American Red Cross Internship

website: http://www.redcrosstc.org/

2010

Interns indicate duties performed :

Assists in presentations at Minneapolis and St. Paul inner city public schools. Work with excel, outlook and word. Perform data tracking and entry, contacts schools within the area to schedule presentations, send out confirmations, prepare materials for presentations, attend meetings and events.

Students identified positive aspects of this placement:

Working with youth of inner city schools. Great opportunity to experience many different school settings. Schools are highly diverse and lower income. Develop an appreciation for different communities. Allowance to perform individually and with supervisor. Must be independent and self-starter.

Students identified difficulties typical in this placement:

Requirement of public speaking if not comfortable with it, but can gradually work into giving presentations. Contacting schools when they don't maintain contact. Dressing up as B. Safe Bear when it's hot. Maintaining cooperation with Target lead team. Some schools are more difficult than others to present at.

Students identified positive aspects of this placement:

• The supervision (Viviana Sotro) and other interns! Interacting with youth and other employees. (2009)
• It's an independent environment where everyone just does their own things. It can be a loud environment at times when there's recognition celebrations, there are also friendly neighbors when you need help with something. (2006)
• I learned how others in your department all affect your work in some way. Also, how involvement with students or youth can really impact their lives. (2001)

Students identified difficulties in this placement:

• Need to learn program guides quickly. there wasn't much time to prepare before presenting. (2009)
• It can turn out to be a depressing environment some days, but most of the days are exciting. (2006)
• I went into this internship knowing very little about what an involved or what was expected of me. All I got was very general information about the program prior to starting but now I think that I couldn't have done much to prepare anyhow. (2001)