The ‘middle’ part of my internship has just wrapped up. During this time I have gotten to experience different types of work which has excelled my learning experience while being here interning with the Alzheimer’s Association.

On an exciting note, I had two events that I had to attend and be the head of the table of. The first event, “Engage Norfolk”, took place at Norview High School where there were a mix of non-profit organizations and for profit organizations set up all over the room. It was interesting to see how many organizations are out there, trying to work toward some of the same goals. While at the table my preceptor was there with me for some of the time, but majority of the time I was the main person. The duration of the event consisted of me informing those who came up to the table about the organization, what exactly we do, volunteer opportunities and what types of support is offered. Majority of the questions asked required me to explain what exactly the organization does as a whole and what types of opportunities we have to get people in the community involved. The other event I had was at ODU where the other intern and I headed the table. Here a vast amount of students were walking around to all of the tables that were there which some included Habitat for Humanity, Keep Norfolk Clean, and the YMCA. When students would come to the tables we would explain what the organization was and more importantly how they were able to volunteer and be a part of the organization.

I started on another project, the “Suffolk Project”. For this project, my preceptor explained that I was to find, research and reach out to organizations such as Rec Centers, YMCA’s, Senior Care and Home Health Care Centers to see if they would be willing to help promote a community forum the Alzheimer’s Association was hosting. This forum was The Alzheimer’s Community Forum at Sentara Obici, in Suffolk, which is why I was reaching out to places nearby. When calling organizations near by I would make them aware of the event, ask if they would be willing to promote and if so I would ask the best way to send them over a flyer to post around. This would be by mail, email or fax. After assuring they would help promote I made an excel document listing all of the places with all of the appropriate information.

While working on the Suffolk Project I was also finishing up my resource manual project by finishing all of the final updates to the home health are and non-medial home health services portion. I also helped out one of my co-workers by researching organizations near an event (support group and art matters) the association was providing. Once I found some places I sent out a letter explaining the purpose of the events in hopes that these events would have a higher amount of attendance.

The latter part of what I was doing here with the Alzheimer’s Association took a turn. The organization was forced to close the office, making everyone work from home. This at first posed many challenges and times of uncertainty, but after getting in contact with my preceptor we came to a conclusion as to how I would work from home and continue to get my hours. To get my hours I have been sitting in on important meetings through video conferences and also editing the resource manual as a whole. Meaning that I am reading through it (100 pages) and make any comments or changes any errors that I may see. Every week me and my preceptor have a meeting to stay in touch and up to date with what I am doing. I also share a google doc with her at the beginning of every week sharing what my plans are for the week in terms of what I am working on to get my hours. It has been an adjustment for the organization as a whole, but I am confident that I will be able to fulfill the remaining hours to meet my requirement.