Week 6 in DC

As it comes to the sixth week of my internship in the AAPD office I am sad to that the end is near. I have met so many amazing people and have done so many awesome things that wouldn’t have been possible if AAPD hadn’t brought me on. Today, I met three families who AAPD brought to D.C. to meet with officials at the White House and the Hill to talk about why Medicaid shouldn’t be cut. It was great to work with people and assist them getting to where they needed to go in the city. I really enjoy working in the office but my passion is working hands on with people. Next month once I get to Camphill I will be able to get in and dirty, working hands on side by side with people with disabilities. I don’t want to rush the next two weeks I have though, because I will miss everyone and miss working in D.C. 

Week 4 in DC

It has arrived at the fourth week and it's been almost one month since I began my internship at AAPD. It feels like I finally have gotten a grip on what my duties are here and what will be expected of me for the rest of my time in the AAPD office. It weird that in a month I will be leaving AAPD for my long journey across the country to the next stop in my life, Camphill.

DC is a wonderful city and if I could live in any big city this would probably be it. I like the metro system and everyone is usually really nice and helpful. Walking the streets on my lunch break I enjoy the architecture and all the little squares and parks throughout the city. There is so much history here and I feel that every weekend I can discover new things about the city and myself.

This week in the office is particular exciting because there will be a live town hall meeting with Mark Perriello, the new CEO/President. It’s exciting because I helped set it all up. From contacting the company for prices and questions to making sure I was totally knowledgeable on all aspects of the livestream system. When the broadcast goes live I will be the person behind the scenes ensuring everything runs smoothly. This is a great experience and I will take the skills I learned and use then in my future endeavors. This is true for much of what I have learned and done at AAPD. The skills and knowledge I gained I know I will take with me when I venture out to Camphill and beyond. I plan to go onto graduate school after my year of Americorp service. When I go on to continue my education that things I have done at AAPD will still remain with me and I will use the skills to achieve my future employment goals.

I really enjoy everyone who I work with. They are all so nice and welcoming and have made me feel at home since the first day I started. It’s great to work with a diverse group of people. I have never worked in an office before, mostly just out in the community. So this experience is allowing me to witness the inner workings of an office and lets me get so much needed experience. I am excited for what the next month holds for me and sad that the end is approaching so quickly.

Week 3 in DC

Week three in DC has arrived and I can’t believe all the things I have learned and been taught already. Before starting my communications internship at AAPD I had experience in social networking. But, now I have gained so many valuable skills beyond just social networking. I have gotten to sit in on important meetings. Seeing how the company really works together to support and advocate for people with disabilities. I have gotten to work on projects such as captioning a video to ensure that it is accessible to all viewers. This is very interesting and something I will be able to take with me once I start at Camphill because they might want to post videos and ensure that everyone who would watch it would be able to have the accessibility they need. I have also been working on putting together “one-pagers” for each department at AAPD. These documents will be what members and potential donors will look at when wanting more information about a certain area of work that AAPD does. This lets me know that after I end my internship some of the hard work I put in will be around long after I have to say good-bye.

I have come to form a certain love for the DC area. Aside from the traffic this area of the country is beautiful. I enjoy going on lunch and being able to walk to different little parks in the city and even getting to visit the White House on numerous occasions. I feel truly blessed that I was given this opportunity and can feel that I have already grown some in the few weeks I have been here. I am excited for what the future holds and what things I will get to learn and discover about myself because of my experience at AAPD.

Dispatch!!!

This past weekend, Erik and I had the opportunity to do some good as well as have some fun! We have had tickets to see the band Dispatch for months now but we discovered last week that they put together local volunteer projects in the area where the shows will be held. So, we signed up and went out to the middle of downtown Newark, NJ to volunteer. We showed up and began working on painting murals on the outside of a public elementary school. The principal was there to help and her story of the school was truly inspiring. The elementary school performs better then any other public school in the area so the state and local government has decided that they don't need as much funding as other schools. While they might out preform other schools they still need financial help to accomplish goals and fix up the grounds so its a welcoming area for the local kids. So, we set to work and painted a bunch of wonderful murals all around the outside area of the school. After we were done and stepped back to look at our work, I almost choked up because they murals all looked AMAZING! I know that the kids are going to be so happy to see how nice their school now looks with help from us and Amplifying Education( Dispatch's volunteer organization). Above, are pictures of one section of the mural that Erik, our new friend Steve and I, helped to create and finish. More pictures to come soon, so keep on folloing me!!

Dispatch was awesome and because we volunteered we got to meet the band!!! This was a once in a lifetime chance and so glad that we got to give back and get a meet and greet with one of my favorite bands!!

For more pictures click here!

Week 2 at AAPD

It has been two weeks since I began my communications internship at AAPD. I have finally mastered the metro system and no longer have to read the metro map to figure out where my stop is. It is a great feeling to know my way around the DC area and I feel like a true city girl now that I can confidently navigate my way around. 

A part of being an intern at AAPD includes being in attendance at meetings and on conference calls. Sitting in on  meetings, I feel more included in the organization. Being able to listen in on conference calls I now have a better idea of what AAPD does and what being an intern here includes. My start date fell right around the same time that the new president/CEO Mark Perriello started. This is a great time to start because I get to welcome him onto the staff and also get to sit in on meetings that are bringing him up to date on what is going on at AAPD. This helps me to become more involved in AAPD and to know the background of the organization and what the plans for the future are. I am excited to see what the next weeks hold for me and how I can work with staff here at AAPD to complete all the goals for the rest of the summer.

First week as a communications intern at AAPD

Living in upstate New York all of my life, it was an amazing opportunity to come down to DC and work with AAPD. I have worked with people with disabilities for five years now and I will be continuing that work in the fall when I make a trip across the country to work at Camphill Communities of California. The reason I applied to AAPD for the communications internship was because I wanted experience working in a different area of disabilities and seeing how to work with people living with disabilities on another level. It’s been a week since I began my internship in the AAPD office. Working as a communications intern is something new to me. While I was in college I maintained a Facebook and group page for the Student United Way group I started on the Binghamton University campus. While I had experience walking into AAPD, I didn’t realize all the great things I still had to learn to be able to fulfill all the components of my internship. For example, I will be learning how to update and maintain a website which I never thought I would get to do. I can already tell that the experiences and skills I learn while working at AAPD I will carry with me for the rest of my life.