Intern with Advocacy Organization Reflects on Research Work

I felt great during my first few weeks with Survivors of Homicide. I was nervous at first, but my boss is extremely kind and very helpful. So once I got started on my first assignment, I felt comfortable as an intern here. I was oriented with the job by speaking with my boss and also reading through the handbook. Once I was offered the position, my boss sent me the handbook over email for me to review. This helped me become familiar with what I would be doing and informing me of how to act in certain situations, specifically with support groups.

The section on support groups went over certain phrases that are okay to say versus certain phrases that are not okay to say, which I believe was very helpful. In addition, I also had phone calls with my boss in which she explained to me what she would like me to do and how she would like me to do it, which helped to further orient me with the job.

The culture of the organization is very friendly and caring. Everyone that I’ve encountered within the organization is incredibly kind and it is easy to see that they are all very dedicated to this job and care about what they do and the people that they are helping.

The type of work that I am doing at the moment is research. So currently the environment in which I work is very quiet as I do the research out of the office. This environment works for me as I find it helps to be able to do work in a quick and efficient way when there are few to no distractions around me.

I have been able to go through many of my assignments fairly quickly due to this. I would say this environment partly matches up with my personality. For work like this, I do prefer to be able to do it in a place that is quiet. However, in general, I am a very social person, and I like to interact with other people but I will have more opportunities for this in the future.

In the beginning of July, I will start to go to court in New London to observe a trial. This environment will be much more fast paced, but I will get to interact with others and experience a trial firsthand.

I do really like Survivors of Homicide, however I do not know if it is somewhere I could see myself working for the rest of my life. I love the work that I am doing, and I love the people that I am working with, however this job just doesn’t match up with what my end goals are.

When I started my internship I was torn between social work and law school. As the summer has progressed, I find myself leaning more and more towards law school every day and wanting to become a lawyer. Therefore, as much I love Survivors of Homicide I would not be able to work there after law school as they don’t have positions for lawyers.

The Bergami Summer Internship Program is funded through the generosity of Board of Governors member – and former Board Chair – Sam Bergami ’85 EMBA and his wife, Lois, and the Division of Student Affairs. The students are blogging about the experience throughout the summer.