Part A “Description of My Internship”
American Red Cross is an organization that I can see myself working for after graduation. At the Keystone Chapter office, where I worked this past semester, taught me the ins and outs of how a business truly works. In the beginning of my internship our office changed location. We were originally in downtown Johnstown but come the end of September we moved to an office in the Region Blood Bank office. This was a change not only for me, but for the office as a whole. The three main people who work in the Keystone Chapter office, Colleen Sherman, Ken Geary, and Georgia Lehman. Other people that I interacted with were the volunteers. Colleen and Ken were the two in charge of me and who I would report to if I had any concerns or questions. I was allowed to set my own times for when I wanted to go into the office and prepare for a program, and I got to book on my own time. It was beneficial to the teachers that I did not have classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. My schedule made it easy them and for me. I kept track of my bookings on an excel sheet and every time I had to update it, I had to submit one to Colleen; this kept me very organized. I also kept and excel sheet for times I would go into the office and times I would be done. I also kept one for the mileage that I drove. This kept me so organized and allowed me to manage my time. At the new office, I was given a cubical where I would work and organize the packets that I had made for the students.
They gave me the title of Community Education Intern. I was the very first intern that held this position, so I was more or less thrown into this title with no guidance or advice. However they were all supportive to help me and give me whatever materials and criticism I needed to allow myself to be successful. My goal was to educate as many people in the Somerset and Cambria county area, mainly elementary and middle school aged children, about safety and staying healthy programs. American Red Cross wanted me to try and educate 1,000 children, and I hit that goal mid November, come the mid of December, I had educated approximately 1,400 students. The programs I organized and introduced to the children were “Scrubby Bear”, “Master of Disaster”, “Be Ready 1-2-3”, “Whales Tales”, and “Conscious Choking”,.
I mailed out letters to all of the school’s superintendents informing them of the free service American Red Cross offered and what every program will teach their students and age appropriateness. I wrote my own letter and Colleen and Ken edited it many times until it was perfect. Colleen and Ken were not expecting a good response from the letters that were mailed out, but within a week or two I was making bookings for nearly every day I had available. By the time this semester was over I taught over fifty classrooms within five different school districts. Most of the schools that contacted me went by grades, and I taught the programs in a classroom setting, not a large audience. When I taught these programs I really had to use my public speaking skills and my professional writing skills due to the letter that I had sent out, and how important it is to be professional in a confirmation email. I also had to be able to have fillers incase I were to finish early It was important to take enough materials to continue doing until my time slot was up. Most of the programs included activities where I interacted among the students with each other or between me and them.
After I started to getting booked by teachers, I would then send out a confirmation email to that specific teacher confirming if all of my information was correct. I doubled checked the program, the date, the time I was starting, the number of students, and the school district. When I first started American Red Cross gave me all of the materials I would need to teach all programs. Most of the materials were out of date and the children activities did not seem appealing or interesting. Another issue I ran into was some of the programs like “Be Ready 1-2-3”, were meant to take three weeks to finish, but I only had a half hour to teach these programs. Large parts of my job were to re-do these programs and make it appeal to the audience and have it fit the time of one class period. I wanted to make these programs appeal to not only the students but to the teachers as well. I did not want to cut into more academic time. I also had to make packets for students to take home and share with their families. Therefore I had to go through all of the papers and booklets of information they provided me with and decide what was important.
“Be Ready 1-2-3” was the program that I improved the most and the second best program next to Scrubby Bear. “Be Ready 1-2-3” was totally revamped. It originally talked about fires, winter storms and earthquakes, but I took out earthquakes and added thunder and lightning storms. Johnstown does not get earthquakes Colleen and I decided to put in thunder and lightning storms because it related more to our region. I also came up with an interactive activity where the children made their own disaster relief kit. This was an activity that I came up with all on my own. I came up with fourteen different pictures of things they would and would not need in a kit for disasters. They had to rip the packet apart and make two piles, one of things their families would need to survive a disaster and a second of pile of things they would not need to survive in a disaster. Most children and teachers truly enjoyed this activity because it was interactive and it was something that they can take home to their parents. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed interning at the American Red Cross not only for the experience I had received, but the skills that I made stronger and because I succeeded so well at all of my programs. I was very nervous the first time I presented each program, but it got easier after every time I did it.
Part B “Evaluation of My Internship”
The value of this internship allowed me to build confidence in public speaking and have confidence in knowing what I am teaching. Also, it allowed me to see the importance of being organized. The office was very laid back which allowed the work environment to be as well, but we still had to make sure the work got done. Ken and Colleen were very approachable and allowed me to know that it was okay to make mistakes and no one is perfect. They also constantly reminded me that they still make mistakes and that they still have each other proofread their works before they send them out to be read by someone else. It was comforting to know that in the work world mistakes happen all the time.
An improvement that I would suggest to my advisor is to force the next intern to actually deliver the program before he or she goes out and teaches it. It will allow for that intern to make sure what they have planned will fill the time slot they are given and to make sure the information is correct. I found at times when teachers corrected me or added important things that I never would have thought of because I am not a parent and forget how certain things would be important to teach them.
Part C “Advice to Future Interns”
When I first started I was very overwhelmed because I had a stack of different books and activities for varieties of disasters, but now that all of the programs are done for interns in the future it will be much easier for them to succeed from the beginning. I learned that teachers and students of any age or learning level will enjoy the programs because they are grateful that you take the time to come out, teach the students, and care about them and making sure they get the message. Unfortunately, like there were times during my internship where communication was lacking between and Colleen and I because I was scared of how she would criticize the program I developed or how I delivered that specific program. Taking the criticism from Colleen and Ken was very difficult because I did not want to let them down, but it was something I needed and it taught me that other people in the office are there for you to bounce ideas off of, so take a risk and throw out all kinds of ideas you may have, whether you think they will work or not. Colleen and Ken’s purpose was to help me do the best that I can. I wish Colleen would have forced me to perform all of the programs in the office before I went out. Sitting around the table and just discussing the program made me nervous for my first two. I did however like that Colleen came to my first program of “Be Ready 1-2-3” at Northern Cambria Elementary School; she made me feel more relaxed. There were times Colleen came along with me to teach lessons like Conscious Choking and ended up taking over and I became the assistant. This was hard for me to adapt, how was I supposed to learn and develop skills to perform that program when she would do it for me?
Writing the letter to send out to the superintendents was something that I never had to do before and allowed me to develop professional skills and a way for me to send similar letters out. It had taken me a couple tries to get something that Colleen and Ken approved. I wish I had a sample letter to use as a guideline. That would have made it not necessary and less stressful on me because I had no idea what things were important and what things were not important to include in my letter. Due to the response that I received from the letters, I definitely recommend sending letters again. I would also suggest to a future intern to send letters to the school’s principals, or even to the health teachers because there may be lack of encouragement from the superintendent. If the letter was in the hands of someone who is more interested in how the students would benefit from the programs it will then allow a intern to reach out to more students.
I have to always be more prepared and have back up activities or time for review in case you end early in a class. I learned that it is better to be over prepared because if you finish early most teachers will look at you to fill the allotted time spot. For instance, I had a teacher who did not inform me that his classes were forty five minutes long and the program that I had planned was “Scrubby Bear”. I had gotten “Scrubby Bear” was a half hour long program so when I had fifteen minutes to kill, I was forced to entertain these kids. Therefore I had questioned them one more time on what they needed to do to stay healthy and clean and then I played a game called “Gooey Hands”. The children loved the game, and the teacher was impressed that I was able to fill the last fifteen minutes and keep them intrigued in what I was teaching. Also I would suggest to a future intern to try and plan ahead in preparing. I often found myself putting hundreds of packets together at the last minute. If I would have just made a mass amount of copies in the beginning and had the other volunteers help me, I would not have stressed out as easily the night before double checking if I had enough copies made.
Lastly I found it difficult to figure out what information was the most beneficial to the students and what information one can do without. I had such an abundance of information that was great to use but I also had ample information that was outdated and I had to double check on a few facts. Also a tutorial of the copy machine may benefit one who never used one before. It may be due to lack of knowledge or time spent in an office environment, but when I was forced to use the American Red Cross’s copy machine my inability to use the device really showed. Therefore, I would recommend the American Red Cross staff to give intern a tutorial of the machine.