Written by Yeol-Shim Bell
As CARP says goodbye to its summer intern, Yeol-Shim Bell, we wanted to give her a chance to reflect on and share her experience from the last few months. We are very proud of her and wish her the best of luck in her upcoming adventures. Keep reading to learn more!
One warm night in June, I heard about a summer internship opportunity and approached Teresa, the National Director for CARP, to learn more. Since my high school graduation in May, I hadn’t touched a pen or even put it to paper. I wanted to write creatively for a living, but I needed to create the habit of writing regularly. Writing articles with CARP was a taste of what my writing career might look like. I wanted to have a peek into my future.
The journey begins.
When I first arrived to the office on 8th and 34th, I was excited but nervous; this was my first professional job experience. When I saw how the CARP staff acted like a family, I was happily surprised. I became less stressed about what CARP expected of me and more eager to begin writing, expanding, and improving my skills.
CARP Headquarters on 8th Avenue and 34th Street, Manhattan.
There are many meetings.
On my first day, a staff member hosted an educational webinar centered around listening. The intention was to uplift and improve the skills of CARP leaders and potential leaders throughout the world. After being sincerely listened to, I realized how comforting it can be.
While I understood that hearing someone talk about their issues could comfort them, I hadn’t thought about the intricacies and values of listening until that day. By utilizing true listening later in my personal life and for the interviews I conducted for my internship, I grew my capacity to understand and learn from another person.
Summer laziness departs.
The internship with CARP taught me how much effort my future projects might need. Commuting to and from Manhattan was usually exhausting, but I poured my energy into typing. Editing my grammar and syntax mistakes sometimes felt like taming an animal. There always seemed to be something that I could have done better, but I learned to be vulnerable and put my imperfect works out there.
Look out for a few more of my articles in the next coming weeks!
The tale comes to fulfillment.
I continue to be amazed by how many people have read my writing so far. Reaching this many people by myself would have taken much more time. After meeting and listening to so many fascinating and caring people in these past few months, I know that my work with CARP has added so much to my life experience. I’m so happy I seized this opportunity!
I turn to a new chapter.
On October 15th, I will be flying to Slovakia to join the winter period of the Development of New Environment (DONE) program. I thought extensively about whether to attend university right after high school, and I decided to take a gap year to participate in a service program that would give me more life experience. During DONE, I will meet people from Europe, the United Kingdom, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and the Caribbean. I am looking forward to progressing my global perspective!
My first flight in a long time and I’m ecstatic!