What Were the Skills You Used Most Often in Your Internship?

Describe the projects and tasks you worked on and the results that were achieved.

What were the skills you used most often in your internship?

During my time at RHAP, I worked on many different projects in different departments. I was in charge of day-to-day office tasks, such as retrieving the mail, managing our shipments, and packaging our patient education materials. However, I also got to do more large-scale projects, such as developing a yearly sales plan, designing and evaluating various RHAP program’s effectiveness, and helping plan RHAP’s 10-year anniversary party.

Part of my job was also making the RHAP website more user friendly and cost effective. I logged all statistical data of RHAP’s program activities and web traffic to the RHAP website and RHAP’s social media accounts. I then analyzed the trends to see which pages and key words were getting the most hits, and updated our Google AdWords account to improve our search engine optimization. I learned various programs that were key to RHAP’S functionality, programs like Asana, HootSuite, Wordpress, and Excel, and became familiar with Google Analytics.

Through my experience in the office, I sharpened my multitasking skills and relied on my ability to stay organized. There were always a lot of moving pieces happening at RHAP, and it was important to keep up with the organization and not forget a step along the way. I used my creativity to come up with fresh ideas for social media, improving the website, and developing graphics to advertise RHAP’s events and sales.

This internship made me a more well rounded potential employee. I gained a lot of administrative experience in the RHAP office, and also got to work as an abortion doula in the clinic. I was trained by the other doula working for RHAP in the clinic and learned how to be a patient advocate. During this internship, I utilized my interpersonal skills, my communication skills and my ability to think quickly and stay calm.

What difficulties did you have and how did you address or overcome these difficulties?

One of the main difficulties I (and the organization in general) had was the controversy involving Planned Parenthood. RHAP works with doctors all over the country to help integrate abortion services into their practices, and some of our own doctors were featured in the videos from the illegal sting operation of PP. The whole ordeal took a toll on everyone in the office. Emotionally, it can be hard to continue on in the face of such adversity, especially when you see the people you hold in such high regard being put on trial.

The office got through this difficult period by keeping the discussion open and honest. We all worked in the same room (which sounds awful, but was actually really fun!) so we had plenty of time to talk about what was going on, our feelings about it, and how we were coping. It was very helpful to have people to talk about the controversy with who understood the issues and wouldn’t pass judgment.
What do you view as the highlight(s) of your internship experience?

My favorite part of my internship was being a doula and connecting with patients. I had a couple experiences that I will never forget, and it’s their stories that make me want to continue working in this field. While I was working, we did a procedure on a woman and later found she had a tumor on one of her ovaries, and I couldn’t help but think about how that appointment might have saved her life. Being a doula was a very heavy, and at times, very troubling experience, but I wouldn’t trade it, because it gave me an entirely different perspective on women’s health.

It was also really great to see the patient education materials RHAP develops being used in a real clinical setting. This work can often feel a little one-sided, because you’re doing so much work on your end and sometimes you don’t see results for months or even years, but this was unique because I actually got to see the full cycle of RHAP’s work.
How did your academic studies help to prepare you for this internship?

My academic studies gave me the base I needed to be successful in my internship. When I started, I felt like I had the “raw data” but I just needed the real life experience. I would have been completely lost about some of the policy and the rules of government had I not had my studies as my background. Through this internship, I was able to take what I have learned in the classroom and apply it to the real world, but if it hadn’t been for my communications, gender studies, and history professors I would have been lost.
How did your internship contribute to your career goals or life path?

This internship more or less cemented my desire to work in reproductive justice. I have always been interested in reproductive justice and human rights issues, but before starting this internship, I was a little unsure if that was what I wanted to do with my career. I want to continue in this field because I think this work is extremely important and necessary, and let’s face it;there aren’t enough of us. But more than that, I have learned, and continue to learn, that the women and men working in this field are some of the smartest, most tolerant, most good-natured people I have ever encountered. I always pictured my ideal work environment to be an inclusive and team-work centered one, not a cut-throat competitive one, and this was exactly what I experienced with RHAP.

My experience also helped me settle into my future goals school-wise. My coworkers all had attended a masters program either in social work or public health, and we even had one coworker who went to law school. They helped open my eyes to which degree program might be right for me, and they helped me make my decision to work for a while before I start more school.
What did you think of your internship and the organization?

I really enjoyed my internship and the organization. The mission of RHAP really resonated with me in the application process, which is why I listed them as my number one choice. Going to school in rural Iowa, I know how rural communities often suffer from lack of reproductive health care. I loved that RHAP aims to help physicians integrate comprehensive reproductive health care to communities that are underserved.

RHAP also helps doctors become more well rounded in their practices, by helping in ways as small as shipping some fact sheets to an office, all the way to abortion training. They truly care about the quality and accessibility of care, which I really admire. RHAP was also a great work environment. As I stated earlier, the office was all about cooperation and collaboration, everyone wanted to reach the same goals and everyone wanted to help. Working in a cohesive environment is so important with social justice issues, because if all of us don’t win, none of us win.
Did you learn more about the intersections of reproductive rights and social justice issues?

Absolutely, especially while I was working in the clinic. I saw first hand how lack of access affects people of color and low-income families exponentially more than other groups. Many of our patients are homeless or were homeless at one time, many of them were Black and Latina women, and many of them were very young with no insurance. In a city as advanced as New York, it is shocking how minority groups are still left behind when it comes to proper health care coverage.

The same could be said for sex education. Many of my patients were very young girls who did not properly know their anatomy, but were solely in charge of securing their reproductive care. Many patients had never been to a gynecologist before, and their experience getting an IUD, abortion, or other service was the first time they had a doctor inspect their anatomy. It was difficult to see these groups being left behind and how they are suffering, but many of the patients left with a better understanding of their body, their mind, their and rights.
Do you have suggestions for potential future interns?

My suggestion for future interns would be to make your voice heard in your internship and tell them what you want to learn. In my experience at my internship, I learned that almost everyone who works in reproductive justice is eager to teach and help you expand your knowledge in lots of ways, you just have to ask! Also, I would advise to go in with a completely open mind, and be aware of the fact that you are in a new community with a whole new set of problems and institutions that you are not familiar with. It is not your job to go in and “fix” anyone or anything, but it is your job to learn as much as you can and try to do your job to the best of your ability, and hopefully help others along the way.