Author: elcohen

At the beginning of the summer I did not imagine that I would feel extremely sad to leave JVS on the last day of my internship, however, during the past week as my summer internship came to a close, I realized how attached I had become, how much I had learned, and how much I will miss working at my little office in East Boston.  I feel so grateful to have had the summer that I did.  When reflecting on my learning goals, I feel confident in saying that I not only met my goals but also learned and grew more than I could have imagined possible over the course of the ten weeks.  My internship at JVS pushed me in many ways over the course of the summer and enabled me to be a more confident, caring, and adept person.  (Below: My coworker and me during our last week.) 

My feeling towards conducting new-client-assessments is a clear example that comes to mind when thinking about how I have grown over the summer.  During my first week, I observed one of my coworkers while she conducted an initial assessment of a new client to see if the person was a good fit for our program.  When observing this interaction, I felt uncomfortable.  It seemed awkward to me to have to ask someone personal questions without knowing them.  Because there were language barriers, more typical courtesies and ways of creating comfortable distance were unable to take place.  The interaction was a much more blunt and boiled down version of what it could have been had both people been fluent in the same language.  There were some of the question like “What are your job goals?” or “Did you attend college?” that were comfortable.  As the interview went on however, the questions that needed to be asked about a person’s citizenship and work authorization status felt harsh, and asking them to choose one of the boxes in the ill-equipped lineup of “racial categories” made me cringe, but there was no way around doing this.

I did not imagine that I would ever be comfortable conducting these sorts of meetings.  A few weeks later, I began to be in charge of assessing new clients and had to handle these meetings on my own.  At first, it often felt strange, but as time went on I found my own rhythm, and soon it became one of my favorite tasks at work, because it enabled me to be the first person that the new clients got to know at JVS.  I loved hearing their stories for the first time, understanding what motivated them to come to JVS, and having them know that I was a person they could trust.  During my last day of my JVS summer, I did four new-client-assessments.  It felt amazing to end my summer bringing four new candidates to the program through the task that I had once been so nervous to take on.  

Working at JVS has enabled me to envision many different paths that would excite me in terms of my work and life post-graduation.  JVS’s East Boston location’s partnership with the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center has been an important part of my learning and exploring this summer.  While I can happily envision working for a nonprofit like JVS doing career counseling or teaching, being around medical professionals at EBNHC has given me a window into what a career in public health could look like as well.  Through my internship, I got the exciting opportunity to attend a small event where Elizabeth Warren spoke to professionals at the EBNHC clinic about the work that they do and this was very inspiring to me. 

My work over the summer solidified the knowledge that I want to always be working in a place that enables me to be making some sort of positive difference within my community.  It has been so valuable and heartening to watch some of my clients go through dramatic life changes over the summer in part because of the support that they got from JVS and from me.  It is crazy to think that clients I met at the beginning of the summer were able to get jobs during the past ten weeks because of work that I got to help with.  I would highly recommend interning with JVS.  Unlike many internship opportunities that students sometimes have, JVS cares about your learning and your experience working with them.  If you want to work with JVS I would recommend reaching out to their HR manager, or simply going to their downtown headquarters and asking for information in person.  

I am so thankful that WOW helped me have the summer that I did!

Signing off, EC

As my internship with JVS has continued, I have enjoyed my time there more and more.  As the weeks have gone on, I have begun to build stronger relationships with my clients and coworkers and becoming more familiar with my workplace has enabled me to take on new and exciting challenges and responsibilities.  During the first two weeks of July, the clients had a break from their morning English/Skills classes, which gave me time to work on different projects and tasks than I usually do.  I also got to work at JVS’s downtown headquarters for a few days during this time instead of staying in the East Boston location; this proved a very valuable experience as it enabled me to better understand how JVS operates as a whole and allowed me to become familiar with some of the other programs JVS runs in addition to the specific program that I work with.  

One of the main projects that I worked on during the weeks off from class was an outreach initiative in East Boston, Roxbury, and Quincy.  My co-intern Ben and I were sent into different neighborhoods to talk to people in small businesses, community centers, parks, and other places frequented by locals to attract new clients to JVS’s English for Advancement program.  I had never been to any of the neighborhoods that we visited before working with JVS.  This was such a learning experience for me because they are mostly areas I would not have thought to visit before, however, they were filled with so many interesting places and such friendly fellow Bostonians. I think often many neighborhoods located around the outskirts of Boston- like in many cities- are thought of as less safe or desirable than the neighborhoods I am used to visiting.  It was eye-opening to find that none of what I saw matched any sort of negative reputation that may have preceded the places we went.  It was disappointing to realize that Boston has not escaped the racialized notions that sort suburbs into relatively baseless positive and negative categories.  

In addition to the outreach efforts, over the past few weeks much of my work has been focused on doing intake interviews for the English for Advancement Program.  In order to be a part of the program, clients must first attend an initial information session, and then come to a follow up interview where we do a more in depth assessment in order to decide whether or not the person is a good fit for EfA.  Through handling many aspects of the interview process I have learned a lot about different immigration and work statuses.  There are so many nuances to the different titles, laws, and processes and my supervisors have been helpful in teaching me about these differences.  Unfortunately, EfA can only accept applicants who already have unrestricted Social Security numbers, so I have learned a lot about how the process of acquiring a social security number happens. I have greatly enjoyed interviewing new potential clients because it enables me to hear so many interesting stories of fellow members of my Boston community.  While some clients have lived in the United States for a few years or longer, many have arrived within the past six months and listening to their goals and ideas about their future lives in America is so intriguing and inspiring. 

In general I feel like working at JVS is enabling me to feel so much more comfortable in so many different ways.  I am infinitely more confident at work whether it’s doing little things like making phone calls, copies, or commuting around Boston, or doing bigger things like running an information session by myself, translating between the four languages I speak, or contributing during a large meeting.  I feel much more independent and able than I ever have before.  WOW has enabled me to see what my life will be like post graduation.  Living in Somerville in an apartment, commuting to work each morning, and engaging in real work every day feels so adult, and this is something I have never experienced until now.  I am excited to finish the summer strong, EC 

My internship with the Jewish Vocational Service (JVS) started last week. While the headquarters of JVS is located in downtown Boston, JVS has many smaller offsite locations.  One of these locations is located in East Boston close to the Maverick T-Station; this is where my internship for the summer is located.  JVS’ many locations is demonstrative of an integral part of their core principles: being easily accessible to the entire Boston community. The program I am working with this summer is called English for Advancement, one of their many departments and programs.  The English for Advancement program pairs English classes and career counseling services to help immigrants and refugees in the greater Boston area find and secure stable jobs.  

The East Boston location of the English for Advancement (EfA) program where I am working meets in an office space that is shared with the East  Boston Neighborhood Health Center.  Though the two organizations are separate entities, they work together in many ways to serve the East Boston community.  The Health Center informs many people in the area about EfA and many of our clients use services provided by both organizations.  It is a successful partnership and I am excited to learn more about both of these organizations as the summer continues.  Beyond the East Boston site, EfA serves the Boston community from six different locations: Lynn, Lawrence, Roxbury, East Boston, Dorchester, and Downtown Boston.  From these six sites, EfA has found jobs for over 2,000 clients in the past year alone.  JVS’ mission plans for JVS to be, “Empowering individuals from diverse communities to find employment and build careers, while partnering with employers to hire, develop, and retain productive workforces.”  Their EfA program embodies this mission in all sense and even in my first few days with them I have seen how they put this into action.    

 

During my first day at JVS, I was taught about the different policies, processes, and systems in place at JVS- it was a classic intern introduction- being taught how to use the different databases, understand the codes and filing systems, and find every place in the building that I needed to know about.  By the second day however, things were in full swing.  In the morning (as I will each morning), I worked as a teacher’s assistant in the EfA English class.  The English classes are challenging for one teacher to handle because each student/client (used interchangeably) comes in with a very different level of English ability.  There are some clients who arrive to the EfA program knowing nearly zero English, while other students are much more comfortable speaking.  While JVS attempts to level the classes, JVS’ priority is to bring in as many students as possible, and this means adapting to the schedule of everyone who is a part of the EfA program.  This results in having classes with very mixed levels of English.  

Thus far, I have spent the majority of the time during the morning assisting the students with lower levels of English to ensure that they are understanding what is being taught.  Because around half to three quarters of the students that the East Boston location serves are native Spanish speakers, my Spanish fluency has been an extremely useful.  My personal learning goal for the summer was to improve my Spanish speaking skills and this has already begun to occur.  In the afternoons I work independently focusing on projects and tasks delegated to me by supervisors Maria (the head of career coaching) and Laura (the head of the English classes).  This has enabled me to work on one of my other learning goals: learning how non-profit organizations successfully operate.  My work includes meeting with clients to work on their resumes, apply for jobs, or practice for interviews; calling new clients and providing them with information about our program; interviewing potential clients to see if they are a good fit for our program; searching for jobs for our clients, and translating material from English into Spanish or French.  

Working at JVS thus far has been a pleasure.  I already feel as though I have developed strong relationships with many of the clients.  They are helping me learn so much and are already enabling me to accomplish my third learning goal- improving my navigation of multicultural learning environments.  Getting to meet with the clients and watching them achieve all of their goals, find good jobs, and become more confident in their English feels so special.  I have left work each day feeling so joyful after interacting with everyone who is part of the JVS community.  Almost every client I have worked with thus far has been so motivated and optimistic.  I feel so grateful that this is where I will be spending my summer.  More to come soon, EC