As I go into my last week of my CAPS internship, I reflect on my time at The Bridge Teen Center. It brings a certain realization when I think about my internship ending and that is how my time as an undergrad is ending as well.

When looking back through the summer, my favorite parts have to be when I would spend time with the students. As the program intern, I get the opportunity to lead and help with programs that the students are in. I was able to lead a program which was a ‘Big Room Hangout & Karaoke’ program. This was a lively program since from start to finish students were singing a song. They went up alone, in pairs, and even groups of three. The students had a lot of fun and so did I! Another program I was able to be in charge of was a ‘Project Serve: Thrift Store’. Students signed up for this program and sorted clothes that were donated to the thrift store. When leading this program I was nervous since there were a lot of things I had to remember to say since I was explaining everything around them. From the clothes racks to what was on the table and even the roles they had to do. I became the person they mainly asked questions to and it made me feel more confident since I felt like they trusted me to know the answers to what they were asking. The best part for me is when they remember my name without looking at my name tag and I am able to do the same.

Another part I have enjoyed is receiving the project of comparing the Bridge Thrift Store to other thrifts in the area. I compared the prices, the departments, the setup, and even the guests inside the store. It was interesting to do this project because I love thrifting and this was a new perspective on thrift stores I never had before. I was looking at them with different eyes since this time I was not there as a customer but I was there as a ‘secret shopper’. The founder, Priscilla, gave me this secret shopper project and allowed me to do it as I wanted to. She gave me full freedom and I felt trustworthy since she was trusting me with this project. With Priscilla, she can be intimidating since she is the founder of the Bridge and is the executive director so the Bridge Teen Center is something she built from the ground up. Getting to know her through this project has shown me that she is not intimidating but she is respected. It has been such an experience to hear Priscilla speak about this project and about her time shaping the Bridge into what it is now and what it will continue growing to be. 

As I look to the future, the Bridge Teen Center will be a turning point in what path I take. This has been such a rewarding experience and it is difficult to say goodbye to a place I spent so much time in. I will continue to foster the relationships I made here and hopefully in the future I will be able to volunteer here since it is a part of the community I live in and I want to join that community.

-Mikayla Flanagan, The Bridge Teen Center

My internship has now come to an end and I’m now able to reflect on my entire experience. I moved to Indianapolis at the end of May to begin my internship. When I first arrived I was very nervous and scared. But, I was also excited. The first few days I was a little shy and nervous. My first big surprise was that everybody worked out of a community house instead of a traditional office. But that quickly subsided.

I built a great relationship with mentor and/or supervisor Rasul Muhammad. He really did a good job looking for me over the summer and my experience at Kheprw was so great. I also built such a good relationship with the rest of the staff at Kheprw as well.  They cared and looked out for each other. Inside and outside of work. They were more of a family rather than just coworkers.

The internship just furthered my desire to build community in all areas of my life. Whether that be at Valparaiso University, in my hometown of Chicago, or any other place that I may visit and/or potentially move to. It is just amazing to see what Kheprw built and how all the individuals in the community loved them. It was fun to see various people stop by at the porch everyday to just talk to staff and interact with them. Or how people would just stop by if they had a problem and needed someone to talk to. The community was also lively and together. I haven’t seen anything like that before.

I worked on a variety of projects throughout my internship. I worked at a foodshare every other sunday. At the foodshare we passed out free healthy food and vegetables to members of the community. I also helped create a data gathering sentence to track attendance for events at various locations. This information is critical to an organization like Kheprw because they need this data when applying for grants and also this allows them to know who they are interacting with most at events and who is most visiting various locations. This allows them to know how they can further impact the community.

I also completed training on a data gathering tool called Salesforce. I participated in multiple meetings. Those meetings weren’t all about the data space, which was what I primarily worked in. Some of the meetings I sat in helped provide financial training to the community. Also, I learned about something very interesting. That is a community land trust that is being developed inside of Indianapolis. I did not know about community land trusts and was happy to gain knowledge about what they were and how they were created. My last thing that I will say. You will never find a place like the Kheprw Institute anywhere else. It is an unorthodox grassroots non for profit organization. But I’m glad to have found them and they are a very special organization and group of people.

-Chris Gatlin, Kheprw

As I am completing my last week with Heartland Alliance’s VELT Team, I am both excited for the upcoming school year and a little sad about having to say goodbye to such a wonderful team and group of students. I have had so much fun here and although it was a bit tough for me at first, I have grown so much and I am grateful for
that. I have asked for help more, realized the importance of a work-life balance, taken on new challenges and opportunities, and built relationships with so many different people. I don’t believe I would have grown so much this summer without this experience.

Asking for help and accepting that needed help hasn’t been easy for me. I am very independent and I try to do things on my own as much as possible. I have many different reasons for that but I think the biggest one is that I don’t want to be a burden to anyone and by asking for help I may be taking out of the few resources they have. However, when I got here to Heartland it wasn’t the same and I didn’t realize that until my supervisor commended me for always asking for help when I needed it. Looking back, that was one hundred percent the case during my internship. These students were taking the time out of their day to study and work hard at learning English. So I wanted to be able to support them the best way I could and that involved me asking teachers for help. I learned how to lesson plan, find resources that students needed, and even do administrative work because I asked for help.

Many of the things that I have learned to do will also be some of the things I will miss the most. For my final week I have had the chance to be a substitute teacher for a morning class I have been helping in. Both tutoring my students and teaching in the literacy class have helped me be able to do this. When I first led the class on Thursday I was super nervous because I had never run a two hour class before let alone by myself. I know that it wasn’t exactly like how it would be if their teacher was there and at first it was a bit disappointing. But if there is one thing I have picked up from this summer it will be that everything won’t go perfectly. There will be times when you make a mistake but they are all lessons. I know I made plenty of mistakes when I first started to tutor one- on-one with my students but I know I do way better with teaching them. These are some of things I will miss the most!

Saying goodbye to my students and letting them know that I wouldn’t be teaching them anymore was hard. I wasn’t sure what to expect but I am glad I was able to sit with my supervisor and offer them the chance to get a new tutor. While I won’t be able to keep all my students I am going to be working with a couple of students this Fall! Overall I am grateful for this experience, and every single thing I have learned. Without my coworkers, students, and all the others I have met I wouldn’t have had this great experience!

-Allison Howard, Heartland Alliance Vocational English Language Training