Tales from the Internship #2: Lauren’s Lessons

Lauren Jones ’14 has completed the second week of her internship at the Virginia Tech Summer Governor’s School for Agriculture, and not surprisingly, she’s learned a lot since she first wrote a guest blog for me.

There’s More to a Job than the Here and Now

I can’t believe it has already been two weeks! I’m halfway done here, and it has been a fantastic time so far. Working with 100 high school students has presented a new round of challenges every day, but I can safely say that my fantastic coworkers have been very supportive of each other and of me.

My daily schedule consists of waking around 7 a.m., eating a quick breakfast, and being in class with the students from 9 a.m. until noon. After lunch, they are in class or working on the program’s big project from 1:30 until 5 p.m. After dinner, I help students work on their project, ensure they are behaving themselves, and teach a belly dance class with one of my friends. After 9 p.m., when all the students are in their dorms for the night, I attend the daily team meeting, followed by rounds in the residence halls. All of the encouraging, teaching, disciplining and learning I do here takes up nearly all my time each day!

The hectic pace of the GSA has brought me to a few realizations about how I fit into the workplace. When the students are behaving and getting their work done, it is a very relaxed, fun environment. However, there are times at which they are all driving me nuts and I would like nothing more than a few minutes of peace! I am not sure if I could deal with the high-stress job of working with young people for most of my day. Still, I am not sure that I would rather spend my time at work with adults either. I suppose I will have to use future employment opportunities to understand which age groups I feel most comfortable working with.

Despite the everyday stress, I get a sense of fulfillment from my work with the students at the end of the day. I enjoy getting to know each of them, understanding who they are and who they might like to become. Although there are days when I am so frustrated I could pull my hair out and days when I am so tired I could fall asleep standing up, I feel as if I am making a difference in these students’ lives. I want them to feel that this summer was one of the most important they’ve had, and I am honored knowing I’ve been a part of it. I feel a great sense of pride knowing that some of these students look up to me and that I am serving as a role model for them. I realize that they are all at a difficult and confusing time in their lives and that I’m not far removed from their experience, but I can try to encourage them to be the best they can be and learn from the opportunities afforded to them.

This program is less focused upon the short-term goals that students must fulfill, but mainly upon helping them make up their minds about the future. I want to see how this experience impacts each of of these students today and tomorrow. I am eager to learn how they will apply the knowledge and experience they gained here in their lives in the years to come!