It's gone by incredibly fast, but I have reached the halfway point of my summer and therefore my internship experience. :(
To be truthful, it has been really hard to track my progression because most of the things I do each week are the same tasks I performed the week prior, and I don't always feel very challenged. I enter constituents into the Michigan Casework database, which is easy. Once in a while, they will let me call a constituent back regarding their case. Unfortunately, EVERY time I've had to make a phone call, I don't get through to anyone. So I think it's safe to say I'm a professional at leaving voicemails. The one thing I hope to continue improving on is drafting letters to constituents. I'm a lot better at speaking than I am writing, and sometimes it's difficult for me to find the appropriate way to put my thoughts on paper. My goal is to draft a letter that requires no editing or changes by my supervisors.
The other day, we had a group of women working for the SOAP project come into the office to discuss a package of bills regarding sex trafficking. I decided to do some research on the bills and check their status to see where they stood in Congress. I noticed that many of the bills had been amended, so I went through and found all of the changes in language that had been made and relayed the information back to the group. The group as well as my supervisor were very impressed with me. I really enjoyed researching the proposed bills and getting the chance to hear about what the group was doing to get involved and help make a difference in their community.
As I said before, the biggest challenge that I'm facing right now is the lack of duties that are assigned to me. I don't feel like I'm being utilized to my fullest potential, and I have said something to my supervisor previously. Driving back to Lansing tomorrow, I plan to once again discuss my situation with my supervisor and help formulate some other ways that I can help around the office.
It's a bummer that you feel underutilized. I can relate to that and the doing the same thing everyday part. But it's really cool that you went above and beyond and did all of that research on the bills. I bet that was interesting!
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