Monday, June 10, 2024
This morning we woke up and met at the metro center at 7:50 to head to The George Washington Center for our CHCI programming day. We started the morning with a check-in activity where we went straight to our GW Seminar with Dr. Bartels where she spoke about "Identity, Ideology, & Activism." This topic was interesting because we could listen to everyone's opinions on how they may identify as Latino, Latina, LatinX, Chicano, or Chicana and our overall opinions within these terms. Cristian Pineda spoke to us about how to set SMART Goals and how to strategically plan to achieve our goals. Guillermo Raya spoke to us on how to control our thoughts and brainstorm a solution. To finalize our programming day, we listened to our guest speaker Vice President of Communications at CHCI Berenice Bonila Cortes, who gave us advice on how to better increase our public speaking and communication skills and how important these skills are to be successful.
Tuesday, June 11, 2024
This morning when I arrived at the USDA office I was greeted by Joshua Moose. Dr. Mike instructed me to work with Josh for the day to prepare wellness packages for the different liaisons to distribute during their events to gain students' interest in working with the USDA. We filled the wellness packages with notebooks, hand sanitizers, pens, and stress balls and then packed them into boxes. After finishing this task, HEP/CAMP USDA intern Daniela and I joined Josh at one of his meetings where he further described his roles and duties. Dr. Mike instructed me to give him a call through Teams so we could discuss the tasks that I need to complete. One of my assigned tasks is to create name tags for the 1890 scholars coming to D.C. in the coming weeks.
Wednesday, June 12, 2024
Today I attended the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 2024 Juneteeth Department observance event. The event started with the voices of Coppin State University Gospel Choir (CSU), and I found their voices and song choices very touching. Acting Assistance Secretary for Civil Rights, Penny Brown Reynolds served as the keynote speaker for the event and her words resonated with me because of a phrase she said " Do not throw away the good waiting for the perfect," which I took to mean that to be perfect, good things have to happen and to not throw those good things away. This touched me because this is true for me--although I may not be perfect, good things that happened in my life which have helped me land where I am today in D.C. for this internship. It all started with my accomplishments in high school and into my first year of college.
Later in the afternoon, all HEP/CAMP interns attended the Congressional Baseball game. This is the second baseball game that I have attended here in my time at D.C and this game in particular was very fun to watch as people who represent different states and parties played together.
Thursday, June 13, 2024
My supervisor Dr. Mike was working remotely today, but I already knew what tasks I had to work on. I checked in with him this morning and got straight to work, soon completing the nametags for the 1890 Scholars coming to D.C. Afterwards, Dr. Mike sent out an email to the liaisons to get their opinions on the name tags and received some feedback to improve them. Once I received the feedback, Dr. Mike and I got on a Teams meeting to talk about our day and upcoming dates. Later in the afternoon Bryan, Daisy, Yasmin, and I went to go eat tortas at the Union Market area.
Friday, June 14, 2024
This morning I worked remotely and joined a virtual meeting regarding the Liaisons in preparation for the arrival of the 1890 scholars. We spoke about various things that must be done ahead of their arrival and I was also assigned new tasks to complete. I have to create welcome signs and be creative when designing to draw people's attention. Today was a very calm day at work and I cannot wait for what is to come in the next weeks that are left of this phenomenal internship.
Saturday, June 15, 2024
This morning I was able to sleep in and get some rest. Once I woke up, I got ready for the day and Bryan and I took the metro to Walmart to buy groceries for the upcoming week. We eat as much as we can in our dorms to save money and try to only eat out on the weekends. So far, we have been doing a great job when it comes to saving. This internship has been teaching me how to manage my budget and how to meal prep for the week.
After we got done shopping, we decided it would be fun to go kayaking in the afternoon so we invited interns from CHCI and HEP/CAMP to join us. We rented kayaks for two hours and it was so fun because it was my first time paddling a kayak. It was an amazing moment because I was able to experience something new and watch the sunset. We all had a great time together, and it was so worth it to go outside and try something new.
