As I write this final blog post, I am bombarded by many feelings…the two most prominent being confusion and denial. I’m in a constant state of Wait, I’m sorry—what did you say the date is again? and No, that can’t be right…it’s still June, isn’t it? If summer mercilessly flew past you at full speed, and if you are shocked by the date on your calendar every morning, then you might be experiencing symptoms of End of Summer Whiplash. I have coined this condition with the hopes that it will help many of us place a name to the whirlwind of emotions we are feeling about the end of our summer as CAPS Fellows. We are nearing the end; what a strange thing to say.

Just for the sake of recap, I am an intern at ArtMix, a nonprofit in Indy which provides access to the arts for people with disabilities, while also practicing and promoting inclusion. For me, which may be unlike many people in my CAPS cohort, I went into this position with no experience in the nonprofit sector whatsoever, and into a position that (on the surface) is not directly connected with my major. Now, I am typically not the type of person who throws caution to the wind and enjoys going into situations with little to no knowledge. But, that’s what made the CAPS program and ArtMix such a unique and fulfilling experience. In my nine short weeks here, I have learned an incredible amount about the nonprofit sector, what it means to really serve people, and how much elbow-grease it really takes to keep an organization spinning.

The President & CEO of my organization once asked me to think about my Aha! moments during my time here, so that I may reflect on them and take them with me as I find my way in life. One of those moments was the moment I realized that small nonprofits run much like how I imagine start-up businesses running. There is such an enormous emphasis on presence: getting exposure, putting your name and mission out there, and connecting, connecting, connecting. For me, this translated to a lot of experience in marketing and social media management that I previously had never been involved with. I have a renewed appreciation for the strategies and planning that go into building a presence online and in the community. Along those same lines, I knew fundraising was important; that felt like common knowledge to me. However, before this position, I had no experience with fundraising. Here, I learned the practical steps for educating people about our mission, gathering financial support, and maintaining relationships with the people who are gracious enough to donate their money (and time!) to our organization. Cultivating those relationships is extremely important to ArtMix, because the people who give to us are who make it possible for us to serve the community, and to transform the lives of people with disabilities.

As I reflect on what I will miss most, it really is two-fold: the ArtMix staff and the ArtMix students. I am extremely fortunate to have a staff surrounding me this summer who have been nothing but supportive, helpful, and kind to me. Above all, I felt like staff while I was here. Surely we’ve all heard an intern horror story or two, usually involving an intern who was always reminded of their intern status, whether it be through interactions or task-assignment. This could not be further from my experience. The ArtMix staff made sure I was always involved in the events, meetings, and camaraderies as much as any other person in the office. They are a group of truly phenomenal people, and I will miss them after my return to Valpo.

Finally, I will miss the students who come to ArtMix day after day, dedicating time and energy to our programs and their own personal growth. I have especially become friends with people in the Urban Artisans program: I attended my new friend Meghan’s dance recital with her family and my coworker, received the nickname “Trouble” from the comedian of the group, Jordan, and was invited to join David at his church service on Sundays. Serving their lunches also means I know which students will eat the chicken sandwich and which won’t, I know everybody by name, and I get to ask each one of them how their day is going. These people are so kind and welcoming, and their lives have all been touched by the hard work of the ArtMix staff and teaching artists. For me, that connection between the service and the served was the end-all-be-all: ArtMix was the perfect placement for me.

“Despacito! Play Despacito!” Repeats from around the 15-passenger van as ten 8-14 year old refugee youth call out for my fellow intern Wendy and I to play the smash hit from Louis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee, and Justin Bieber. “It’s the radio” we say with a laugh, “we can’t control what comes on, but if you wait long enough it will probably come back on again”. And thus begins, and usually ends, the day at Heartland Alliance’s Youth and Family Service’s Summer Program.

Being an intern in Summer Program has provided me with a great experience to work with some incredible young people, and has been a thoroughly rewarding experience. First, a little about what Summer Program exactly is. Every day of the week in Summer Program takes us to a different location and provides a unique experience, all of which generally center around our program theme of “Good Neighbor”. Mondays, we meet at a local church where youth participants play games, make crafts and learn a little about the general theme of the week, topics such as conservation, creativity, etc. Tuesdays, our program takes youth around the city on different field trips designed to show our participants, all first year refugee youths, different places in Chicago and provide them with unique learning experiences; places such as the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, Heartland Alliances Urban Farm or the Evanston Art Center. Wednesdays and Thursdays take on a little bit more of a fun, laid back approach; Wednesdays consist of playing soccer with other refugee organizations. While Thursdays are visits to the beach, where in addition to swimming and playing in the sand our program engages in a bit of a beach garbage clean up, thus encouraging our theme of “Good Neighbor”. As is evident, each day is unique and a whole lot of fun, however it provides so much more for both participants and staff.

For our participants, these activities provide the chance to get out and explore their very new city, and see some of what Chicago has to offer. It also gives them the opportunity to consistently practice English and meet new kids from different cultures and parts of the world. One of the coolest parts of this experience is that on a daily basis one can watch kids who speak different languages become friends and hang out, despite the lack of a common language. Observing and being a part of this serves as a daily reminder that at the end of the day all of us are more alike than we are different. While that may sound cliché it really is powerful and rewarding to be a part of a program that brings people together and shows recently arrived refugee children what America is really about; a place where all are welcome, and a place that values diversity and inclusion.

Being a part of Summer Program has provided me a lot, including a never-ending loop of Despacito playing in my head. Through this ongoing experience in Summer Program I’ve also come to truly appreciate the value of non-verbal communication and learn the power that a positive disposition and a smiling face can have, especially when the populations you are working with might not understand what you are saying. Additionally, every day provides a host of new learning experiences: including learning simply phrases in Arabic and Kurdish, learning about the foods and cultural norms of other cultures, and just coming to appreciate the unique and wonderful nature of all people. Every day is an opportunity to improve the lives of the youths we work with, and every day is a chance to improve the world just a little bit, and I consider myself extremely blessed to have had this opportunity this summer.

Wow, I can’t believe it’s already my last week at Heartland and in the Chicago area. I’m purposely refraining from reading my first blog post so that I can read both side by side and see how much I’ve grown.

Because yes, I truly feel like I’ve grown. I remembered being intimidated and even a little terrified my first few weeks: there were so many heavy tasks I was thrown into with little to no instruction, so many language and culture barriers, so many weights I didn’t feel strong enough not to get crushed under. But now, I feel completely transformed. I’m proud to say that I’ve developed the skill of communicating effectively with non-English speakers to a level in which I consider it one of my strengths. I feel comfortable coming into the office each day instead of a little apprehensive. Both the newer interns and the refugees come to me to ask questions when the case managers aren’t around. I’ve even been sitting in the case managers’ desk area (because we have more interns than computers in the “intern cave” now, which is a great problem to have!), and the case managers talk to me like a co-worker. All of these have made me feel more a part of the team than ever, and it’s very empowering.

Not only have I experienced that sense of the empowerment myself, but I’ve had the joy of witnessing it among the refugees, too. I’ve been here long enough now to be able to see their growth over their first month or two here. For example, one of my jobs is to conduct home visits both their first 24 hours in the country and after their first 30 days. During the 24 hour visits, the refugees are often exhausted from travel, culture shocked, and afraid. They feel like a foreigner, a guest in our United States. During the 30 Day visits, however, I typically see a huge transformation. The refugees are happy, confident, and assertive. They consider me a friend. They open their homes to me, usually with great food and as much jovial conversation as they can manage at their English level. Now I am a guest in their home, their Chicago, their United States. They become free and autonomous, and while the road for them is anything but easy, they are able to taste their dream of living in a place where they are safe, loved, and accepted – a dream that we as lifelong US citizens so often take for granted.

All of this will go with me even after I leave the office for the last time on Friday. My CAPS experience is occurring in the middle of my greatest life transition yet: In May, I graduated college, and said goodbye to Valpo as well as my friends, mentors, commitments and activities – really my whole way of life – there. In two weeks I leave the 60-mile radius of the Midwest I’ve lived in my entire life move to Denver, Colorado, a place where I’ve only spent about 36 hours total and know virtually no one. As of last week, my family officially completed their relocation to Charlotte, North Carolina, where my dad was transferred for work, so I also said goodbye to my childhood home, my hometown, and my old friends and neighbors. While navigating this huge life change in the midst of an experience where I must reflect on my calling and purpose in society, I have had another question thrown into the mix: who am I? When all of your roots are pulled from the ground – all of the places and activities that up until this point in your life made you who you are – what is your identity? I wish I had the answer for you. I do, however, have one valuable insight I want to share:

The experience of your life may be unique to you, but it is shared. It is shared with everyone you smile at on the street, everyone you commute with on the subway, everyone you dedicate your time to the same cause with. Every time you interact with someone, you are bearing witness to their story, and they yours. Community, I believe, is the essence of our existence as human beings. To love in all its forms is our calling, and to use our strengths to give, receive, and perpetuate that love in the biggest or smallest of ways is our purpose. My CAPS Fellowship – and my entire experience at Valpo, honestly – has helped teach me this.

I suppose the idea of CAPS is to figure out how you specifically fit into that grand idea of love and life. I don’t know if working with refugees is my entire life’s calling (if I even have an entire-lifelong calling), but it was this summer. God brought me here to do good work, and I did. Now, He sends me to Denver to do even more. I’ve started to turn away from the idea that we have one specific calling and one specific purpose. Last spring, my calling was to apply for CAPS. This summer, my purpose was to help resettle refugees. My current calling is to go to Denver and complete a Master’s program in International Disaster Psychology, and my purpose there will be revealed to me in due time. For now, I am endlessly thankful for my CAPS experience, and I’m beyond excited to take my new skills, experiences, and growth into my next chapter of life.

One of the most exciting things about moving Chicago is being able to say that I live in Illinois!  It may only be temporary, but for someone who has spent the last 18 years of her life living in Valparaiso, IN (minus a semester in Costa Rica), spending two months in the big city is a pretty big deal.  One of my favorite parts about living in the city is listening to people speak in their many native tongues.  When I’m at the train station, I can hear a pair of students conversing in Arabic.  While I’m walking through Millennium Park, I can understand the parents talking to their children in Spanish.  When I walk down the street, I recognize one of the very few German words I know as a man talks on the phone.  During the time I spent at my internship over the last two months, I have heard conversations in French, Arabic, Rohingya, Burmese, Tigrinya, Somali, Mon, Farsi, and a plethora of other languages that I don’t know a single word of.

As a self-declared lover of languages, hearing so many languages in such a small space is exciting.  As an intern at Heartland Alliance and as a language teacher, listening to their voices is inspiring.   This is what the whole world will probably be like in a few more decades, and I for one can’t wait to be part of it!

Unfortunately, not everyone shares my love of languages, and even more unfortunately, not everyone recognizes the value of living in a community as diverse as Chicago.  Once the United States accepts 50,000 refugees this year, no more will be welcomed in unless they have a close family tie here.  Thousands of people who have been waiting in refugee camps for years will be denied access to the place they want to call home.

Instead of sparking political debate, I want to use the remainder of this blog post to praise the efforts of people who are working to welcome people into our country.  Last week, my family and I had the opportunity to attend Chicago’s celebration of World Refugee Day.  The day was one of protest, but the time was mostly designated for celebration and fun!  It was a wonderful opportunity to interact with coworkers and participants outside of the work environment, but more importantly, it showed them that they are valued in the larger Chicago community.  We gathered together as people from all over the globe to participate in a march, eat international food, watch the “Refugee World Cup,” and dance to international music.  One of the songs they played there was also the song that the English students sang loud and proud at their graduation from the last quarter of classes, and I can’t think of a better way to sum up what the refugee experience in the United States should be like:

“This land is your land, this land is my land,

From California, to the New York Island.

From the Redwood Forrest, to the Gulf stream waters.

This land was made for you and me.”

I’ve been working at Water to Thrive for over a month now, and the time has flown by. My main project is a marketing plan that W2T can use to reach out to their Christian audience. Although W2T is a faith-based organization with roots in a Lutheran church, they don’t currently have any marketing strategies to reach one of their biggest donor bases – churches. That’s where I come in.

Like with any project I’ve done for school, I started with research. This included looking up Christian publications, nearby churches, and best practices for nonprofit marketing. I also needed to know everything I could about Water to Thrive, an organization I had never heard of before I worked here. I also had to go through all their currently marketing, especially social media and print collateral to see how I could tweak it to appeal to a Christian audience. My favorite part has been creating sample social media posts, when I get to channel my creativity and minimal graphic design skills.

 

I’ve learned that creating a marketing plan is a really good way to get to know an organization. I’ve had to include statistics, such as how W2T has funded over 750 wells since 2008, which have affected over 400,000 people. I’ve looked at their recent campaigns, which have come from churches, universities, and weddings. I’ve poured over their annual progress reports and learned about how the organization has touched lives on both sides of the Atlantic.

The motto of W2T is “Build Wells, Change Lives.” As I work, I’m constantly amazed at how deeply lives are actually changed. Clean and accessible water is something that we constantly take for granted. We can have it everywhere – in our houses, in our schools, in our churches, in almost every building in the country. But that’s obviously not the case in rural Africa. Women and children walk for miles to get water, which is often dirty and contaminated. But a single accessible well can flip their lives upside down. The children can go to school because they don’t have to spend hours walking for water. Women have more time to care for their family and cook better meals. There is less disease from waterborne bacteria. The well becomes a place of communal pride for the whole village. While some in developing countries may believe that drinking water is just a “fad”, for many around the world, water is life.

But the lives being changed don’t stop in the African villages. Here in the States, people are continuously being affected by the work of W2T. Wells are funded through campaigns, where a group or individual raises $5,000 to sponsor a well. There have been campaigns by churches, university groups, elementary schools, even couples sponsoring wells in lieu of receiving wedding gifts. In the grand scheme of things, $5,000 isn’t that much to change the lives of hundreds of people. I love that there are people here that are so willing to donate just a few dollars to a campaign in order to change the lives of Ethiopian villagers halfway around the world. They’re willing to host small fundraisers, attend W2T’s annual events, and educate others about the African water crisis. The dedication of W2T supporters around the country is unbelievable and it inspires me to do all I can to spread the message of this organization. Although my work isn’t immediately affecting anyone in Africa, I can do my best to make sure that it does influence churches, who can take the steps to launch their own well-building campaign and change lives.

As someone who was born and raised in the Midwest, life in Texas was certainly an adjustment. I studied abroad in England last semester, yet I experienced more culture shock during my first few days here than months in Europe. The most obvious difference is the heat. The locals laughed when I complained when it was in the mid-90s. They said it would just get hotter. And it sure has, much to my chagrin. There’s prickly pear cacti and aloe plants along the street and in front yards. And people do actually say “y’all” all the time. But besides the heat and birds that occasionally try to attack me (grackles are the worst), Austin is a really fun city. There’s always something to do, whether it’s hiking, live music, free movies, taco festivals, exploring museums, or hanging out with former W2T CAPS Fellows (shout-out to Lars and Krista). And I could write a whole other blog post about how great the food is here. But I’ll save that for another time.

 

 

The train hums me awake in the morning as it zooms under my window each day. It used to be something that jolted me awake, but now it is a part of my morning routine. In the always moving city, I have become used to the sounds, crowds, and lights. Each day as I head to work with my backpack, work shoes in hand, tennis shoes on, I am constantly surprised that in one of the largest cities, how many people I repeatably see each day, on the train and on the street.

 

The pace in the office of Ingenuity, like the city, is fast. Printers are printing. Meetings are in session. People are talking. I have worked at Ingenuity, the leading arts non-profit that works with getting quality arts education into every Chicago Public School for every student, for about four weeks now, as the Partnerships and Professional Learning Intern. I have already learned so much. With this position, I am tasked primarily with managing, facilitating, and implementing one of Ingenuity’s institutes called The Partner Starter. This institute is designed as a “how to” for new arts partners to Chicago Public Schools. At this event, they will learn the tools of how to form a “shared language” with Chicago Public Schools. Forming that language requires many conversations, and understandings about what it means to work within the school. This requires a multitude of conversations and voices on different levels, between teachers, school administrators, arts partners and teaching artists, arts administrators, and arts liaisons. I have learned how important listening to these different voices are to the work that Ingenuity does and the teamwork between the community, arts organizations, and surrounding schools.
It is really an amazing feeling to see my previous experiences leading me and helping me figure out the ways around this new experience. I see the conversations that I have had in classes, and the skills I have learned from previous jobs help me with this internship. The threads of my own narrative—my own life—that did not always make sense to me at the time are now coming together in interesting ways—in ways I never expected. My eyes are opened to a whole new world beyond my almost four years at Valpo.

 

Sometimes as I leave work, I wonder what students in schools are getting to play an instrument for the first time, or getting the opportunity to step into the museum and see a whole new way of thinking. Being able to be part of the back-bone of arts partnerships has left me with good conversations, important questions, and different narratives that are all coming together in meaningful ways. I am excited to see how this experience continues to stretch me.

 

Lastly, at the end of these four weeks I have reflected on many things, but also noticed some funny details. One, Millennium Park is not called Millennial Park even though a lot of us millennials go there. Two, it is important to always be ready for surprises like running into your co-workers at a random coffee shop in the middle of this very large city. Finally, and most importantly, I have realized that home can be many different places, people, and moments. Right now, Chicago, with all its sounds, crowds, and lights, seems like a good home to be at with other CAPS Fellows to share the experience with as we grow together this summer.

Whenever a teacher or professor announced, “for this assignment, you’ll be working in groups,” I would internally (or at times, externally) groan and lament the impending onslaught of scheduling via 600 emails, navigating group dynamics, and inevitably picking up others’ slack. As an English major, I much preferred writing essays on my own time, in my own way, and with my own quality of work standards.

However, my internship with Ingenuity this summer has turned group work on its head for me. I am part of the Data and Research team, and our projects are way too big for one person to tackle on their own. Even though we are only a team of three, we bring professional contractors, advisory panel members, and art education stakeholders to join in on our work. Our giant projects all of the sudden feel manageable as everyone in the room brings valuable insight and technical skills. Projects are broken down into specific timelines, tasks are delegated, and progress is tracked. It’s amazing what can be accomplished with a room full of dedicated and talented people.

My own dedication to the Data and Research projects is not hard to muster, as I am passionate about the work Ingenuity does. As a non-profit, Ingenuity serves as a “backbone” organization for arts education in Chicago. We work as a hub for data, strategy, advocacy, and partnerships supporting more than 600 Chicago Public Schools and a similar number of community arts partners.

One way we provide data to the Chicago arts education community is through the annual State of the Arts Report. My main task for the summer is to be the lead on this project. I spent hours my first week reading through the last four reports and internally geeking out that I get to have a hand on such an important document. However, my excitement was coupled with uncertainty. How was I, “just the summer intern,” supposed to analyze the numbers, establish a narrative arc to the data, write up the findings, and advise design decisions all in a couple months? Thankfully, this is a group project.

While I definitely have a lot of work on my plate, I’m not left to flounder on my own. My supervisor Steve initiated a contract with a design firm. My co-worker Tom aggregated all of our data. All three of us divided and conquered data collection and clean-up. Both of them are readily available to answer my questions and provide feedback. Our advisory panel will offer final reviews and recommendations. By the end of the summer, our report will be well on its way to publication due to our combined efforts.

Witnessing group projects in a professional setting is a whole new experience from college. Team members are here to work, (and thankfully are not bogged down with 18-credit course loads, five extracurriculars, and a part-time job). Seeing the dedication of the rest of the team encourages me to do my best. Besides, this definitely beats pulling an all-nighter to write a paper by myself.

 

Greetings!

My name is Katie Karstensen and this summer I have the opportunity to be working with ICDI, or the Interfaith Committee for Detained Immigrants. When people ask where ICDI is located it’s hard to give one central location because we are all over the Chicagoland area, and even outside of the state of Illinois in some of our ministries and work. To share what it has been like so far interning with ICDI and talking about all the different ministries we do, I thought it would be easiest to take you through my week and share some of the stories I have encountered.

Mondays

On Mondays you will find me near the South West suburbs of Chicago at our main office where our executive director, the two Sisters who have founded this organization, the fundraising team, and volunteers have their offices. I have done various tasks such as pull staples from religious materials so we may bring them into county jails, file different documents for immigrants we have helped over the years, alphabetize our donor files, and do an experiment of printing out prayers on different colored sheets of paper and testing which ones bleed color the most so that we may take the best ones into jails, where we have learned from conversations with detainees that they save the Sunday comics and separate prints into different colored ink paper, mix the paper with water, and use it to paint. Our goal is to give the prayer sheets they may be able to easily tear apart and mix with water to paint with, as paint is not available to them.

Tuesdays

On Tuesdays I am in a South suburb in Chicago working with one of our Post-Detention accompaniment ministries. ICDI offes short and long term support for immigrants who have been released from detention and have nowhere to live, and may be in the process of seeking asylum, or have been granted asylum and are waiting for other documents before being able to support themselves in this country. I get to work alongside with volunteers working to offer spiritual care, transportation, meals, clothing, and other necessities as needed. We have a house for men, a house for women and children, and a 24 hour on call service that will offer immediate services to those who have been released or are in need. My project at the women’s house this summer has been organizing all of the donations we receive, and I have been creating relationships with residents of the house and sharing stories and meals with one another.

Wednesdays

You will find me at the Kankakee County Jail on Wednesday mornings where we participate in pastoral care for those in detention. Detainees are allowed phone calls once a day they must pay for and allowed only one visit for no more than half an hour each week with family members or friends. Thanks to the hard work of the two sisters who founded this organization, and promoting that those in jail have the right to pastoral care, they have managed to get their way into jails so volunteers can visit face to face in the same room as detainees each week. ICDI visits detainees in Kenosha, McHenry, Dodge, and Kankakee County Jails, where we make 4,000 contact visits every year. I have met one on one with detainees from all over the world, some who were picked up by immigration upon entering the country, and those who have been in the country since they were a small child, have a career, multiple children, and are facing deportation and returning to country and culture they may know little to nothing about. This ministry is intense, but extremely necessary. Prisons are for long term sentences and normally have lots of programming, but county jails are for shorter terms and have little to no programming, but we have met with many people who have been in detention for months and months at a time. During our allotted thirty minutes to visit with detainees, we listen to their stories, speak of whatever they wish to talk about, offer a space for interfaith dialogue, and provide religious materials to them they are able to keep. An occurrence with someone at Kankakee that I have not been able to get out of my head and don’t know if I ever will was when one of the men I had finished talking to as he prepared to leave and I shook his hand and thanked him for coming to sit with me, said “Your group of volunteers that meet with us are the only human hands that touch us without wearing latex gloves.” Never had I thought about one simple handshake having the potential to mean so much to a person.

Thursdays

On this day I visit two different Immigration Courts in downtown Chicago where “court watchers” go into immigration cases and sit in the courtroom in solidarity and support of those who have hearings. Final hearings are usually the only hearings in which detainees physically come into the court, otherwise there is a television screen set up in the courtroom and that connects with detention centers via televideo. Everyone in the court can see the television, but the detainee on the other side can only see the judge, and hears all that is said by the judge, attorney, government representative, and translator through one microphone. And if the detainee speaks a different language than English or whatever languages the translator may be able to interpret, the judge calls an over the phone translation service and the phone translator is projected over a loudspeaker, which I cannot imagine from the detainees perspective is a very effective way of communication when dealing with such sensitive issues. And all that is interpreted are the words addressed back and forth between the judge and the detainee, not what the government or attorney have to say.

I have found my time in court to not offer much humanity for those who go through this court system, and am thankful ICDI encourages volunteers to enter court systems and offer some humanity on behalf of those waiting to hear about their immigration or asylum status.

Fridays

On Fridays you will find a group of passionate people holding a prayer vigil on the steps of the ICE Office in Broadview, Illinois. This is where all the ministry of ICDI began, when Sister Pat and Sister Jo Ann saw every Friday at 7am immigrants being put into busses to be taken to O’Hare and deported back to their countries of origin. Every Friday, rain or shine, summer and winter, all year round people gather in this place to pray and send good thoughts for those being deported. The first Friday of every month we have an Interfaith prayer vigil where reflections of Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Buddhist traditions are shared among one another, and the other Fridays of the month we pray the Catholic Rosary together. This week I was able to share the Christian reflection as a part of our Interfaith service:

https://youtu.be/fP8f4qKgrW8

Saturdays

Every other Saturday I volunteer with our Unaccompanied Children’s Interfaith Ministry, where we provide spiritual care to migrant children who are in this country without a parent or guardian. Many of these children are fleeing the most violent areas on earth. We meet with these children to provide spiritual accompaniment through prayer, songs, arts and crafts, other creative activities across many language barriers based on interfaith themes such as hope, thanksgiving, and strength for the journey they are on. In conversation with these children, it does not feel as if I am talking to a child, but rather someone much wiser and older, and who has lived through much more than I ever hope to go through or experience. These children have been through much, but they are resilient and they are strong.

On a Saturday I was not visiting our unaccompanied children’s home I had the opportunity to represent ICDI at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America’s convention in Tinley Park where I was able to share our ministry with the wider church.

Going into this internship I admit I did not have a large amount of knowledge about the immigration system in the United States. After working with this wonderful organization for a month now I cannot believe how much I have learned, how much there still is to learn, and there are many steps to take until this is truly a humane system.

By this time, I have just completed my third week of interning, and to say it has been a constant learning experience would be an understatement. This summer I am working at Ingenuity, an organization that not only raises awareness about the importance of a good quality arts education in the Chicago public schools, but also, it works to make sure that arts education stays in the schools and that everyone is benefiting from it from the research and data they collect from over 600 schools and 1,000 arts partners. Sounds simple enough, right?

At Valparaiso University, I am a Criminology and Political Science double major (and a theatre minor, but most people forget about that when I tell them my majors).  When I told everyone I planned to spend my summer working at an arts education organization, many people were confused. I got a lot of interesting thoughts on my decision, but the one that came up most frequently was “wow, your major and your internship are so different; why would you chose to do that with your summer?” To be honest, at first, I would just say I wanted a change of pace, but deep down I knew it was more than that. Recently, I have been working to get more involved in the theatre department at school, and the more involved I was the more it made me wonder if I wanted a career in the arts rather than the criminal justice field. As a result, I decided choosing an organization in the arts would help me decide.

At Ingenuity, I am the public affairs/advocacy/communications and media intern (they’re virtually the same thing, but I have been called all of them). With this task, I am not only in charge of helping with Ingenuity’s social media presence, but their public presence as well. In addition, I have been given the task of working to update their website this summer. This has been quite an adventure for me personally because I have never really done anything in either field. Nevertheless, I was eager to learn how to help the organization.

I am not going to lie, the first couple weeks were a little overwhelming. The Friday before I started, my supervisor called me to give me a basic run-down of what I would be doing in the office, but she also told me that the person who was set to be my supervisor had switched jobs and was no longer with the organization. Although she was incredibly kind in explaining to me how she was now going to become my supervisor and my tasks, I was terrified. Not only was I in a big city when I had pretty much spent my life in only suburbs, but now I wasn’t really quite sure where the summer would lead me. Luckily, my supervisor and the office I am working in was incredibly. Everyone has been welcoming and I could tell as soon as I walked in I had joined a really close group.

Everything in the office is very fast pace. Because the organization is ran by only seven full time employees and the population they serve is the third largest school district in the country, there is always something going on. I think that was one of the hardest things for me to adjust to—the other being working forty hours a week. When I started this internship, it had been about a month since I left my internship at the Federal Probation and Pretrial office. There I only worked five hours a day, three days a week, and for the most part, it was usually pretty relaxed. I would be given daily tasks, some I could finish that day, and others I couldn’t, but overall, it was pretty peaceful. Coming into a fast-paced office after having that tranquil experience was difficult at first, but I think I am finally getting the hang of it.

I will only be spending nine weeks with Ingenuity, and with the completion of my third week, I have completed one-third of my time. Since beginning, I have learned how to handle social media and how to organize the office to have a bigger social media presence. I have also learned how to edit the website and how to create the monthly newsletter.  In addition, I have been working in the advocacy field and have been doing research on possible topics for the advocacy institute that will occur in October. While it is a little weird to think about all I have done and how much time has gone by (time is really flying by!), I am excited to see where the next six weeks take me. If I have been able to complete all that I have in the short amount of time, I am eager to see what I will accomplish by the end of it.

“My name is Aaron, and I work for a lobbying firm”

I have always cringed when I heard that word. My teachers, parents, CNN and basically everyone had resolved to decry a whole profession as “unethical” and “corrupt.”

Even now, as I rushed to tell family and friends about my new job in D.C., veiled smiles said “you’re one of them now.” Upon my arrival in our nation’s capital, I had resigned to embrace my new role: a puppet, ruled by special interest.

Only Venn Strategies isn’t like that. There are no smoke-filled, back room meetings. The office isn’t filled with power-hungry D.C. elites or slaves to special interest. We don’t work to control government, we work to understand it.

The federal government is an incredible complex machine with lots of moving parts. As a government affairs firm, our job at Venn is to keep tabs on what’s going on and report the results to our clients. Weekdays days consist of tracking legislation, attending and reporting on congressional hearings, and compiling research at our clients’ request. I’ve come to view our work as not only necessary, but fulfilling.

Venn’s clients are primarily based in the healthcare and finance sectors. I am currently working on the health team (a nice non-controversial topic), conducting research into the field of healthcare and producing memos for our clients. After a few days of research I came to a realization: I am so glad that there are people that do this work full time. Having met with congressional staffers, I’ve more often than not found myself face to face with an individual my age; somebody with nearly identical levels of education and experience. There’s a poorly kept secret in Washington: congressional staffers, while underpaid and overworked, run this town.

Single lines in 80 page bills have the capacity to affect the lives of millions of Americans. Among those millions are not only my family, friends and neighbors, but people I have never nor will ever meet. Having experienced what analyzing policy looks like, I am relieved that experts like the ones at Venn do the work that they do. Using a heavily researched argument, Venn exposes these staffers (again, the “real” rulers of D.C.) to the fact based stances that they would never have the resources or time to discover themselves. With legislation passing through the halls of congress on a daily basis, I find myself more and more confident that our policymakers are being exposed to well-researched arguments as diverse as the constituents they represent.

“My name is Aaron, and I am proud to work for a lobbying firm.”

Never underestimate the power that the nine-to-five work day can exert upon your daily routine; this is one of the many lessons that I have learned over the course of my first three weeks in Washington D.C., the place where politics meet reality.  It is a place where a small-town Midwesterner such as myself can easily fall victim to the overarching tones of rapidity and competitiveness.  It is a place where one can find that there exists a clash of understandings.  You see it everywhere; the Metro, the workplace, the restaurants, even the monuments.  From the outsiders’ perspective, there exists a great divide between how people engage with the world that we share.

It starts as nuance, watching as some individuals rush down the left side of the escalator while others stand idly on the right, not daring to puncture the median threshold for fear of being rebuked by those in much more of a hurry.  Those hurried folks then turn into paradoxical figures upon entering the Metro train cars, cramming in so that the car is far over optimal capacity to avoid running late, all while expressing clear body language that indicates a certain distress that comes with the impending burst of their personal bubbles.  Yet, once the tranquil humming and shunting of the train begins, trance overtakes the awkwardness of proximity, and once you reach your stop, the mentality takes over again.

These observations are an attempt to place you at the core of my reflective process as I adapt to this perplexing and invigorating city.  It would also be fair to admit that I have adapted to my surrounding environment; some of the very strategies that I initially found to be so odd have now become commonplace in my routine.  Much of it is concerned with wanting to understand this “East Coast” mentality that I have only briefly grappled with in the past.  This place is so different from home, but why?  Why do people find it so odd to smile at one another while walking down the street?  Why is starting a conversation with a stranger such a rarity here?  With my inherent differences, where do I fit into this jigsaw?  It leads me to wonder if the “East Coast” mentality is more of a culture centered around getting from point A to point B, whether those points be set in the short term or the long term.  It seems odd that one can sense the hallmarks of cross-cultural immersion while within the confines of their country of origin.

This clash of cultures that I am surveying, however, comes secondary to the true reason that I have taken up residence in District of Columbia.  My niche here has been found within the ranks of the International Research and Exchange Board, also known by the catchy acronym, IREX.  Here, I serve as a member of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) team.  Currently, all of my work has been to support the Operations department in organizing the 2017 Mandela Washington Fellowship, a program that has been conducted since 2014 and aims to bring 1000 young leaders from sub-Saharan Africa to experience a summer of coursework at American universities in specialized fields all pertaining to some facet of sustainable development.  This is done in an attempt to empower the next generation of African leaders and promote economic and social development at a grassroots level.

As for my part, I had never realized how many moving parts exist in an international non-governmental organization.  Our team alone is comprised of nearly twenty incredibly proficient individuals, and there is still an immense amount of work that must be done by each of us to manage 1000 Fellows.  Considering that there are many other programs implemented by IREX, one can only imagine the complexity of such an organization and the synergy necessary to ensure that obligations are met and that programs are implemented smoothly.  Perhaps it is the high-stakes nature of working with such important programs with such ambitious goals that assist in the formulation of the aforementioned culture that I have begun to adapt.

It goes without saying, but my time in Washington D.C. thus far has been incredibly fulfilling.  Working with wonderful people certainly aids in process of acclamation.  However, I have found that many of the small changes that I have made in my daily routine coalesce in the constant pursuit of happiness and the staving off of time.  For example, riding a bike to work each day has therapeutic and physical benefits; access to museums and historic monuments opens up opportunities to acquire knowledge and understand history; living with impressive individuals doing equally important work is simply empowering; and proximity to politics affords chances to get involved and feel as if you are actually making a difference.  Admittedly, I am still unsure of where my time here will lead me, yet the confidence and happiness that I find in a simple day is evidence enough to convince me that I am headed in the right direction, towards a life of leadership and service, underpinned by tenets of truth and justice.  I anticipate a fulfilling summer with IREX and my fellow peers, and I can definitively say that it off to an amicable beginning.

About a week into my internship with Lutheran Services in America was when I had my first “CAPS Moment”. I am not sure if this is a real term, but I think it best describes a moment in which a CAPS fellow feels a deep sense of purpose in their called location. I began my internship on a Wednesday and those first few days at Lutheran Services in America were spent with lots of cursory research. My fellowship has a goal of researching the trends of the nonprofit sector, so I therefore began much like I would have begun if this was a research project at Valpo. I read widely and broadly about the nonprofit sector and the organization’s role in it using websites and  journal articles. Even though this was not a university setting but the real world, due to the similar processes my mindset was one of intellectual curiosity, not delving too much into the meaning behind the work. That was until the first Monday.

Within the first few hours of this day I got an offer from one of the supervisors to go with her and one of our member CEOs to a “Hill visit”. Lutheran Services in America acts as an umbrella to 300 Lutheran based nonprofit organizations around the world, working with them to provide financial assistance, advice, connections, etc. and ensuring these organizations are running well.  This CEO was one who had volunteered to advocate for the protection of Medicaid.

Myself, this CEO, our supervisor, Kim, and another intern, walked over to the Congressional offices. It was a supremely imposing building, both inside and out. We made it to the office of the representative we were visiting and got a sit down with one of his staff members. There I was, sitting on a regal couch in one of the offices of a member of Congress, sitting next to a CEO of an important social services organization, and sitting across from a well-dressed staff member. I suddenly felt very out of place and acutely aware that I was an intern who was not even out of college yet. What on earth was I doing here?! I became very self-conscious and awkward. What do I normally do with my limbs when sitting? Do I cross my legs or not? Is my shirt tucked in? Who do I look at?

Then the CEO began talking. He talked about the services his organization offered in its respective state and the incredible work they were doing. He discussed a few heartwarming stories about groups of siblings who found their way safely into loving foster families and whose lives were forever changed for the better by his organization. He also talked about how much his organization and those they serve, rely heavily on Medicaid.  Kim mentioned how much this affected, not just his constituents, but also the constituents of so many other organizations in the Lutheran Services network.

Sitting on that couch I received my CAPS moment. Suddenly, the work I was doing for this network was not just some other paper. All at once I realized, perhaps for the first time since I got there, the real extent to which this was indeed the real world, and the extent to which this work that I was doing could affect these people.

Please understand, I am under no delusions of grandeur that the report I will have written by the end of the summer will fix all of the growing issues in these programs. I realize that I, just a lowly intern and 19 year old undergrad, will of course not be able to fix all of these issues. But that didn’t really matter right then and there. What mattered was that I had, and have, an opportunity, just like that Congressman and his staff, and just like that CEO, to make a difference for people, however small it may end up being. I have a purpose here in DC.

I returned back to the office and sat down at my desk. I opened my laptop and continued my research, seemingly just like before. But, this time, I had a sense of purpose that this work matters and that I may be able to in some way make a difference.

 

I never thought I would have the opportunity to see Jesus’ face so many times this summer– until I was introduced to the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ (PHJC) at The Center in Donaldson. The Sisters reside at what they call “The Motherhouse” tripling as an apartment complex, an executive office, and a chapel. Next to The Motherhouse lies the Catherine Kasper nursing home and Catherine’s Cottage (a unit reserved for Sisters). About 2-3 times per week I make my way down to The Center in Donaldson with my boss, Terry, and the trip through the rural town seems more beautiful each time.

I serve on the development team at Ancilla Systems Incorporated (ASI) otherwise known as the administrative branch for the Poor Handmaids. Through my work here so far at ASI, I am beginning to realize that what seem like the smallest tasks still contribute to an incredible goal. Whether it be applying for grants, sending invitations, conducting interviews, or planning programs, each action has a tremendous purpose.

To elaborate on my tasks, I am currently planning a speaker program in September featuring Keynote Speaker and Chief Diversity Officer at Walgreens Corporation, Steve Pemberton. After growing up in an abusive  family within the foster system and working his way to success, Steve will be sharing his impactful story with childcare workers at the brunch in September. His story parallels backgrounds of children in one of the PHJC ministries, Nazareth Home. At Nazareth Home in East Chicago, child trauma victims aged 0-6 years old who must be placed in foster care find respite and much-needed medical care. Having been founded by Sister Kathleen Quinn of The Poor Handmaids, Nazareth Home is a haven for children who need constant nurturing and a tenacious, loving presence from caregivers who tirelessly give their efforts.

Another task I have been granted was helping with the fundraiser walk for Sojourner Truth House (STH), another PHJC ministry led and founded by Executive Director Sister Peg (also co-founded by Sisters Joan, Loretta, Kathleen, Ann, and Wilhelmina). Sojourner Truth House in Gary, a fantastically powerful non-profit organization, offers over 25 services to homeless women on a daily basis. From food and clothes to transportation, showers, and classes, women have the opportunity to return to a financially stable life once again. At the walk in Gary this past Saturday (6/11), I witnessed over 500 supporters give generously and without hindrance; raising almost $100,000 in donations to the ministry of STH.

I feel humbled to be doing this work. And my work, at times, feels miniscule compared to the Poor Handmaids, who devote their entire being to serving others. I am grateful, additionally, to have the opportunity to apply my understanding of health care to this position. Nearly a quarter of the sisters I have met currently dedicate or have dedicated their life to serving others in the clinical sphere and I will soon be interviewing them for PHJC fundraising appeals. I cannot wait to see the wealth of wisdom they hold and to hear about their work either within the country or internationally. The sisters here give effortlessly, love unconditionally, and serve others without a second thought. This position at ASI is already giving me more knowledge than I can contain and I am filled with joy knowing I have the opportunity to contribute to such a wonderful group known as the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ.

Wooh, let me breath out and relax for a second; it’s been almost 2 weeks since I began my CAPS fellowship with Heartland Alliance’s Youth and Family Services (YFS) and each day has been a new, challenging, but most importantly exciting adventure. Let me retrace a few of steps to the beginning and get a running start (get ready for some running metaphors!) into some of the experience and takeaways that I’ve already experienced in my first two weeks as a CAPS Fellow.
 
 
First and foremost, what exactly have I been doing? Since you’ve taken the time to read this blog I feel you’re entitled to know what I’ve been up to, so let me explain. My primary role as an intern in the YFS division of Heartland Alliance is to work with other interns and staff to plan, coordinate and finally carry out “Summer Program”; a 6 week long day camp for newly settled refugee children ages 8-14 that runs from the beginning of July through the middle of August. So then it would follow that the month of June is sort of like a warm-up for when the race actually begins at the beginning of July. However, this warm-up is more like one of those warm-ups where you’ve decided to try something new every step of the way, and at first it seems like, “woah this is really scary!” and you don’t know what to do, but then you look around and realize that everyone around you is super awesome and passionate, loves the work that they’re doing, and genuinely wants to make the world a better place. Pretty much right away you settle in and think “man this is going to be a great run” and you start to feel comfortable excited in a really great new environment. That’s what working in YFS is like.
 
 
Currently YFS has a set of tasks we need to complete before Summer Program begins that range from organizing our supplies, creating binders for each of the locations where we pick up students, reaching out to families about participating, and everywhere in between. One of the big things I’ve taken out of this experience already is that in order to plan such a major event, like our summer program, is that there’s a whole lot of behind the scenes work that nobody realizes is absolutely vital for having a successful program. For example, as I’m writing this I’ve just finished a day where I spent a great deal of time reaching out to local restaurants and grocery stores for summer program snack donations (absolutely crucial to keep costs down as a non-profit) and talking with bus companies about transportation for one of our field trips during the program. What I’ve come to take away from all of this is that in order create something truly great, like our Summer Program will undoubtedly be, you’ve got to put the time in during training to have a winning product.
 
 

Running metaphors and pseudo-sports reference aside, there are a few things that have really struck me about this sort of really purposeful work that I’ve entered into. One, at the end of the day, when 5:00 rolls around, and the work day ends, it’s not at all the end of the day for the families coming through our office. While I get to go home at the end of the day to hangout and watch Netflix, the families who we work with don’t get to just check out from what happened during the day, because while this might just our work, it’s their whole lives. That’s the kind of thought that when it hits you makes you start to appreciate the incredible importance and purpose of this sort of work. Second, the people who work at Heartland Alliance, and organizations like it, are truly amazing human beings. Being surrounded by people who everyday live out the values of leadership and service is inspiring and really drives you to work harder and do good things. Lastly, pre-school children are absolutely adorable. Okay, everyone know that, but still. After spending just a few hours in the preschool room a few days okay I’ve had kids running up to me at my desk, with the biggest smiles, yelling “teacher, teacher”, and I think you can get the picture, it’s a pretty great feeling.
 
 

I think that’s where I’ll leave it for this time. I am super excited to continue my summer with Heartland Alliance’s Youth and Family Services, and I look forward to checking back in once we’ve started the race that is Summer Program. (Of course I was going to leave you with one more running metaphor!)

A few things I have learned as I start my CAPS Fellowship in Maryland:

1. I am capable of driving 13 hours straight.

2. Being a tourist in Washington, D.C. for a day and a half is exhausting. There is simply just too much to see and do that you ultimately cannot fit it into that kind of time frame. Good thing I have all summer to metro down to D.C. and explore!

3. Moving into a cottage provided by The Village at Rockville (TVAR) is exciting! You also get very creative when 3 girls get ready in a home with ONE bathroom.

4. Sometimes starting the washing machine is not as easy as pushing a button and you have to get creative with that as well (had to let the washer figure out its attitude first….).

5. When 3 girls walk into a restaurant looking utterly confused and clearly are first timers you just might get free bagel bites and a big piece of chocolate cake.

6. Attending a Welcome Cookout at your supervisor’s house the night before orientation with 4 other interns really puts butterflies at ease and shows you just how gracious and kind the staff are that you will be working with and for throughout the summer.

 
 
While some of those things are comical, moving out East for the summer has really allowed me to grow as a young adult (and that’s just been in the first week of living out here) and also excites me for my future professional career and the opportunities I have and will be given.

 
 

I started working in the office at TVAR on June 5^th so I have officially been in Maryland for one week. In this first week I have had the opportunity to attend two full days of orientation, learning much more about National Lutheran Communities and Services and the mission and values the organization functions by. NLCS’s mission of customer service focused care for residents at the community and constantly exploring new ways of further impacting and improving the surrounding community is inspiring. It motivates me to jump into projects and use my skills and knowledge to help them reach the goals they have set.

 
 
This past week, I have met numerous members of the leadership team both from corporate and also internally at The Village at Rockville. They are all so wonderful and so eager to assist me with projects and show me the ropes of the organization. I am starting to meet many of the residents who live in the community.

 
 
The favorite part of my day is walking upstairs and visiting with the residents on the memory care floor. There is so much history, wisdom, and stories that I lookforward to hearing from all the residents while I am here.

 

This summer I will have many opportunities both in nursing administration and in nursing care that each day will be full of learning and growing, and I am eager to reflect on those opportunities at the end of these 8 weeks in MD.

The Precision Medicine Initiative, am I a doctor? No, I’m a CAPS Fellow. My first few weeks interning at Venn Strategies have been many things. It has been challenging, informative, exhausting, and so much more. I have found myself working on issues that truly matter to the betterment of our society. One of these projects is the Precisions Medicine Initiative. The Precision Medicine Initiative is a program started under the Obama administration. It is designed to expand the scope of medical testing to traditionally underrepresented communities to design new treatments that take into account gender, ethnicity, and environment. The PMI has already changed the way in which certain cancers are treated. But what about me? I have never attended medical school, let alone been exposed to precision medicine. My role has been to help in a different way. I have been assigned to the team that has helped to roll out the Mobile Engagement Unit. The Mobile Engagement Unit is a bus that has been modified into a mobile testing center that will be driving around the country to get people involved in research for the project. A bulk of my work has been preparing logistics as the MEU will be traveling starting its trek across the country in August.

The CAPS Fellowship has given me the opportunity to explore the diverse nature of the DC area. My roommates have developed a plan to eat at a restaurant representing a different part of the world every Friday night. As I write this blog I am quite full after our Ethiopian food extravaganza. In the future we plan on sampling Sri Lankan, Vietnamese, and Mongolian, just to name a few. This an opportunity that is unique to Washington DC. Outside of London or New York, it is difficult to find such a diverse group of foreign diaspora living in one place.

These two experiences are a mere sampling of the activities I have taken part in during my first few weeks in Washington that have facilitated the introspective nature of CAPS. I have found myself reflecting deeply on what my future will look like. For a long time I did not know whether I would pursue something in the non-profit sector or something business related. I had always held the two as distinctly different. I have seen through CAPS and my time that Venn Strategies that despite the fact that is not a non-profit, the work we do is changing the lives of those in America the better. There is a phrase written on one of the walls in the office that says, “act like the work you do matters, it does.” This phrase describes how I feel when I go into work every day. Whether it is helping the Precision Medicine Initiative or researching infrastructure improvement, I have learned that work in policy can truly be fulfilling work and give a purpose for getting out of bed each day. I look forward to the rest of my time at Venn Strategies and the rest of the CAPS Fellowship.

I wandered through the stairways and hallways of the center, I was given the task to find three things that stand out to me in the Harrison Center for the Arts from my supervisor. Art hangs on every wall; while, materials and supplies are stacked and ready to be turned into something new. It is a creative’s dream.
 
 

The building itself is old and shows its past through many periods of renovation and additions. Rooms vary from cinder block to brick to limestone. As one room is utilized for gallery or event space, the next will be an artist’s den filled with their work and supplies. There are old wood floors that transition to concrete with paint marks showing marks of the artists here. It feels like a maze in which each corner leads to something new. However, the building serves the purpose to house the artist’s space and their work as well as give a space for the community to gather and be inspired by art. The art covers the walls and amplifies the variety of textures and materials within this place. I sit in front of a painted copper piece while I recall the pieces I passed made with oil paint, beeswax, collage, wood, and more. These textures of the building and the art develop a sense of collectivity. It is a place where different talents and stories combine to create the atmosphere of the center.
 
 

It’s evident that this buildings has delivered a place that many artists find the freedom to create, the ability to try new things, and have instant feedback from the large community within the center. They art can be hung in any open space. The floors can get messy, and whimsical additions can be added to the cracks (as little wire men are found around the center helping ‘fix’ it up).

 
 

You can walk through this place and feel inspired, challenged by new ideas, and joyful because of all that surrounds you.

 
 

This place has developed into a center for continuous production and creation, and I have gotten the chance to experience and partake in this activity. Working here, you do not stay on one consistent assignment, as there are many going on at one time. In my first two weeks I have researched the history of pea shake houses and mortuaries to see their roles in a neighborhood that we are working in. I have interviewed an artist and resident of the community to hear his stories of the place. I have written blog posts and done more research finding clever ways of bringing art into neighborhoods. Eight other interns have arrived at the Harrison Center since I came, and we each are finding our place in the beautiful commotion of this place.

 
 

We have worked together to create a wall of butterflies with the neighborhood’s hopes and dreams written on them. This coming week we are planning to make yarn and leaf luminaires outdoors in another neighborhood. These project may seem simple, but they have connected us with these neighborhoods and have made people curious. And these are only several parts of my internship! It has already taught me so much and has given me an incredible community in which I get to work. I am very excited for whatever the next months have in store for me and this place!

 

 

-Regan Weber

 

 

 

 

 

 

A fully packed car that went from Fort Wayne to Rockville. The first two things that occurred to me when signing up for this blog were: 1) I really should sign up to do this blog at the same time my roommate does her blog so that I remember to do so! and 2) This blog follows my first week… that’ll be easy. I can talk about all the things I that I have learned.           The first point was perfect because I nearly forgot, and the second point was more difficult than I originally thought. It’s not because I haven’t learned anything, but because I have learned so much.  I have been inundated with information.  This information is both overwhelming and also thrilling.  I have felt the rush of wanting to dig into my project as well as the… “where do I even start?” feeling.  As one of the three fellows residing at The Village at Rockville (TVAR), the experience has already proven to be the start of an incredible fellowship. We have the privilege of living on the campus in one of the independent living cottages. Not only does that make for a great conversation starter, but ironically, two former CAPS fellows live across the street from us as well. We have been abundantly welcomed to the community. Not only have we had a chance to try out the local favorite eating spots, but we are also being exposed to a growing community that is taking steps to expand and flourish.           Our first week has been jam packed with things to get us oriented and acquainted with the community.  We completed a two day new staff orientation. We learned policies, safety, and what it means to be a team member at this organization. The rest of the week has been spent with Jason Gottschalk, the executive director, and Cyndi Walters, the COO, and many other members of the TVAR family.  The meetings we have attended have allowed us to meet and  get to know other leaders as well as introduce us to potential projects.  We have spent downtime researching various projects in order to hone in on the one or two that interests us the most.  We have also spent a great deal of time exploring the building and getting our bearings! Katie, Michelle, and I at Billy Goat Trail.           Outside of the office, my cottage-mates and I have encountered many of what we refer to as: “cottage lessons”.  Basically, they are pretty much life lessons we have come across as we adjust to living in Maryland. Some of these lessons are funny stories such as putting clothes in the dryer first as opposed to the washer.    Others are slightly more serious like visiting the minute clinic at the local CVS which is open 7 days a week.  This came in handy after an encounter with poison ivy.  Katie, Michelle, and I know that there are probably a thousand more cottage lessons we will encounter before our time here comes to a close.         The excitement I have for the upcoming adventures in both Rockville and D.C. is immeasurable.  We are set up for a summer of career growth, learning, leadership, great food, and memories.  I’ve never been so thrilled to be part of such an inspiring organization.   A picture of the scenery we saw while hiking.