So it’s been a while since my internship ended, but I wanted to give myself enough time to really reflect before I posted my final blog.  When I finished my internship at the beginning of August, I spent a few weeks vacationing before going home to help my sister go off to college and to pack for another semester at Valpo.

Now that I’m back on campus and settled in, I’m realizing how differently I look at this town now that I’ve spent a summer getting to know all the people who make this city the amazing community it is.

Before my summer with EMPOWER Porter County, my experience with Valpo was limited to the university itself. I was pretty thoroughly entrenched in the logistics of university life, and never spent much time off campus. Since my hometown is fairly large and commercial as well, the concept of being involved in a city community wasn’t something that had ever really occurred to me.

But since being back on campus, I’ve been asked by so many people to describe my summer, and what I’ve found is that my friends are just as surprised as I am by how attached I’ve become to this town and all the people I met through EMPOWER who make all of Valpo’s community programming possible.

Professionally speaking, working with a startup organization like EMPOWER was incredibly rewarding for me this summer. I got to have a significant impact on the direction of the organization, from crafting their mission and vision statements to handling their marketing and social media presence and even to assisting with event planning. It was a fantastic experience that allowed me some really incredible opportunities.

But more important than the professional experience, I think, was the amazing connection and appreciation I was able to develop for city planning and community programming in the course of my time with EMPOWER. I was introduced to people from all sorts of committees and programs this summer- representatives from the park district, the director of the Valparaiso YMCA, the principals of various middle and high schools throughout the county- people who play an active role in shaping the way a community environment functions. There’s so much work that’s accomplished in a city setting by people who do it purely of their own volition, who simply are passionate about growing their community and providing a safe and healthy environment for their citizens. It’s a truly amazing thing to witness, and an inspiring show of dedication to service.

I feel incredibly blessed to have been able to engage in so many ways with Valparaiso as a town this summer, through all of the connections that Heather and Kaye at EMPOWER helped me to build. I can only hope that one day I will become as productive a member of a community as Heather and Kaye are here in Valpo!

Love,

Abby