to hear their questions and views. Most of the time their ideas are completely off and differ from how things truly are; many of the students watch American television and listen to American music, so they think it is very easy to live in the States. One of the students was talking about an uncle he had who lived in Miami. He told us about his visit to the area and about how his uncle was extremely wealthy, making life so easy for him. The student truly thought that life in the United States was easy for everyone. It was interesting for him to hear that not everything is easy in America and that most people had to work, and work hard for their money so that they could support their family. These discussions are definitely the most beneficial parts of the internship to me, and I think to the students as well; we learn a lot from each other. I hope to have many more discussions like this so that my knowledge can continue to grow from the students.

My Time In London...

The past two weeks have been quite interesting. I have learned a lot both from my journey in London and around Europe, and I have also learned so much from my internship. Two weekends ago my roommate and I ventured off to Prague. This is probably the most beautiful place that I have ever been. We only went for two days, but we walked pretty much nonstop, except for the short amount of time that we took to sleep and nap. It was truly amazing, and I was so glad we went; every building was so majestic and magnificent. When we got back we were in awe of everything we saw. I was so glad that we went on the trip because I had had a very tiring week at work and a very tiring Thursday before we left.

The day before I left I had gone to the Sports Program of the school and witnessed the children that were around age 13. This was quite a day as the kids were very rambunctious and by the end of the day they were basically in charge and running the school. I sat in a chair in the corner in complete awe of what was going on. The children were given zero discipline and there was no authority. It was crazy, and after this day I could not wait to get away. It only got worse when I arrived at the train station and saw what looked like the after math of a stabbing. There was a man lying on the floor covered in blood. I got scared and could not wait to get home.

I have learned a lot, especially from the children in the program about the ongoing problem with stabbing in the area. Teenagers and young adults all over London have a huge problem with knives; they are probably equivalent to the guns that we have in the states. I spoke with one of the teachers about this, and I talked to my director about it. My director decided to put me on a project while I am here that I am very excited about. I, along with a few other teachers have been given a project of teaching the kids in the program about knife violence and about how it is an ongoing problem. I am truly excited to start this project, and hopefully affect and help as many kids as I can. This will also help me get a grasp on London society and how it has changed.

This internship has definitely been an eye-opening experience for me. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do when I came over here, but I am having a great time working with the kids, and could possibly see myself as doing this job in New York or San Francisco. I love helping people, especially kids, and working with them through this program is making me want to work with children with disabilities. I am trying to learn all that I can while I am over in London, and I am taking full advantage of everything offered to me while I am here. I am voicing my opinions at my job when I have concerns, and I was encouraged to write a report about what I witnessed at the sports center; I was told by two of my coworkers that I did a great job. I hope to continue learning from this internship and I know that will.

My First Week in London and My First Day of Interning

My first week in London was quite an interesting experience. I learned a lot from the prices of housing, to the importance of looking left when I usually look right when crossing the street. I did all of the different tourist things that were offered to me, including the hop on hop off bus tours (which was a part of our tuition for this program), as well as the London eye, and a trip to the gorgeous and rocky Brighton Beach where I went on a tour bus to learn all that I could about the busy city. This all lead up to my first day on the job with Camden Jobtrain, a business that helps troubled teenagers to get more education, and finally to go out into the real world and get a job to make something of themselves.

As I went to find this large learning center, I was a little concerned about what I would expect, who I would meet, and what I would learn from being in such an environment. Before this we had an orientation with Anglo American where they brought a small group of us into a meeting room to tell us each individually about our placements. When they got to me, the Anglo American facilitator, Leslie, told me where I would be going and then hesitantly asked what my major was. When I answered sociology, he responded hesitantly and said, “Well maybe, I guess this goes along with your major.” This was extremely disconcerting, and made me wonder whether or not I was placed well.

When I arrived at the site I was greeted by my facilitator Kieran and was introduced to everyone in all of the offices. We visited the 5 sites available to the students, and I got to see what the children had offered to them when they were not studying and getting their education. Camden Jobtrain offers teenagers the chance to learn about practical skills such as retail, car mechanics, construction, wood building and athletics to help them to learn how to get a starting job. It was extremely interesting to see these children at work; and I was told that they were a bit of a handful; however they all seemed to be nice individuals who were getting the help that they needed to get back on their feet. Throughout the day it was interesting to talk to Kieran and ask him the many questions I had which helped me to see the differences between the American and European school system, of which there are many differences. This center is unique as I have seen nothing like it in America. It is a place for bullies, people who have been bullied, as well as dyslexic and special need children to go and get back on their feet. The first day was definitely an interesting one, and I learned a lot.

Learning Objectives

Through my internship at Camden Jobtrain, Iwant to improve my understanding of the hardships that teenagers face when living in such a huge city. My Strategy for accomplishing this is to talk with the students about their life experiences and aspirations.

I want to develop my understanding, and apply what I already know to reach out to these teenagers. One of my goals is to help atleast one of the students, i want to reach out to them so i can learn more and more about them.

I hope to identify with the teenagers, and apply myself in getting to know them better, and helping them to trust me. I want the teenagers to be comfortable with me so that I can learn from them about their life problems and what they are doing in changing themselves for the better. In order to do this i will treat them as adults and listen to all they have to say.

I hope to develop and get to know myself better as a person. This internship and time abroad is a growing experience and I will use it as just that. I want to get as much out of my time at the internship, as well as in London that i can. I will do this by applying myself and not letting myself slack. I will get to know the culture and everything that is a part of London life.

Lastly, I hope to get a better understanding of exactly what I want to do when I graduate college next year. I will accomplish this by seeing if i like what i am doing, and also seeing what age of people i want to work with.