evillano’s Articles at WOW Fellowship Blog

Reflecting on the summer

Wow, did summer fly by. I spent the last few days at ICAAP reflecting upon everything I had learned, both small and large. I feel as though, most important to my personal, career, and academic life, I fulfilled my goal of learning about childhood trauma and its implications on society. While I still have much more to learn, it’s a teaching that permeates into how I view my classes, my relationships, and how I want to make a difference in the future. My academic goals guided my career goals significantly, as I now feel as though I have a better grasp of the path I want my career to take. While my vision for the future is far from solidified, I definitely feel as though I have a better understanding of what I am looking for in terms of work environment for the future. For starters, the work atmosphere at ICAAP is a great fit for my type of learning style. It revolved largely around autonomous work, and self-initiatives, which is perfect for me. When I am first assigned a task, I like to immerse myself in noise-cancelling headphones, and just be solitary in my understanding of the task. However, ICAAP also encourages collaboration and discussions, which helps provide a dynamic work environment that largely revolves around solitary work, but encourages mutuality. In future jobs, this is the balance I will look for to best fit my own learning style. My third goal is networking, which I partially fulfilled, but is definitely something I need to work on. Oftentimes I would become so immersed in a conversation with one person, that a room would clear out before I had a chance to follow up with additional people. I networked well within the ICAAP realm, however, wish that I had networked more extensively outside of our organization.

To any student looking to intern at ICAAP: Do it. Do it especially with the staff in the ECD realm. I feel so incredibly grateful to have been surrounded by such a strong and open group of women. If you are looking to intern in public health realms in general, beware that experiences vary quite dramatically within each organization. Even ICAAP, which is part of a national organization, has drastically different work environments in each. When you are interviewing, make sure you know what the work environment will be like, whether they will give you fulfilling work, and whether they will challenge you. There are a lot of great articles that talk about how to assess if you will be satisfied in a job, like this one! Also, don’t be afraid to ask for feedback and advice.

My proudest moment of the summer was giving my final presentation to a group of 40 professionals introducing them to the realm of childhood trauma. My fellow intern and I were so unbelievably nervous, especially because we followed up one of the best public speakers I’ve ever heard. After we finished, we knew we did a great job, which was only reinforced by professionals we had met and our bosses.

Presenting at the Governor State University on childhood trauma — Presenting at Governor State University on childhood trauma

Engaging in a new culture of work at ICAAP

For the first time in my life, I have joined the traditional workforce. In the past, I have done remote work, put in much sweat and tears into working at an overnight camp, and have worked part time jobs, but never have been exposed to this type of consistency in an office environment. I am now amongst the throng of suburbanites who, every day, flood the Metra and commute into the city- I am a member of the 9-5 commuting community. I always assumed I wouldn’t enjoy this type of stationary work, but so far I feel quite comfortable and happy with my job and work environment.

Image taken by the Chicago Tribune — Commuters leaving the Metra during an early morning rush

The people who work at ICAAP, 13 staff in all, are quite open and friendly. Every morning at 8:59, after pushing open the warehouse door, I can expect several “hello’s”, or relaxed smiles from the early risers. My work experience has been largely different from my academic life. The largest adjustment for me cognitively was having to train my brain to focus for longer periods at a time. In school, I would have a smattering of classes throughout the day, and my schedule would necessitate multiple walking breaks as I navigated the campus. Additionally, the learning process here is much more informal than at school. My “teachers” have never been trained to teach, so they explain concepts to me through their passion and experiences. They tend to have more of an experiential approach to my learning, especially because their job is not to teach me, but to use me as an aid to their work.

This style of learning has been simultaneously exciting and frustrating for me. At the beginning of a new task, when I don’t quite understand the framework of the work I am supposed to be doing, I exist in a state of constant searching; one that both invigorates me and leaves me at the end of each day feeling unsure. However, when I break through into understanding, which I have been able to do thus far in each task, the feeling is beyond enticing, and beyond anything I have felt at school being ‘spoon fed’ my learning (if you will). This internship is teaching me tangible skills, such as grant writing, research, utilizing community tools, improved communication skills, how to exist and present myself in different work cultures, and how to best focus myself for the duration of a work day. However, beyond that, it is teaching me how to adapt, and self-teach in efficient and tangible ways in a workforce. I am constantly striving to find the balance between asking for help from my very busy supervisors, and using immersive experience (just plowing through my confusion in combination with very intimate google counseling), to get the work done.

Currently, I am in the middle of writing and researching a grant, and was just given responsibility of our social media accounts. (Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!) Curious as to how to use social media as a business? This has been my guide. This being the first grant I have worked on, I am still trying to put myself in the framework of how to write a grant, from the targeted language they use to the type of data that works best. I don’t think I could have honed these skills in a classroom, but they are skills that I will use the rest of my academic and career life, and hopefully will be able to utilize in my personal life as well.

Elizabeth Villano, ’16

Elizabeth Villano, ’16

My first week at the Illinois Academy of Pediatrics

For my summer internship, I am working at the Illinois Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics (also known as ICAAP) located in West Town, Chicago, IL. ICAAP is a coalition of 2300 pediatricians located throughout the state of Illinois who are jointly committed to improving health outcomes of children throughout the state.

My particular initiative is called PROTECT- Promoting Resiliency Of Trauma Exposed Communities Together. Before I get into what the program does, you should consider watching this fantastic Ted Talk by Nadine Burke Harris about the overwhelming scope of childhood trauma, and learn why childhood trauma is being considered one of the largest unaddressed public health concerns to date.

The Early Childhood Development team at ICAAP- a group of three incredible and passionate woman- was awarded a Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) grant for three years, the goal of which is to bring together different initiatives working to reduce the impacts of childhood trauma throughout the state of Illinois, educate important players (such as pediatricians, educators, and faith communities) about the impact of childhood trauma, create a virtual resource center to provide free resources to those who want to become trauma-informed, engage with communities and families who are exposed to trauma, and create policy recommendations and best practices consistent with being trauma informed. (Thats a mouthful- learn more about PROTECT here!)

One of my primary responsibilities will be to deliver speeches about childhood trauma to different audiences throughout Illinois who want to become trauma informed. This two hour presentation, my boss informed me and my fellow intern, will ‘become ours’, and we will ‘own it’. They told us that by the end of the summer, we will become experts in the field of childhood trauma. Here’s a few of the responsibilities that I can remember them bringing up: We will be writing grants, conducting research to aid communities who want to become trauma informed, acting as a coordinator and moderator of different interest groups, presenting about childhood trauma throughout the state, and attending educational Webinars on behalf of ICAAP. These responsibilities, some mundane and some large, will help the understaffed ECD team work more efficiently and collaboratively towards their goal of bringing a trauma-informed lens to the state of Illinois.

These responsibilities align perfectly with my learning goals, just as the staff at ICAAP are looking to do. An academic goal of mine is to learn more about childhood trauma, and understand the impact it has on healthcare and society. Already at the end of week one, I feel confident in my knowledge of childhood trauma. The more I understand about the scope of its impact, the more excited I am about my work. A career goal of mine is to experience first hand how a non-for-profit operates, and what it means to work to reduce healthcare disparities, a buzzword that is constantly thrown around but that I’ve never truly understood. My work is constantly exposing me to new non-for-profits. One of my first assignments was to invite businesses and non-for-profits to our upcoming Autism, Behavioral, and Complex Medical Needs Conference. Through doing so, I came to realize just how extensive a community exists in the subset of developmental delays, and how many different creative approaches there are for mediating disparities in healthcare. A personal goal of mine is to get a better understanding of what drives change in the healthcare system. So far, I have seen glimpses of the dedication and passion it takes to influence policy makers, and I know that through my continuous work with such a noble organization I will continue to see what drives change.

My workspace! Notice that the coffee isn’t too far from hand 🙂

Elizabeth Villano ’16