Monthly Archives: August 2020

Uncertainty, Discernment, and Discovery by Lydia Knorp

This entry was tagged Heartland Alliance and posted on by

As I reflect on my time at Heartland Alliance, many thoughts and emotions come to mind; the most prominent being gratitude. I came into this internship seeking clarity. Whether it be clarity regarding the path I want to pursue or a deeper understanding of what I do not enjoy, I was hoping to find meaning in this experience.  This feeling of gratitude that I mentioned is for the gift of clarity that Heartland Alliance has blessed me with. I came into my internship confident and still am certain that I have found my home in the field of Social Work. However, in a vast field, I had struggled to pinpoint my passions within the field. Working with refugees at Heartland Alliance is something I thought I would enjoy, but I had no idea how much I would come to love it. There is something special about working with people from […]

Just the Intern by Emily Friedman

This entry was tagged Bridge Team Center and posted on by

At my job, I’ve been doing a lot of sanitizing and temperature taking. Part of my uniform includes a smock, face shield, face mask, and rubber gloves. If we didn’t have these precautions, I would not have been able to work in-person at The Bridge Teen Center. COVID-19 has made us rethink how we host student programs. Prior to the pandemic, The Bridge offered drop-in hours for students and hosted signature events that could have accommodated hundreds of students. Now students must pre-register for events which have limited capacity. They are required to wear masks, wash their hands before entering the building, get their temperature taken, and answer a few questions about their health. In the program, students must sit six feet apart from each other and cannot share materials. At first, it was an adjustment. Not only did students have to learn a new routine, but they also had […]

Unfinished by Marie Dix

This entry was tagged Heartland Alliance and posted on by

This is the last of my 11 weeks with the refugee case management team at Heartland Alliance. I admit there is much about this remote work that I won’t miss: being on hold for 15 minutes with an insurance company, realizing that the reason my coworkers were ignoring me was because I was muted, and the frustration of being “it” in games of four way telephone tag between clients, interpreters, and other offices. There’s even more that I will miss though: my coworkers (and the gifs they send in our Microsoft Teams chat), the families I’ve come to know, and the opportunities to learn about the world without leaving my bedroom.   My sphere of awareness grew beyond the four walls of my cozy suburban house to encompass the ongoing genocides in Myanmar/Burma, the torture and murder of LGBTQ people in many African nations and the harsh realities of rebuilding […]