Reflection Paper

Summer Internship KINS 4306

Lexie Moffett

Georgia College and State University

July 19, 2020

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Introduction

My name is Lexie Moffett, and I completed my summer internship with the Georgia

College and State University Women Center. The center is run by Dr. Jennifer Grahams, Ms.

Emily Brookshire, and Ms. Melissa Gerrior. Their mission is to create a campus that is inclusive,

aware of social issues, and supportive of marginalized communities. They actively take part in

challenging gender-based oppression, providing education on sexual health and relationships,

and providing support groups of the LGBTQ+ community and other marginalized communities.

Their organization services Georgia College in many ways, they are responsible for the lactation

stations, community support groups, and providing aid for the LGBTQ+ community. This center

is available to all Georgia College students and engages in programs and events that promote

positive change for the Georgia College campus. This includes providing maps for non-gender

specific bathrooms for our non-binary students and advocating for our transgender students.

They are also responsible for project BRAVE, which is a program that focuses on the prevention

of power-based interpersonal violence like sexual assault, rape, and dating violence. All first-

year students are required to participate in this program. That also provided training programs for

any student that wishes to further their knowledge in sexual assault prevention. The project

BRAVE seminar my first year at Georgia College was my first introduction to the women center.

I thought the program was amazing, and I learned helpful tips on how to be an active bystander.

For my internship, I knew I wanted to be placed somewhere I could work on women's health,

and my senior year I was informed the women’s center took public health interns. I was

extremely excited that they were an option, so I began the process of becoming an intern there,

and it has been one of the best experiences.

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Description of internship

As an intern, my role is limited, but we were given a lot of creative freedom. The director wants

us to work on projects that we a passionate about. So, we were also are given the freedom to

develop potential programs, and once they are approved, we are in charge of getting them off the

ground. We also give feedback on programs that are in development, for example, we reviewed

the project BRAVE PowerPoint that would be used during "week of welcome" for this upcoming

semester. Also, because the women center covers sensitive topics like sexual assault they do not

push you to be a part of projects that will make you uncomfortable. Although they do push to go

outside of there comfort zone, which was one of the most enjoyable parts of this internship. For

me, this was working on projects that changed how I viewed certain topics, like consent and

sexual assault. I wish I could have done more work within sexual assault prevention programs,

but because we no longer have the right to remain confidential it has made it difficult to create

programs for sexual assault survivors. This internship challenged many of my beliefs and

understanding, forcing me to think outside the box and look for alternative approaches to issues.

Although because it is up to us as interns to develop programs it can be difficult to develop

programs that students would be interested in. Plus because of the sensitive topics, it can be hard

to navigate the best way to present the material we find, looking for that balance between

material and students is the most challenging part.

Evaluation of internship

This internship not only meet my expectation, but it exceeded it in so many ways. I was

able to grow as a person and build strong relationships with my co-workers and fellow interns. I

was able to input ideas and set up programs that would take place after I leave. The women

center fully promotes collaboration, everyone is given a voice and each voice is heard. They
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required us to be part of team meetings that discuss the different projects or program the could

take place. We also discuss current events or programs and how they are developing. We do this

so others can contribute to projects and check each other’s work. We are given free rein when it

comes to developing ideas for programs and each idea is heard and others can make suggestions

and give feedback. The only thing that would have made this internship better was if it were in

person. The Virtual aspect of the internship made communication difficult at some points. While

our supervisor made herself available to us it was still difficult to communicate outside of our

weekly meeting. Whenever a question would arise, I would have to send an email that might not

get respond to until the end of the day or wait until next week’s meeting to bring up an issue.

Although we were able to combat that by setting up individual meetings, this did not always

work out. Our supervisor Dr. Jenifer Graham was key in making sure everyone’s thoughts and

opinions were heard. We would have one on one meeting with her where she would listen to our

concerns, answer questions, and brainstorm potential projects with us. She was also extremely

aware of how we were doing emotionally. This year has been a trying time for most people and

Dr. Graham was sensitive to that and would reach out periodically to us to see how we were

doing mental. She is also aware of the social issues that are going on and made sure that I (a

black female) felt comfortable working on projects that dealt with race and ethnicity. She made

this experience wonderful and made sure that we were getting what we need. I would

recommend this internship to anyone who has an interest in women’s health, LGBTQ+ health, or

anyone who what to work with marginalized groups. I could honestly see myself working in a

women’s center, I found the work to be rewarding and challenging. If a career in epidemiology

does not work out, I could definitely see myself working at a women’s center.
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Internship Preparedness

I believed that I was academically prepared for this internship. There were many times I

was able to recall learning about different communities and the best way to assess a community

in the course that I took during my undergraduate. I felt the most prepared and confident when it

came to women’s health, the course that I took with Dr. Butler gave me the knowledge that I

needed to be successful in my placement. These classes were human sexuality and sex, gender,

and sexology. These courses gave me the tools and knowledge I needed to complete many of the

assignments that I undertook. In my human sexuality class, we discussed gender and how gender

identity can influence health. This is a big part of the women’s center because they help and

support the LGBTQ+ community and learning about the appropriate pronouns and the history of

this community gave me a better understanding of how to address certain situations. Also, in

human sexuality, we discussed sexual assault and IPV or Intimate Partner Violence. These topics

are covered extensively when it comes to project BRAVE. I liked that I had background

knowledge on both of these subjects because it meant I was able to give my educated opinion of

different discussions that would come up. Sex, gender, and Sexology helped me when it came to

understanding sex, the basics of consent, and the best way to take about sex. All these topics are

important when working at the women center, we talk a lot about safe sex and sexual assault

prevention so having a basic understanding of these topics allowed me to stay up to date. I am

extremely thankful to the school of health and human performance for teaching me, if there was

any improvement, I would make it would to be talk about current events more. We talk about

theories and past events that shaped our world but lack real-world applications in certain courses.

It is good that we spend time talking about the meaning of things and why they mean that, but we
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don’t spend a large amount of time connecting those meaning to current events. For example,

pandemics, we learned what a pandemic was and how they worked, but we did not discuss what

one could potentially do if it happened. As the school of Health and human performance, I think

it would be good to incorporate real-world application into the curriculum.

Internship Performance

I have gained so much confidence working at the women center it has shown me how

powerful my voice can be. They show me how to advocate for myself and for the projects I

believed in. They also help me develop good communication skills, our weekly meeting are

based around us talking and providing feedback for others. They help me improve how I speak

with others and how I give criticizes they showed me the proper way to say that I did not like

something without sounding critical or rude. This made working for them a positive experience

and a place where I could be proud of the work I accomplished. The assignment that I work on I

was passionate about and gave me a sense of purpose. I would rate the quality of my work as an

eight out of ten. The work I complete was good and beneficial to the organization, but there were

places I could have done better. For example, I feel I could have marketed one of the projects I

worked on more than I did. It did not hinder the project, but I think the marketing could have

been more. As I move forward in my professional career, I still need to work on my time

management skills and meeting the assigned deadline. I did not miss any deadlines, but I came

close a couple of times, so I want to work on that as I move forward.

Personal and Professional Benefits

This internship has impacted my personal and professional goals. I want to go into the field

of epidemiology, but I want to continue working in women’s health. I found joy and contentment

working at the women’s center, and I wanted to be more involved. They have empowered me to
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continue my studies and fight for what I want. They forced me to think creatively and pushed me

out of my comfort zone. They showed me that each community has a specific set of needs, and

addressing those needs has to be specific to those communities. For example, the college

community has so many subgroups, and marketing to each of these groups are specific. During

one of my projects, I had to work with Greek life, and getting in contact with them and getting

them to participate in the project was difficult. Plus, I got to learn how other women’s center

operates, these centers are strong communities that go out of their way to help each other. It was

refreshing to see organizations genuinely looking out for each other and openly share

information. Overall, my undergraduate has taught me so much and I will forever be grateful to

Georgia College for providing this amazing opportunity for me to further my education and for

being a second family to me. Plus, this internship was an amazing experience that I will hold

close to my heart.