Summer Intern Series 2014

The Feelings I'll Remember

Welcome to the second edition of our summer internship series! Today we are honored to share reflections written by Katya Barrett. Katya recently finished her freshman year at Brown University where she is thinking of majoring in education and comparative literature. She took a gap year between high school and college and spent 10 months working for the non-profit organization City Year in an urban middle school in San Antonio Texas. She loves to stay active and is a diehard Red Sox fan (despite growing up in New York!). Here's Katya.

For myself and the six LitCamp interns the past three weeks have been a wonderful whirlwind of getting to know each other and the full-time staff, beginning to plan our curriculum for the summer, and having inspiring meetings with many of LitWorld’s key partners. The days have been filled with interesting and varied work – from taking part in a poetry workshop and learning essential LitWorld songs, to hearing about co-workers' personal journeys in the world of education, and reflecting one-on-one about our hopes and dreams for the summer.

As fantastic as all of these opportunities have been, the standout moment of both this week and the summer for me so far was something entirely different. Earlier this week, the LitCamp interns were introduced to the teenage students who will be working with us throughout the summer as junior LitCamp counselors.

An excited team of LitCamp interns waiting for the subway to Broadway Housing Communities. (From left to right: Will, Adam, Rachael, Ashley, Eve and me, Katya.)

An excited team of LitCamp interns waiting for the subway to Broadway Housing Communities. (From left to right: Will, Adam, Rachael, Ashley, Eve and me, Katya.)

As we waited for the teens, who are from the Harlem community where our LitCamp operates, to meet us at Broadway Housing Communities, I had little idea what to expect. I'd heard stories of the teens and the important mentoring role that they play for the younger learners from our LitCamp directors who have worked with them for the past two years. Having spent much of the past few months looking forward to spending the summer with the children and young adults of Broadway Housing, the moments before our first introductions were filled with much excitement but also many unknowns.

But from the instant they joined our meeting, the teens filled the room with such joy, openness, and maturity. They jumped into our icebreakers, eager to discuss what their favorite cereals were, and as many of them are much more experienced in the ways of LitCamp than we interns, helped to guide us through the “Read-aloud” song.

Once we learned each other’s preferred breakfast cereal, we paired up (one intern with one teen counselor) to connect on a deeper level as we discussed our understandings of moving quotes by people such as Maya Angelou.

When we were presented with Maya’s powerful words, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel,” the room quickly filled with beautiful conversations about role models, encouragement, and how we can all embody these words this summer.

The work that we have been doing up until this point, figuring out how to work as a team and planning the logistics of classes and field trips, is hugely important. But for me, it was these discussions with the teens that gave the work real context. Their excitement, expertise, and thoughtfulness made returning to lesson planning the next day feel that much more meaningful, and even just meeting the teen counselors made the upcoming LitCamp begin to feel very real.  And that is very, very exciting.

LitWorld Through the Eyes of Our Summer Interns

The arrival of summer and the LitCamp season also brought 8 Summer interns into the LitWorld office here in New York. We want you to get to know these brilliant young leaders, so we've asked each of  them to take a turn sharing their LitWorld experience. Our trailblazer is Melissa Aybar, a recent graduate of Amherst College. Melissa majored in Psychology and French and plans to pursue a career in the field of education. She has spent the past four years working with a special needs facility in the Dominican Republic and will be moving to Boston (her hometown!) this fall to start teaching. And with that we are honored to welcome our guest blogger, Melissa!

Right now my brain is on what I’m calling “information overload.” I have spent a lot of time figuring out what exactly LitWorld does as a whole - figuring out what the people who make up the organization do, and how it all functions together. This is hard to do in two short weeks but it is really incredible how the staff here has taken the time to sit with me and tell me exactly what they do, what they’re thinking about for upcoming projects, and genuinely ask me what I want to learn and how I want to get involved.

It isn’t typical to start a summer internship and have the people working there take a high interest in what it is you want and what it is they can do for your learning experience. These last few months I have been thinking about what my role as an educator is going to look like next year because it’s a little scary! Being able to share the skills I want to gain and being able to step back and see how everyone else views learning has been incredibly helpful and a highlight of my week.

Here I am (on the left) with my fellow Research & Development Intern, Isabelle! We're in the middle of planning a summer LitFest at the Polo Grounds Community Center in Harlem!

Here I am (on the left) with my fellow Research & Development Intern, Isabelle! We're in the middle of planning a summer LitFest at the Polo Grounds Community Center in Harlem!

All of the people that LitWorld has connected me to since the beginning of the internship have been my high point. Meeting some of LitWorld's longtime friends and partners and getting to know my fellow interns has allowed me to hear the stories and journeys that led them to the organization. Everyone has a different narrative and we all have different passions and hopes, but we all connected to LitWorld and we all identify with its mission.

This week the LitWorld Summer Interns had an inspiring meeting with Jeremy Kohomban, President & CEO of LitWorld's longtime partner organization, The Children's Village.

This week the LitWorld Summer Interns had an inspiring meeting with Jeremy Kohomban, President & CEO of LitWorld's longtime partner organization, The Children's Village.

Starting the internship with people so knowledgeable about education, literacy, community involvement, teaching, youth, and other amazing things in and out of New York was an inspiring way to start us off. These last two weeks brought on a new appreciation for the work I am so passionate about because I see the many ways people are putting in their time, effort and skills to connect to other people and really push for change.

I had absolutely loved reading aloud with the Power Women Moms LitClub of Kibera, Kenya over Skype.

I had absolutely loved reading aloud with the Power Women Moms LitClub of Kibera, Kenya over Skype.

This summer I am excited to continue learning about this organization and be a useful part of the team. I can’t wait to get both the experience of seeing the inner-workings of such an influential non-profit and the chance to work directly with the children and families that are part of LitWorld programs. I have already learned a ton of things that I can take with me into the classroom (shooting stars for EVERYONE!) and am most looking forward to seeing how all of the new and wonderful ideas I have been hearing about unfold.