*This article does not represent the views of Her Campus FSU
We’re back with another themed week on the site: Career Week. This semester, Her Campus FSU has created themed weeks dedicated to exclusive content we believe all of our readers should have access to. Keep up on the site for the next few days as we cover everything from what NOT to put on your resume to a Q&A with an RMPD major currently interning at ELLE magazine in NYC. This week definitely won’t be filled with the cliché career advice you’re always hearing (take for instance there’s even a piece on how to deal with rejection). Don’t miss out!
When I tell someone I have an internship, the usual questions that follow are, “Wow! Are you moving to another state?” or “Is it for a magazine or a big company?” or “How much do you make?” All of these are natural questions – they don’t bother me. However, they aren’t relevant to me. My internship is something a little different. Instead of sitting in an office every day, running errands for a big CEO or writing articles (that is taken care of in the Her Campus FSU realm, obviously), I work in an Early Learning Center for preschool-aged and younger children whose families are living in poverty. But yes, contrary to popular belief, this is a dream for me.
Courtesy: Caroline Stray
No, I don’t get paid for this. No, I don’t get to work in a glamorous office and wear a suit each day. But the experience I get doesn’t make me want to go home and drink a glass of wine after a long day at the center. Instead, I get in the car with a huge smile on my face and a full heart (super cliché I know, but the feeling really is indescribable). Before I continue, I’ll explain a little bit about what I do.
The center has five classrooms for each age group, aged infant through five years old. I work in the infant room and I literally spend my days rocking babies to sleep. I’m not exaggerating. The infant room is the babies who know no color, no gender, and no discrimination yet. The babies are just learning to walk and talk, and being able to go through these experiences with them and form bonds with them at such an early age is what gets me through the week. I’ve seen first steps, first words, and learned that even 1-year-olds can have different personality quirks. In addition to working with the infants, I’ve gained administrative experience working in the office for the family services coordinator. I spend a few hours each week filing papers, going through paperwork, and working with the parents.
Through all of this, I will admit that it takes a certain type of person to want to do what I do. Obviously, you have to love kids. But, you also have to be open to the understanding that kids who come from underprivileged families are likely to experience growth problems beginning when they are just infants. You have to believe this, and you have to want to fight this. When I go into the center each week, I go in with the mindset that I want to do everything in my power to help these kids develop at a normal pace, whether that be using as many words with them as possible, reading to them often, or practicing puzzles with them (yes, there are puzzles for little babies). This is how I can begin to fight for the future of these kids.
I don’t mean to be dramatic, but this internship has changed my perspective on everything I do in life. And for that reason, to me, this is a dream. So once I finish it up, I will be able to confidently say that these kids ended up teaching me more than I taught them. But isn’t that how its supposed to be?