This summer truly flew by. It’s crazy to think that this is my last post and my last week at the Bronx Adolescent Skills Center as my journey comes to a close. After all of my experiences this summer, looking back on my first-day jitters and my journey to learning how to participate in an office setting makes me laugh. I knew I would learn a significant amount about the world of work as a mature adult by diving head-first into a professional office environment. As I expected, I came to understand the effect of the chain of command as well as what is appropriate dress and behavior in the office, but I also learned about the field of Psychology, my major, what a potential career would look like, and what my interests are within the field.
But I have discovered that, as much as the ASC is an office, it is equally a home–not only for the students, but for the staff as well. The staff and students uphold their roles as support systems for each other every day in the office. Though the relationship between the staff and students is professional, I would also say the relationship is that of a family. The duality of these relationships is what makes the ASC so incredible, especially in my eyes.
My perception of the students and staff at the ASC as a family has changed the perception of social justice work that I held at the beginning of this summer. I entered the ASC understanding the social injustice that exists in this world with a motivation to fight and raise awareness while remaining detached from its effects, but since working at the ASC, I view social justice through a completely different lens.
Just two days before my internship ended, I entered the ASC office to find one of the students that I have been counseling as a peer waiting to talk to me. My supervisor explained to me that today was his father’s birthday and that it marks eleven years since his father passed away. When I met with the student, he explained that his father was shot in an attempt to protect him from being taken away. He was only seven. The student walked me through his thoughts, feelings, and emotions on this day when he mentioned that his father left him a note. A few years prior to his death, the student’s father wrote him a letter to be opened when he is eighteen, and this year, on his father’s birthday, he is eighteen.
As I listened to the traumas of so many students my age, I began to understand on a personal level how unjust this world actually is. My perception of social justice has changed through shattering the invisible barrier that has sheltered me from the effects of injustice. This is why the work that I have done at the ASC this summer–providing educational and vocational opportunities to students in low-income areas–means so much to me: it has opened my eyes towards the power of social justice.
I am incredibly grateful to have spent my summer working alongside the very intelligent, caring, and giving people at the Bronx ASC, as well as working with the students who inspire me to be a better version of myself every day. I will never forget this summer and everything that I have learned.
Lauren Lindman ’22