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Julie Wiman

KINS 4306

Reflection Paper

21 April 2019
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Introduction

This semester, I am interning at the Georgia College Women’s Center. The Women’s

Center provides a myriad of services, resources, and trainings to the Georgia College

community, including students, faculty, and alumni. Almost fifteen years ago, the Women’s

Center was started by Georgia College alumna and current director, Jennifer Graham. We are

located central to campus in the HUB, along with a few other organizations.

Made up of mostly student staff, the Women’s Center puts on numerous events each

semester such as Vagina Monologues, the Women’s Leadership Conference, Clothesline Project,

and many more. We, as students, have a lot of freedom to come up with our own ideas and

implement them. A lot of the programs that have come to be this semester have been mostly

student led. For example, Lady Bits Podcast, a project I am involved with, is completely

recorded, edited, and uploaded by students. Everything the student staff does is monitored and

reviewed by faculty, but there is much freedom in what we do. In addition to the student staff,

the Women’s Center has three full time employees: our Director, Program Coordinator, and

Victim Services Coordinator.

The Women’s Center exists to serve and educate all people and is wholly inclusive.

Despite the name, we do not solely cater to women. All people are welcome to come learn about

and discuss gender issues, and receive support services if needed. The Women’s Center is

focused around the belief that women should be able to live without fear of partner violence,

sexual assault, and sexual harassment. The Women’s Center also believes that women should be

paid equitably, respected, and enjoy healthy self esteem and confidence. All of these things are

very important it is vital that the Georgia College community takes advantage of all the

Women’s Center has to offer.

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Description of Experiences

As an intern, I did a lot of random daily tasks in addition to bigger, more important

projects in collaboration with the two other public health interns. Some of the small tasks

included things such as reading and annotating articles, putting together gift bags for the

Women’s Leadership Conference, printing and cutting feedback forms, making signs, etc. These

tasks can seem mundane, but I enjoy doing little things to help out around the office. I was also

involved in a bunch of other projects such as presenting at the Women’s Leadership Conference,

co-hosting Lady Bits Podcast, working with the High Achiever’s Program, and others.

Everything done at the Women’s Center is very collaborative, so I was never alone on any of

these things.

I really have enjoyed the community in the Women’s Center. Everyone here is so kind

and inclusive and truly wants to help out. I definitely would say that the people here are my

favorite part of interning at the Women’s Center. Everyday is so different and there are

constantly student workers coming in and out, so there is always someone to work on things

with.

This is definitely one of the most inclusive and welcoming places on campus as well,

which is another part that I really like. It is a non-judgmental and safe space, so everyone is

welcome to come and be their true selves. Living in the south, places like these can be few and

far between, so I think it is so great that Georgia College has a space like this on campus.

The one thing that I would change about my internship experience would be having more

to do. During busy times, such as the Women’s Leadership Conference, we had a lot more tasks.

However, since we are here so much, we really would only have one or two quick things to do
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per day. Having down time can be great sometimes, but since I am here to grow in my job-

related skills, I would like to have done more.

Perception and Evaluation of the Internship

Honestly, I had no idea what to expect when I started this internship. I was very anxious

in the days leading up to the beginning of the semester because of this uncertainty. However,

once I got into the groove of things and got to know the other student workers, I felt much more

at ease. I think that the Women’s Center’s overall casual environment made my assimilation

much easier as well.

One of the things that I have loved about interning at the Women’s Center is the

collaborative nature of everything. We, as students, have so much freedom in every project we

take on and the faculty members put a lot of trust in us. We are supervised on some things, such

as in Lady Bits Podcast, but for the most part, we have total autonomy of our projects. With that

said, however, Jennifer, Emily, and Melissa are always there to answer questions for us. They are

almost always available to help us out, answer questions, or lend an ear. They really want us to

succeed, but like I said, they give us a lot of freedom. I do not think there is anything in

particular I would have changed or would have wanted differently, other than our light work

load.

I would absolutely recommend this setting to future interns. Interning at the Women’s

Center has been so rewarding and I believe it has strengthened my passion for women’s issues. I

do think that a future intern would need to have more left-leaning values to intern here, unless

they are very willing to educate themselves on women’s issues. Not to say that right-leaning

valued people cannot work here, but our mission and goals seem to lean more to the left.
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I definitely would consider a career in a setting like this, but hopefully in a bigger city

like Atlanta. My future career goals include working for a women’s health related organization

and I hope that goal will come to fruition. My first job is not in the public health field, but with

some office experience under my belt, I hope to make the transition into women’s health in the

coming years.

Internship Preparedness

I do believe that I was sufficiently prepared for my internship after taking all of the

major-required classes. I think that the most important classes for my particular internship setting

were Dr. Butler’s Women’s Health and Social Issues and Human Sexuality courses. They are

definitely relevant to what we do at the Women’s Center and I think that they would be

beneficial to all students, not just those in public health. Since I took these classes, I felt much

more confident in sharing my ideas and opinions about certain projects and topics. Being well

informed about women’s health and sexuality topics was definitely helpful while recording Lady

Bits, since that is directly related.

I also think that Health Promotion Program Planning and Methods of Health Promotion

were helpful as an intern, as well. A lot of the projects that we worked on during the semester

included program planning and promotion methods. Having prior knowledge of what makes a

good program was very helpful as well. Also, knowledge of baseline public health topics, as

learned in Intro to Public Health, were good to know in general.

Since public health topics are so broad and relevant to everyday life, having knowledge

about them going into the workforce is great. I think that the topics that we learn about in class

are important and beneficial, but I think that the department is still in a transitional phase, which

hinders our learning in some ways. Having random professors substitute in for an entire semester
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can be kind of chaotic, and I know that has occurred. Professors teaching about their specific

specialty is so much more beneficial. Since more professors have been recently hired into the

department, I think that the public health major can only go up from here.

Internship Performance

I think that the biggest skill I improved upon while interning at the Women’s Center is

collaboration. I have always considered myself to be easy to work with, but I feel that I have

grown in my teamwork skills. Like I have stated before, everything we do here is as a team.

Since I am a naturally independent person, being forced outside of my comfort zone has been a

good thing for me.

Overall, I am pleased with the projects I have worked on this semester. The only thing

that I was disappointed with was our first LLC Presentation having no attendees, but that was

remedied with our second. I also think that the failure of the first presentation was a good

learning opportunity for us and it gave us extra motivation to make the second one even better. I

would say that we did a great job of getting the points across in our presentations and have gotten

good feedback.

I think that the quality of these projects was definitely up to par with the other projects

done by the Women’s Center in the past, if not excelling. As a team, Abby, Bailey, and I worked

very well together and did not waste time. None of us are procrastinators, so we always got our

work done before deadlines, usually with time to spare. Proper time management is such an

important skill going into the career world, so I think it is good that all three of us already

possess that.

One skill that I am constantly working on is coming out of my shell. I do not think that

my introversion is a weakness necessarily, but I strive for having the duality of skills that come
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from independent work and collaborative work. As I get more into my career, I believe that these

skills will naturally strengthen. Going into the “real world” is scary, but I expect I will learn a lot

as time goes on and will develop into an even better employee.

Personal/Professional Insights/Benefits

One of the biggest things that my internship at the Women’s Center has done for me is

that it has strengthened my passion for women’s issues. I have been passionate about this cause

for years, which is why I initially sought out the Women’s Center as my internship site. Since I

have been here, I have become so much more confident in my future plans by being around such

inspiring and passionate people. I have learned so much from them and I am constantly being

intellectually stimulated. I consider myself to be well-informed, but I find myself learning new

things everyday here.

When I first came into college, I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do with my life.

I had no direction whatsoever. I was a nursing major but I did not want to be a nurse, which

prompted my switch to public health at the end of my freshman year. I can now safely say that I

have a more distinct path and know what I want to do in the future. I may not be starting out in

that direct field, but I at least know where I would like to end.

Interning at the Women’s Center has been such a pleasant experience for me all around. I

do want to work with this population in the future, so I think that the Women’s Center was a

great choice for me. If other interns are interested in working with a population of primarily

women, I could not recommend the Women’s Center enough. I will be leaving here with only

good memories and a stronger sense of self-confidence. I truly do hope that I can work in a

similar full time position at some point, hopefully at Planned Parenthood. I look forward to

graduating in a few weeks and applying what I have learned into the real world.
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