This is the next in a series of posts by recipients of the Career Services Summer Funding Grant. We’ve asked funding recipients to reflect on their summer experiences and talk about the industries in which they’ve been spending their summer. You can read the entire series here.
This entry is by Xin Li, GSE ’18
This is my first time working in an off-campus setting. The feeling of the night before it started was like the night before I left home and went to a foreign country by myself for the first time. On the first day of my intern, when I was taking the picture for my new ID, I was so excited and smiled so hard, even my eyes almost disappeared.
I was working for a non-profit organization that supports individuals who are living with behavioral health challenges. The organization supports mental health through providing Certified Peer Specialist (CPS) training. It has a belief that everyone is his/her own professional and has the power of recovery. I have always been interested in this field, especially children and adolescents who have experiences of trauma, depression, or other mental health problems.
However, the first week of the work did not go smoothly. I started with evaluating the effects of Youth and Young Adults CPS training. Doing evaluation is relatively new to me, so it pushed me to check materials and learn how to write an evaluation report. I finished it under the support of my supportive and lovely supervisor, and I learned a lot in the process. Also, when I went through the curriculum manual to do a better evaluation, I learned lots of useful tools to scaffold the recovery process.
I also did an outreach with a staff member S and helped a homeless person C to move. Having a young appearance, wearing a pair of fancy sunglasses, clean pink shirt, and a shining silver watch, he was totally different from my impression of homeless. I was so happy for him after he got the key of the new house and moved out from the shelter which was built for individuals experiencing homelessness who have physical or mental health experiences. Before I left, we stood outside of his door that sunny afternoon; he stood straight and shook my hand formally. No matter who we are, which occupation we are in, we are all human beings and deserve the same veneration, I reassured this belief.
S told me that there are many homeless people in the city and the nation as a whole. Driving across a very dangerous neighborhood in North Philly, he showed me a bridge where many homeless adolescents would trade drugs in the evening. Many children were killed in this region, he told me. I knew it was because of poverty, lack of education, and many things related. It may be hard to change the situation in a short time, but I am willing to contribute.
I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to do the internship. It opened my mind, led me to find darkness, as well as hope and resilience in this diverse city which is far from my home country but for which I also have affection. I also strengthened my career goal in advocating to help children, adolescents, and young adults who are living or have experience of living in an adverse environment.
Students can also go through the list of Countries Offering Free Education to International Students.