^Get the song reference? Yeah? Yeah??

Today is my last day at my internship. Tonight I move to Cleveland where I will start my next job on Monday. Right now I have a couple hours, so I will try and reflect on my experience this summer and what it meant to me. *deep breath*
I am fortunate enough to be able to say that interning with the Urban League of Northwest Indiana has provided me with more clarity on what I want to pursue for a career. I have had a couple internships throughout college that left me feeling unsatisfied. I felt more discouraged leaving those internships because I knew what I had experienced what not what I wanted to pursue. It was discouraging because it was what I thought I wanted to pursue, so I was always back at level one: What do I want to do with my life? However, after completing my internship with the Urban League, my question is now: Okay, I know this is what I want to do, how do I get here?
These are the reasons why I loved my experience at the Urban League:

Small office
I found out I really enjoy small organizations. When I say small organizations, I mean few staff, not the amount of work the organization produces. There is something about the power that a few people can produce that appeals to me.
Friendly/Welcoming staff
Everyone that works here is very close. It creates an awesome atmosphere where they make everyone feel welcome. I felt completely comfortable with everyone here, including the President/Executive Director.

Volunteers and participants at our Health and Wellness Seminar at the Railcats.

The entire staff worked towards the set goals
For instance, the scholarship fair is around the corner, so everyone is working together to get that ready.
GREAT community
It is going to be very hard to leave Gary. I wish I could have visited here before this summer. People at the Urban League and throughout the community are so nice.

The students at one of our LEAD Programs

Mission of the organization
I believe strongly in education, economic empowerment, civil rights, and social justice, so working for an organization that believes in the same thing was powerful.

Leaving today, I know it will be difficult for me to find an organization where I experience what I got to experience this summer. It was opportunity that took me away from my home community of Valparaiso and placed me in a new, neighboring community of Gary. At the Urban League, I did not feel like an intern. I was able to jump right in and take charge in a couple of projects. I got out in the community and met people. I even have a favorite restaurant where they know me by name. I may have only been here for nine weeks, but it really does feel like home. At graduation, I was convinced that I would be moving out of Indiana for good but this summer has given me second thoughts. It is hard becoming so invested in a community and having to leave, so maybe I will find myself back in Northwest Indiana someday. 🙂 Until then, thank you Urban League of Northwest Indiana and thank you Gary for giving me such a wonderful experience and summer. I could not have asked for a better nine weeks.

I have two weeks left in Northwest Indiana until I say goodbye to the region and state. I have tremendously enjoyed my experience at Valparaiso University, however, I have always felt a piece of the experience was missing. I loved the campus, students, and professors, yet I never knew much about the larger community in which Valparaiso University was located. After spending a semester in Chicago, being immersed into the community I lived in and exploring the different assets of the neighborhood, I always yearned to duplicate that experience at my home campus. When I was first introduced to the CAPS Fellowship, I knew right away that it would be a perfect opportunity for me to go beyond the campus bubble and learn more about the region and the communities throughout it. I interviewed and was placed with the Urban League of Northwest Indiana, located in Gary, where I have spent my time the past seven weeks.

From the bottom of my heart, I truely can say that I have never felt more welcomed and at home in a work environment than I have felt going in everyday to the Urban League office. It is a small office, with only three people on staff. There are also two Americorps interns and volunteers than come in throughout the week. After spending my last two interships at larger organizations, I love the small aspect of the office. I get to interact with everyone in the office on a daily basis, including the Executive Director. IT IS SO MUCH FUN and exactly how I want my work environment to always be like. I even got to sit in on a board meeting only a couple weeks into the summer, which was a great experience! Despite working with two other non-profits before the Urban League, it is always interesting to continue to be exposed to the different in and outs of how they are ran.

Urban League at the Railcats game!

Throughout time this summer, I have been working on two different projects. The first is the LEAD Initiatitve, which is an alcohol and other drug prevention program for youth in the community. As an adult facilitator, I helped train a core group of youth from the Gary Youth Services Bureau. The training included perceptions, consequences, refusal and resistance skills, community service, philanthrophy, mentoring, and advocacy, which were all related to the general topic of alcohol and other drug prevention. The youth then created their own program that they would teach to other youth throughout the city. At the time of this post, the trained youth have presented their programs at two different park sites in the city. It has been a blast! I have loved getting to know the all the students. They are great LEADers!

The other project I have been helping with is the Health and Wellness Seminar the Urban League is hosting at the Gary Railcats game on July 16th. We are bringing in six different community vendors, such as the Food Bank of Northwest Indiana and Community Healthnet, to present on different health and wellness topics. The target population for the event is seniors and youth because it is senior and youth day at the game. I have been helping organize the community vendors and plan the events. The event is taking place from 10:30-noon on July 16th, with the game starting at 12:10. We are even providing our participants with a healthy lunch to compliment the theme of the events! Health and wellness is a particular interest and passion of mine, so it has been a great opportunity to help plan an event that promotes that!

When I am not working on those two different projects, I am doing a lot of miscellaneous work around the office. With my desk right up in the front, I get to interact with the community as they come in and out. The Urban League provides ten food vouchers a month to a local church, so a primary responsibility up front is taking those calls and working with individuals that come in to pick up a voucher. The Urban League office is also home to different community businesses, such as the Indiana Plan, a pre-apprenticeship program and Housing Opportunites, which assits primarily with foreclosure in the Gary area. Overall, the main focus of the Urban League is to provide job readiness to people in the communities, where we introduce people to job postings and help them create a resume and apply to the job. Much of my job up front allows me to provide this different information to individuals when they come in and sometimes assist them in a job search if the specific staff perso

n is not available. Another big thing the Urban League does is provide scholarships to high school seniors in the area. Right now, I am assisting in researching past scholarship recipients and contacting them to see if they attended the school they intended to and whether they were still enrolled. As you can see, staying busy throughout the day has not been difficult!

I still have another blog post left, so I will talk more about how this experience has developed me in terms of my vocational direction because this one has gotten quite long and out of control. I’m so proud of you if you are still reading this. Wow, you are great. Until next time!!

-Maria Wagenhofer