Internship brings out new skills and goals

This is a guest blog by Robin Plank, Court Appointed Special Advocates intern and Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College student.

It may seem strange for a professional writing major to apply to a social service agency for an internship, but in late August 2014 I stepped into the offices of CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) in Terre Haute to begin blending my passion for social justice with my freshly-honed communication skills.

CASA is a national organization that selects and trains volunteers to advocate for neglected and abused children who are part of the juvenile court system. Our volunteers fill a gap in that system by being the one adult who is constant in a child’s life. CASA speaks up for the best interests of children in court and as they navigate the community agencies involved in obtaining needed resources.

I began by writing a small grant for our CASA Kids program, which funds physical and educational enrichment needs that are outside of what we can spend with our taxpayer-funded income. I thought this would be simple, but was surprised that it was much more difficult than I expected. There were many pieces of information that I had to gather and organize from a lot of different sources. Harder still was developing the projected budget using last year’s spending. At that point I was very thankful for the painful math courses I had been required to take. The project was challenging indeed, but doing it made me realize that real work does not just include the area of your major. It takes a blend of skills to make the real world go around.

I realized I really needed photography skills to aid me in reporting for newsletter and online publishing work. CASA Kids allowed me to be the official photographer at their annual fundraiser. It turned out to be a gloriously warm autumn afternoon in the park taking photos of staff and volunteers. It felt so good to see my pictures on the CASA Kids Facebook page. This opportunity brought out my creative best and helped me to feel confident about developing photography as part of my skill set. As an added plus, attending the event as a photographer allowed me to see it through the eyes of a journalist, making it easy to write the news release.

I was so nervous when I started at CASA, but my confidence is growing. I am now reporting, writing copy and helping to lay out the volunteer newsletter. I am also looking at the CASA website and writing down ideas to update images and copy. This is the work I have trained for, and it is exciting to see it come together. I hope to do a project in Adobe CS6 software before I finish.

The people at CASA are extremely friendly and patient with me. I realize that if I had been doing this work as a new hire, I would have felt even more pressure. Doing this work as an intern was just what I needed to warm up to the professional world. Both personal and professional growth occurred because I was stretched to new levels in a different framework than just making a grade for a class.

In an internship you can’t just decide to be confident. Being an intern is like wearing a life jacket when you dive—even if you struggle and choke on some water, you really can’t sink to the bottom. Just go in every day and do what is asked to the best of your ability. You will ask tons of questions and stumble around a bit, but the beauty of it is that they don’t expect you to be experienced. By the time you have finished you will have repaid these people by accomplishing some work for them, and you will have gained experience that prospective employers want so badly.

So dive off!