Hello Arts In Action community and blog readers! My name is Hallie and I will be your trusty cyber intern this summer. Why a virtual internship, you might ask? Well, lucky for me, Grace-Anne has allowed me to learn from the team at Arts In Action through technological communication and my own personal experiences here in Boston as they forge the Routes To Self-Determination and Self-Advocacy! A virtual internship does not require me to show up in person. It doesn’t even require me to change out of my pajamas! But rest assured, I am here to travel this journey with everyone.
I must admit, I have never blogged for anything with more than one reader (my mom). This is all a new experience for me! Currently, I am an incoming senior at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts studying Anthropology and Community Health. As my undergraduate education is coming to a close, I am eager to acquire skills that will ease the entrance into a workforce of route plowers! I believe that Arts In Action’s team of multidisciplinary genius types are the ones who can show me the way.
I recently returned from a semester abroad in Kenya, Africa. For the first time since childhood, I got the chance to say “no” to classrooms, desks, and dozing. My first experience conducting field work helped me recognize the value of interpersonal interaction, mindful inquiry, chain sampling to and from each spot of research, and TRANSIT (More on all of that throughout the next weeks in my blog). I spent the past six months, the most educational months of my life, on several modes of transportation. Therefore, skills I wish to develop as a virtual intern with Arts In Action will not materialize unless I am active. Realizing that I learn best when in active spaces was something that makes me feel a strong sense of self, and I appreciate Grace-Anne for accepting this. Although I will be checking in from a comfy chair over here, I plan to take advantage of Boston’s vast resource landscape in order to get the most out of this visual internship as I integrate ideas with real life scenarios. Here are some of my internship goals:
– An intentional and efficient relationship with technology (research and social media)
– If one needs a grant…where does one start?!?
– How can my experiences help me to contribute to brainstorm and other efforts at Arts in Action this summer?
If you have any ideas, book recommendations, walking paths, or New England-specific activities that could help me get the most out of this internship, please comment below or email me at hallie.abelman5@gmail.com
Until next week…
-Hallie Abelman, Arts In Action 2013 Summer Intern
