Job Description

Peer Health Exchange – Intern

When I was in high school, I was lucky enough to receive a comprehensive sexual health education. I went to school in a suburb of New York City. I can imagine that the sex-ed I got was very different from that of someone living in Montgomery, Alabama. Think back to yours. Were you aware that safe sex is an option, and you don’t have to abstain until marriage? Were you given a list of all the existing contraceptive methods and their effectiveness?

I worked with a non-profit organization called Peer Health Exchange that answers all the questions above, and many more. It provides a 13-week curriculum in which 9^th graders learn the facts and skills to make decisions regarding their health. It’s called Peer Health Exchange because we train college students to teach these 9^th graders about mental health, sexual health, and substance use. Peer Health Exchange has offices in 5 major cities (New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, and Chicago), and works with 21 different colleges. In L.A., Peer Health Exchange partners with California State University – Northridge, California State University – Dominguez Hills, Occidental College, and the University of Southern California.

I interned with Peer Health Exchange – Los Angeles one year ago. My main responsibility was to manage the Accessing Resources pilot program at USC which included:

·      Recruiting volunteers

·      Leading volunteer meetings

·      Writing the curriculum 

Recruiting Volunteers

The national organization’s leadership wanted to carry out a new curriculum nationwide and they chose one of USC’s partner high schools, Animo Inglewood, to be the guinea pig. I was in charge of recruiting volunteers who would teach the new set of workshops at that school. These volunteers would be responsible for teaching their old workshops as well as the new ones, so I had to find people who were very dedicated to Peer Health Exchange’s mission. Although challenging, I managed to recruit a few members who had the time and interest to take on this new responsibility.       

Leading Volunteer Meetings

Since these volunteers were a part of my project, I led one-hour weekly meetings with them before our whole cohort met together. My supervisor and Peer Health Exchange – Nationals sent me guidelines and objectives for each meeting, which I then tailored to my group’s needs.

A typical meeting went as follows:

1)    Start with a five-minute icebreaker

2)    Reflect over the last period we taught to gather any logistical information

3)    Go over the workshop we were teaching that week

4)    Distribute the workshop materials kit

5)    Practice one part of the workshop in front of everyone

6)    Sign up for our workshop periods online    

I really enjoyed running these weekly meetings. For one of our icebreakers, I asked each volunteer to draw their ideal day. I only gave them a couple of minutes, but they still managed to be creative! One girl drew an elaborate beach scene, while someone else just drew themselves in bed with a pizza and video games. I liked to find new ways of getting to know each other rather than the same, overused icebreakers like “share a fun fact about yourself!” or “speed-dating”. 

Writing the Curriculum

My favorite part of managing the Accessing Resources pilot was writing the curriculum. I had access to a box account which held all the workshops Peer Health Exchange – Nationals wrote. Unfortunately, these were specific to the Washington, D.C. area. As a result, I researched the necessary information about Los Angeles and the communities around Animo Inglewood so I could tailor the workshops by removing any activities students wouldn’t enjoy and include:

·      Health clinics that were within a five-mile radius of the high school

·      Resources offered by the high school.

I loved working with Peer Health Exchange. It is an organization that does important work in our community and strives to improve the lives of its students. Working behind the scenes exposed me to all the work and preparation that goes into our weekly volunteer meetings. I was able to leave a legacy with the Accessing Resources Pilot. My supervisor told me that they always refer back to my notes to make sure that the curriculum we teach is up to date. Certain ideas I implemented, such as including one-page high school fact sheets with the workshop curriculum, are still used in practice today. I hope to one day impact my community as Peer Health Exchange – Los Angeles does in its own.   

  

Growing A Farmer

After having read the “About the Author” page, I’m surprised Kurt Timmermeister graduated with a degree in International Affairs. I would have assumed that he had either gone to culinary school or pursued some sort of agricultural/environmental degree. That being said, I enjoyed reading his thought process as he goes through his journey to becoming a farmer. As I was reading, I felt as if Kurt was trying to prove himself to someone. This is a recurring thought throughout the book and is already mentioned in the first chapter when he states that buying a house would prove that he is self-sufficient. I was surprised to hear that the first four acres he bought only cost $100,000 considering how much an acre costs where I’m from, although I understand this purchase occurred over 20 years ago. It’s interesting how once he saw the land, he knew that that was it; that it felt just right. I hope that when I’m looking for a home I’ll be able to foresee a future there and know when it’s the one. When he begins to look for new farming land for his beef cow venture, I was again shocked at the low price: $300,000 for 100 acres.

I like how Kurt inserts facts and background information to support his story. I remember reading about the blackberries and how Luther Burbank introduced them to Vashon Island in 1885. I also enjoyed his story about the 95-year-old milk farmer, and how he too had no background in agriculture when he began his farming career. It was funny how Kurt compared milking cows in your old age to doing cross-ward puzzles. His third chapter “Bees” reminded me of my aunt who is a beekeeper and loves it. I didn’t realize female bees did all the work while male bees, or drones, simply mooched off of them and were there to fertilize the queen. I would have expected them to help the workers a little more. I was also surprised to hear that it takes 155 trips to a flower to make just one tablespoon of honey.

I find that Kurt is a little childish in that everything he does is on whim. He chooses to buy four acres of land because four sounds like a good number. He attends one lecture by a beef cow farmer and decides he wants to be a beef cow farmer. His friend gives him a book on beekeeping and, surprise surprise, he wants to become a beekeeper. Kurt thinks that he can learn everything about farming from books and never takes the time to step back and think it through. He naively believes each new farming task he embarks on will be easier than it truly is. If I could go back in time and give Kurt some sort of advice, I would tell him to reflect a little on each choice he makes.        

Who You Are Matters

           I was born during the blizzard of ’96 on Madison Avenue in New York City. When recounting that night, my dad told me that there were no cabs in site and only one man driving around doing hospital runs. Luckily, my parents rode with him to Mt. Sinai Hospital on 98^th Street where I was born on January 9^th at 11:47 pm. This was not the story I heard when I first asked my parents where I came from. They told me that they planted a seed in our garden, a seed given to them because of their love for each other. Every day, they would go to that spot in our garden and water it until a flower bloomed and I was there. I loved Thumbelina as a kid so I’m assuming they tailored their story to one of my favorite fairytales.  

            My ultimate goal in life is to help people who don’t have access to the resources and institutions to help themselves. It seems as if I’m on the path to getting there. For the next two years, I will be joining the Teach for America Los Angeles Corps during which I’ll be teaching middle school Science. Afterwards, I hope to attend Medical School. Once a physician, I’d like to volunteer with organizations such as Healing the Children to provide care for those who do not live close enough to a hospital or clinic to receive the treatment they need. It is my father who inspired this part of me, and he has become my role model for what I aspire to be. He travels with Healing the Children three times a year to offer cleft lip and palate repairs to those in need. While I did inherit his passion, I’ve also inherited some of his worst traits. We’re both lazy, messy, and pretty stubborn. My mother gave me her physical traits rather than personality. If you were to look at a photo of her at my age, you would assume we are the same person. I wish I had been blessed with her work ethic, as she is the type of person who does the work she’s meant to right away and doesn’t put it off until the last minute (like I typically do).

            I have four older sisters and throughout my life I’ve found that I often compare myself to them and what they achieved at my age. While I tried to avoid this, I created expectations of myself that were hard to amend since they, in some way, became a part of me and who I thought I should be.

           

            I feel a special connection to flamingos. Flamingos are social birds who typically live with a flock of around 71 birds. I grew up with four sisters and two grandmothers, and currently live in my sorority house with 60 girls. I enjoy being surrounded by people and love always having someone to talk to.

           

            When I was just a few years old, my grandmother would take me for walks in Central Park. Whenever we would pass by dandelions, I would pluck them out and offer them to her as some sort of bouquet with any other flowers I could find. My grandmother is always so happy when she retells this story, and I hope that the people I help will talk as warmly of me as she does.