Summer in D.C.
Wow it's been almost two months since my last post, but I luckily got an internship in Washington D.C. and started on June 7th! I am interning at a global health advocacy nonprofit organization called Best Shot Foundation, which focuses on childhood diseases, specifically Pneumonia. I am extremely thankful that I was able to find something last minute after my study abroad program was cancelled, and am really enjoying my job/ time in D.C.
It's especially great because some of my friends from UNC are here and I've met a lot of people from other schools as well, including my roommates who are all awesome!
I've been able to see and do a lot both work and non-work related which has been great. At the Best Shot Foundation I work 9-5:30 M-F as the Community Outreach intern, so for all the projects I work on my main focus is to reach out to potential partners for our specific advocacy inititatives. It's really cool because I have gotten to research a lot of health related organizations as well as write letters and research grants to reach out to potential partners and funders. I also help manage social media, so get to post for their facebook and twitter which has really made me more aware of daily and current events in global health. My favorite part of interning has been being able to attend health conferences and speak with and learn from some of the most important people in global health. I was able to attend the CSO meeting for the Call to Action Child Health Summit conference which was really great because everyone there was working in child health and on the 4th and 5th MDGs which is the area of global health I'm most interested in pursuing. I also went to a conference called Christian Connections in International Health which really made me realize how big the religious sector plays in global health advocacy. During the last day of the conference I was able to participate in their advocacy day on Capitol Hill to push for increased funding for family planning in developing countries, and I had the opportunity to meet with the Chief of Staff of Congressman Brad Miller who represents the Chapel Hill District (Congressman Miller is a huge tarheel fan and had UNC decorations all around his office!) Next tuesday I will be going to a PEPFAR meeting as a precursor to the International AIDS conference that is being held in D.C. in a few weeks. One of the top global health researchers from UNC is speaking at the conference (Dr. Myron Cohen) which I'm really looking forward to! I work with one another intern who actually goes to George Washington University (the campus I'm living at for the summer). She's really awesome and we get a long great and get to work on a specific project together from scratch which has been going well.
Outside of work I've gotten to meet a lot of people staying at GWU and visit a lot of places and sites. I'll go into my time spent outside of work more in my next post. I am determined to finish my Peace Corps application before July 27th so I am going to continue working on that now!
Until next time,
-Vanessa
It's especially great because some of my friends from UNC are here and I've met a lot of people from other schools as well, including my roommates who are all awesome!
I've been able to see and do a lot both work and non-work related which has been great. At the Best Shot Foundation I work 9-5:30 M-F as the Community Outreach intern, so for all the projects I work on my main focus is to reach out to potential partners for our specific advocacy inititatives. It's really cool because I have gotten to research a lot of health related organizations as well as write letters and research grants to reach out to potential partners and funders. I also help manage social media, so get to post for their facebook and twitter which has really made me more aware of daily and current events in global health. My favorite part of interning has been being able to attend health conferences and speak with and learn from some of the most important people in global health. I was able to attend the CSO meeting for the Call to Action Child Health Summit conference which was really great because everyone there was working in child health and on the 4th and 5th MDGs which is the area of global health I'm most interested in pursuing. I also went to a conference called Christian Connections in International Health which really made me realize how big the religious sector plays in global health advocacy. During the last day of the conference I was able to participate in their advocacy day on Capitol Hill to push for increased funding for family planning in developing countries, and I had the opportunity to meet with the Chief of Staff of Congressman Brad Miller who represents the Chapel Hill District (Congressman Miller is a huge tarheel fan and had UNC decorations all around his office!) Next tuesday I will be going to a PEPFAR meeting as a precursor to the International AIDS conference that is being held in D.C. in a few weeks. One of the top global health researchers from UNC is speaking at the conference (Dr. Myron Cohen) which I'm really looking forward to! I work with one another intern who actually goes to George Washington University (the campus I'm living at for the summer). She's really awesome and we get a long great and get to work on a specific project together from scratch which has been going well.
Outside of work I've gotten to meet a lot of people staying at GWU and visit a lot of places and sites. I'll go into my time spent outside of work more in my next post. I am determined to finish my Peace Corps application before July 27th so I am going to continue working on that now!
Until next time,
-Vanessa
Comments
Post a Comment