Experience Matters - Grand Valley State University

Nairobi Summer Internship

Margaret
Major: International Relations " Update the Duty Books, which are given to provide guidance for Duty Officers handling difficult emergencies including deaths, violent and nonviolent crimes, theft and robberies, and Americans stranded at the airport. " Send out updated lists of Americans residing in each zone throughout the region to the corresponding wardens. " Organize and compile a manifest of all Juba Evacuation cases. " Complete and clear pending Juba Evacuation cases. " Send out letters to wardens informing them of a new aspect of their service " Compile a list of pending diplomatic passports and follow-up with the list after we receive a new batch of diplomatic passports through the mail. " Respond to emails in the inbox NairobiTownHall@state.gov and compile a comprehensive list of Americans citizens attending the May 29th Town Hall meeting at the CMR. " Email letters to new registrants informing them of what zone they reside in and who their warden is and remove the two months of backlog. " Create the latest version of the ACS Newsletter to include remarks from the Town Hall and inform Americans about emergency preparedness. " Updated spreadsheet with handwritten information for the DNA unit and remove six months of backlog.

political internship

Chris
Major: International Relations While with the West Michigan Democrats I participated in ground and phone canvassing. Initiating and maintaining voter profiles, data and following up with voter inquiries. After collecting raw data I was responsible for entering clearly and precisely of said raw data into a national party database to be used by campaign strategists and managers.

Refugee Resettlement Internship

Leah
Major: International Relations I provided medical transportation to and from appointments, aided caseworkers in managing their caseload, and further developed financial literacy orientation material for incoming refugees. I was also a "cultural mentor" for a specific refugee family, which entailed helping them with daily tasks, answering any questions, helping them feel more comfortable, and simply talking (with a lot of laughing and miming of course because learning English does take some time!)

West Michigan Refugee Education & Cultural Center : Internship Experience

Francis
Major: International Relations As a site administrative intern, my tasks were : to supervise literacy lectures for older children; to update reading scores in files; assist with coordinating the peer support program for middle and high school refugee students; and the Leadership program for outstanding students to help them reach their potential in leadership skills, to improve their communication skills as well as community service. During field trips, I helped along with volunteers and other interns to look after the children.

VSFS E-Internship (State Department)

Lizzie
Major: International Relations Unlike other internships in which I have participated, I was only responsible for one project - I was to interview Saudi students studying in the United States and ask them for their impressions of the U.S, what they miss about home and what job prospects are like back home. I was assigned this task because the U.S embassy in Riyadh is not allowed to approach students in the country so they relied on me to gather this information. I reached out using social media and existing contacts to gather these interviews. I utilized a small questionnaire I composed.

West Michigan Refugee Education and Cultural Center - Research and Development Intern

Sheila
Major: International Relations As a research and development intern, my main task was to research Unaccompanied Refugee Minors, Unaccompanied Alien Children, and the Cuban and Haitian refugee background. With my research, I created both power point presentations and general information worksheets on these communities. For my research I primarily utilized print and online sources, however, I also conducted in-person interviews with individuals working with or who are part of, the communities I was researching. Once my research was completed and reviewed by the internship coordinator, I presented my research during a professional development workshop with local school officials. In addition to research, I tutored refugee youth and conducted public relations work for the center.

Working for WMOAS

Alyssa
Major: International Relations The OAS hosts an annual conference with the help of IDDA for college students across the hemisphere. In participating in this conference, WMOAS, students are able to apply their knowledge of the OAS and its past and current diplomacy work, through debates and crisis solving. My role in this conference was to help a special committee solve a simulated crisis between certain member states. I worked with this group of students throughout the week by facilitating discussion and providing pertinent research. I also worked closely with the Chair, Vice Chair and Secretary General, in a time-management sense, to ensure we would have enough time to completely solve this crisis.

Michigan Senate Campaign Internship

Jacqueline
Major: International Relations " Assists with event planning and voter contact " Meets and greets constituents within various settings " Assists with fee compliance and regular finance operations " Knowledge of current domestic and foreign issues

Embassy Intern

Allen
Major: International Relations Research economic data for the economic section of the embassy. Updated the information of the master list of Filipino-Americans and the various Filipino organizations in the US. Helped organize embassy events. Attended meetings and be able to see first hand how deals are made in regards to import/export, security, and other international issues.

Van Andel Global Trade Center Experience

Sarena
Major: International Relations A majority of my time as an intern has been spent learning about the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States and applying that knowledge to actual client projects. I helped develop and execute a process for NAFTA Supplier Solicitation and performed NAFTA analysis on client's goods. I also spent time researching various international trade issues and agreements for clients. Other tasks included creating marketing pieces for training events and assisting the Center with day-to-day activities such as telephone calls, database maintenance, and program preparation.

Wandering

Spencer
Major: International Relations Much of my tasks in the after school program was to help students learn and grow as individuals, teaching them values that will help to empower themselves for future aspirations.

Building Bridges

Dominique
Major: International Relations I worked directly with refugee students, as a tutor, I also provided transportation. I performed research about refugee resettlement, and problems with the refugee population in the United States and in Grand Rapids. Helped organize resources for the students, such as computer software, and book cataloging.

1st Internship

Paul
Major: International Relations Supporting refugee children to gain the necessary skills for integration into the community through providing comprehensive educational support, along with fostering cultural knowledge and understanding.

Teaching English language abroad

Christopher
Major: International Relations Lesson planning Teaching aids Building Professor client relations Teaching methods Lesson implementation Tracking student progress Testing Grading students

City of Muskegon Police

Michael
Major: Criminal Justice As an intern with the City of Muskegon Police, I was a supervisor of a first year city wide project called the fight against blight I also did ride-alongs as well. This project was a big part of my internship and was important to the captains and chief to help clean up the city. It was so big that at the end of my internship I was awarded a plaque by the chief for my outstanding efforts on the fight against blight project as well as the Muskegon Chronicle came and wrote a newspaper article on the fight against blight project and what all was accomplished. Underneath I have added what my day was like daily while I was doing the project as well as a link to the newspaper article. Project Summary: The fight against blight project was a collaborative effort between the Muskegon Police Department Neighborhood Policing Unit, Michigan Department of Corrections, and the City of Muskegon Department of Public Works to eliminate blight in the City of Muskegon. The project was organized and coordinated by Neighborhood Policing Unit Officer, Rob Woods and Grand Valley State University Intern, Michael Rankin. The Michigan Department of Corrections, Parole Agent Sean Wiltenburg provided workers who were all on a probation status, and had court ordered community service hours to perform. The Superintendent of Public Works Doug Sayles provided all the equipment needed for the project. Over 500 properties were inspected throughout the City of Muskegon by the Neighborhood Policing Unit. The majority of those properties are city-owned properties, with a few belonging to the County of Muskegon, and the State Michigan. Each property on the list was assigned a number ranking from one to five. The properties in the most desperate need of clean up were assigned a number ranking of one, and those in no need of cleanup were assigned a ranking of five. Each day of the cleanup a site was chosen in a city neighborhood. The Neighborhood Policing Unit Officer of that neighborhood would then assist the intern for the day with carrying out the clean up. This would include, transporting the intern to the Department of Public Works to meet with Doug Sayles, to retrieve a dump truck and tools, contacting Agent Wiltenburg to tell him which location to bring the probationers to meet at to start the day, following the intern to and from clean up sites and dump sites, returning the equipment back to the Department of Public Works, and documenting all clean up efforts. After arriving at the cleanup site photos of the property were taken and the condition of the property was documented. The probationers would clean up the properties for community service hours. The probationers were asked to separate the tires, trash and brush, so that they could be disposed at the end of the day. The tires were placed in the tire trailer for disposal, the brush and yard waste was dumped at the landfill. The trash was deposited into a dumpster at the Department of Public Works. Each day of the project photos were taken of before and after the clean up to document all progress. The photos were then uploaded by a City of Muskegon Police Supervisor and placed with that days report. In conclusion, this program is a wonderful benefit to the City and its residents. Several lots within the City were cleaned up, improving the City's image, and the way residents feel about the surroundings they are living in. It is our opinion this program could be used as a model for future programs to rid the City of Muskegon of blight! Newspaper Article Link: http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2014/07/blight_fight_muskegon_police_h.html

Kent County Sheriff's Department Internship

Tyler
Major: Criminal Justice As an Intern, I was assigned to various shifts with various departments to perform an observation of those departments. The departments I observed were the road patrol unit, the correctional facility, detective bureau, and dispatch. During each shift I would be assigned to a deputy to observe. At the end of each shift I would complete an observation log. On road patrol shifts I would also completely a daily log of what took place during that shift.

Hands-on

Samantha
Major: Legal Studies I received a lot of hands-on experience with interviewing clients, going to jail, going to trial, completing jury surveys, helping the attorneys, filing, helping with pretrials, and more.

William C. Abney Academy Reading Intervention Internship

Faith
Major: Integrative Studies I worked with students that struggled with reading. I also assisted with organizing Reading Programs.

Todd's Services

Austin
Major: Integrative Studies I was working very close with the office manager creating marketing plans and getting ready for the upcoming. It was involving a lot of looking at past years marketing and how each source led to job sold.

Community Affairs WOODTV8

Alesha
Major: Integrative Studies worked in every department, primarily in community affairs, but not limited to 8 West,connecting with the community. As well as writing multiple web stories and going on video shoots, also public service announcements, transcribing and assembling other stories.

Interning at the Fulton Street Farmers Market

Shelby
Major: Anthropology I helped out the market by working the credit card machine and handing tokens out to patrons (to be used as cash in the market). I also contributed by taking photographs, updating the Facebook page and website with bits of information relevant to the farmers market and its products, helping patrons throughout the market, building relations with venders, and studying customer traffic throughout the day.

Political Consulting Internship

Rachel
Major: Advertising & Public Relations As an intern, I worked with the Lieutenant Governor Brian Calley's reelection. I provided mostly administrative services such as data entry and event scheduling. Additionally, I contributed to volunteer coordination at the Republican Leadership Conference on Mackinac Island in September and worked to maintain contact with those volunteers in the months after the conference in an effort to recruit precinct delegates.

ATNMC

Leah
Major: Advertising & Public Relations Throughout the internship, I was required to create and maintain relationships with local store owners in the greater Grand Rapids area. I developed relationships with business owners who could potentially sell ATNMC clothing in their stores.

2020 Social Media Internship

Kristen
Major: Advertising & Public Relations I was in charge of the Twitter account as well as the email account. I sent out original material, retweeted things sent into us by students and other organizations, and replied to people who would tweet questions or concerns at us. The email account is mostly for students to email their questions, so I answered all emails associated with the 2020 address.

The Black Sheep Experience

Maya
Major: Advertising & Public Relations As an Ad Sales Manager, I had the responsibility of finding clients that would like to advertise in either our print, online, mobile, or guerrilla marketing media. It was important to work with clients to ensure that their marketing campaign will target college students. Other tasks included communicating with other Black Sheep colleagues, work with the management team, and develop ad designs.