Reflection Paper

Kamia Solomon

Georgia College and State University

My name is Kamia Solomon and I did my internship at GCSU Women’s Center. I wanted

to pick an internship that would give me an idea of what I would like in the future. I would like

to focus my career in the area of maternal and child health and was having a hard time finding a

place and learned that the women’s center was over the lactation areas on campus and could be

something I could gain knowledge from, although it was not a direct option of that it definitely

taught me a lot of things. The Women’s Center is a very open and welcoming space on GCSU

campus directed by Ms. Jennifer Graham. It’s a place where you can learn so many things

whether it’s from gender oppression to politics, etc. It was a great place to learn more about the

inner you and how certain topics may interest you the more you learn about them.

The Women's Center was founded in response to the needs of our campus women,

students who called for a space to learn and grow, find healing, and create community. It started

off as an idea in 2003 for an assignment Jennifer and her friends had for the project, that if gotten

majority vote could be pitched to the Dean of students. At the time, they did not win but still kept

their idea until the next dean came who was in work at a women’s center at their previous job.

From then on Jennifer worked on the center as her internship and so forth to now. It became

official in 2005 and has been going on for fifteen years this year!

Description of Experiences:

The one of the main responsibilities is to be able to take charged with the development

and implementation of our own learning goals. Most of the work is independent task with some

working on collaborative projects with the staff members when needed.

that the space you work in can determine a lot of how you feel and the productive you can give.

The space was very open and colorful, each room had a different style but still gave the same

energy as a safe place. I learned a lot about what type of ideal work environment would work for

me. I need some type of structure for me to feel like I have been productive, but I also like being

able to work at my own pace and independently. Another part that I enjoyed was the weekly

discussion and checking in points. Just having that opportunity to just talk about thoughts and

how the work week has been was just a good vibe. With the types of topics, the women’s center

focuses on its good to just have a time where we can just talk about how we feel on those topics

and learn more about different perspectives.

The most difficult part for me was while working independently not letting things distract

me and trying to not overwhelm myself. With having to come up with my own task most of the

time made me see how easy I can get distracted and into something totally different. The harder

part was getting myself back in the mood to get back on focus, I learn quickly that I work better

in the morning and is the time I can get most of my work done but once I take a small break its

hard for me to get that energy back. I also realized that this environment is very free-lance and

there are some very slow days; and on those days, I tried to think about what I wanted to do with

my life. I took a lot of time to research graduate programs I would be interested in, but also

realized that I would like to take a break for a few years and gather more experiences.

Perception and Evaluation of the Internship:

I did not go in with personal expectations because I just wanted the experience to be

whatever it was. However, I did feel that I got to learn a lot about me and how I like to structure

things. This internship showed me you have to do more things out of your comfort zone to get to
experience more things you might enjoy; an example would be that I attended a women’s

leadership conference and felt it was the most encouraging thing in the world. It was such a good

feeling to have powerful, successful women tell you that it is okay to be scared because I was

too, it is okay to step out of your comfort zone because that’s where you really learn what you

can do. The lesson I valued the most was the one about its okay to fail because you are going to.

I have a strong sense of not wanting to fail so it limits how much I try to much my ideas out but

hearing that made me see you fail with not trying at all and you have to fail to build up your

confidence and skills.

The women’s center was very open to any new ideas and contributions, it was a great

space to be able to share your views on topic and be able to come up with a creative way to

express them to a community of people. Jennifer was an excellent supervisor. From the moment,

I interviewed with her I knew she was someone that you could talk any issues out with and not

feel an ounce of judgement. She made herself available whenever you made need her and she

always tried to answer any question to the best she could and would have found out more

information if she need to for the answer. One thing I did like that they held was a professional

development once a month on a Friday. The last lesson we talked about was the language to use

to make your resume stronger and it was very helpful.

I would recommend it for future interns because it is bringing a variety of different skills

out, whether it is from planning a whole event to attending conferences. It is just a great place to

be around people who are very vocal about their thoughts and what they would like to see

changed and see them go out and make those changes. I wouldn’t mind a career in this setting I

may do a few things differently. Ideally, this setting is something I would love to create in the

future for a career by having my own healthcare center that concreates on pregnancies.
Internship Preparedness:

I think I was academically prepared for this placement. A lot of the skills I learned from

Community Health and Methods of Health Promotion courses help me out a lot. From the

community health course, I learned that you have to think about how this event would fit into the

community and how it benefits that space. You have to know the area you want to work with and

make sure that this is something they come out to. From methods of health promotion course, I

learned how important event planning becomes to programs and it plays an important factor in

how successful your event can go. I know for me I like to attend events that go along with a

certain type of event so it takes a lot of time coming up with a theme and making sure the event

is fun and creative but also informative.

In the methods of health promotion course, we had to do a resume review and I thought that

was really helpful. I think adding more task about applying for a job and doing cover letters

would be helpful. I also thought the getting CPR and QPR certified in the community health

class was very important just to have as life skills. I think a talk about the different work

environments would also help better prepared because each setting has something different and

just a bit of basic knowledge could help see if that placement is the best fit.

Internship Performance:

Before this internship I was never into doing collaborative work and now I see that often

times it becomes more enjoy at times and gets things done quicker. I was satisfied with my

performance on assignments, I always wanted to make sure I got started on them early and gave

my best effort. I think sometimes I could have been more descriptive but that is something I

would always have to work on because I tend to be straightforward.

placement often had to remind myself that ‘Rome was not built in a day’, because I would

always feel bad that I didn’t each the step I thought I would by the end of the day. Working on

changing the mindset of how setting up end of the day goals is very different from school than a

work environment. With school work I would always stress to get it done that very day, while

with work I learn that it is okay if you don’t complete it all that day but just make sure you a

least meet the deadline or communicate that it might take you longer than you realize with your

supervisor. Being able to voice that you need help is something I don’t like to do but know that I

will need to because I cannot do everything alone.

Personal/Professional Insights/Benefits:
This internship made me self-reflect a lot about how I want to move forward in my life. It

made me see that in professional settings you have to speak up and that so many opportunities

can come when you do. I see that it is better to offer your assists to projects if you can help,

especially if its area you are not familiar with because it gives you something new to learn.

One task I did with Jennifer was learn about my top five strengths and we talked about how I

used the and ways I could work more with them. My strengths where futuristic, relator,

restorative, individulization, and strategic. With my futuristic strength planning for the future is

what excites me, I love planning out five year plans and thinking of all the things in the future I

could get accomplished. With my relator strength, I know that close intimate relationships mean

a lot to me and with that I want to work with people that I know are going to pull through with

whatever I need them to and they can deliver. My restorative strength I like to solve problems; I

love to look at the whole situation to see where things may have gone wrong and try to get it on

the right pace or to find a whole new path to go on. The individualization strength that stand out

to me the most; I have never believed that ‘if it works for one the it can work for all’. Everybody
have traits and vices that make them different and sometimes it’s important to understand the

differences between people. I am very big on paying attention to people’s feelings and actions

toward task and topics because some people may care about other things more and to get the best

quality work you should let people do what they like best. The strategic strength made a lot of

sense to me because I love a plan. I am not a go with the flow type of person I need to be able to

have something set whether it is a location, goal, scenario, etc. talking with Jennifer about the

strength that are most dominant for me and her telling me that sometimes you have to focus on

improving what you are good at can also improve what you believe you are weak in.

This placement came at a good point in my life to think about a lot of things I would like

to do more in my future and gave me a great place to network. It made me think about the type of

supervisor I would like to be, the type of open communication I would like to work for. It made

me realize that I may not always like some of the work I will have to do but it will all be worth it

once I get to my end goal.