2006 Intern
Project title: Healing Lodge Publicity,
HIV/AIDS project research assistant, Focus Group Organizer for Cancer Survivors
- School/program/major? UNC-Chapel Hill
undergraduate Major: Biology Minor: Social and Economic Justice
- Expected graduation date and degree? May
2008, Biology and Social and Economic Justice
- Where did you grow up?
- Who have been the primary role models
in your life? My mother and father,
especially my mother, who I believe is an exceptionally phenomenal woman.
My high school biology teacher, Mr. Charnitski,
who was an amazing teacher and a great person. He taught me a lot about
teaching as well as about respect for the environment and our world.
- Where you see yourself in 10 years? A
year ago I would have answered this question in a heartbeat- I saw myself
working as a researcher in a lab. Now, I really have no idea. I’ve been
thinking about doing something related to environmental science in the
field. But maybe I’ll work in a
non-profit, or in a healthcare profession, or as a teacher, or in the
circus, or on Broadway.
- Title of your project this summer?
-Healing
Lodge Weekend Publicity- concentrating on the Youth Rally
-Administrative Work- especially relating
to technology in the office
-Data entry with the SPNS project
-Help organizing Breast Cancer/Cervical
Cancer Video Focus Group
-Setting up an internship with the
Healing Lodge and UNC-Pembroke
·
Tribe
and/or organizations that you worked with this summer: Native American
Interfaith Ministries, Inc.- The Healing Lodge, Lumbee
Tribe,
Boys and Girls
club (regular volunteer)
·
Brief
description of your project(s) this summer? Our main project this summer was to
promote the Healing Lodge weekend. We did a great deal of publicity work,
focusing especially on the Youth Rally. Our work included designing the flyers,
to contacting the media, to calling all the churches in the area, to planning
and then doing a TV program.
We
also did some data entry for a research project- the SPNS project which was an
HIV/AIDS testing program. We also tried to start setting up a more permanent
internship for UNC-Pembroke students to work at the Healing Lodge during the
year, so that they would always have a college student to help out. We got in
contact with the University Career
We also volunteer
a few times at the Lumbee Boys and Girls Club. We
mostly just helped out with arts and crafts and such, but it was a lot of fun.
·
Description
of one person you met this summer that models positive work being done in
American Indian communities to address health disparities?
Wow.
There are just so many. Everyone at this office is so great and it would really
be a disservice to say that anyone does better work than anyone else. Rev. Swett has a really great vision for what he wants to do
help this community. Ms. Ellen and Ms. Trish are incredibly hard working social
workers who just seem to give and give of themselves, past what would
ordinarily be expected. And Mike and Ms Lucy are retired volunteers who really
give a lot back to the community. Ms. Ellen at the Boys and Girls club is also
a wonderful positive model. She is really trying to do many wonderful and
creative things with the children she works with, and even though she is
completely overworked, she always has a smile and something nice to say to
everyone.
·
One
major hurdle that you encountered in your work this summer?
Our living situation-staying at a hostel
for a month, was sometimes frustrating or unpleasant. In terms of work,
sometimes we got frustrated with the lack of ways to communicate with churches
that we were trying to give information about the events..
Many didn’t have a fax, email account, or sometimes even a working phone
number.
·
Something
you learned about yourself this summer?
I learned that I can have a hard time
relaxing. Pembroke is a very small, quiet town, so there was a lot of chill
time. I think I learned how to relax a bit, get used to the slower pace of
things. I also learned to connect a little better to my spiritual side. Many
people we met were very religious, and I think it rubbed off a little on me.
·
Something
you learned about American Indian communities this summer?
Hmmm…there is definitely a strong sense of
community here in Pembroke. In some ways that has more to do with being from a
strong southern community then being Indian, but I think there is also a good
deal of Lumbee pride here. American Indians communities are not necessarily like what you might
picture, and I think if I were to go to another American Indian community, it
might be completely different.
·
What
advice/recommendation would you give to future NHI volunteers? I think being
very organized, committed and flexible was important in this internship. You
may not know exactly what you are going to do when you get here, or what you
think you will do might change halfway through. But you need to be willing to
go with the flow, make a project work even if you don’t have a lot of
direction, be creative and come up with things to on your own that will help
the organization you are working with. I think I would recommend preparing by trying hard not to have any particular expectations,
to go with flow