Interning at YWCA Princeton

Interning at YWCA Princeton has shown us how we can directly make an impact on the community by making connections and furthering our knowledge on social justice matters. This internship has given us opportunities to participate in outreaches, create informational social media posts, and construct our own initiative that could be implemented for young women. 

Attending outreaches allows us to meet many members of the community face-to-face and inform them on the organization’s efforts in their mission to eliminate racism and empower women. Being able to immerse ourselves in this community allows us to make more connections with like-minded individuals to increase community awareness about the programs that YWCA Princeton offers.  

Additionally, we have been tasked with creating social media posts about underrepresented holidays in the US, which has been a great way to learn more about different cultures and share this knowledge with the public. Through social media and engaging with our peers, we see this generation’s desire to connect in bettering the world, but they are unsure of how to do so.

 As we look towards the second half of our internship, we have been tasked with creating an initiative to get more young women involved. Being given creative freedom, we have used our experiences with applying to colleges and jobs to begin working on a program that helps young girls navigate this process, teaching them things we wish we had known when we were in their position. Our goal with this college readiness program is not only to ensure that young women are prepared for college, but also know how to speak up for themselves in an environment where they’re often overlooked. We want to use our lived experiences to teach these young women how to make a difference in their community which we hope will further their confidence at their universities. We have noticed much of the insecurity within college freshmen stems from situations such as tackling a stressful workload, making new friends, and joining extracurriculars. We want to ensure that they are successful in doing these things, but also guarantee that they can further their social justice interests, as the YWCA has helped us further our community engagement through their mission. 

YWCA has placed an emphasis on individual professional development in the workplace. The opportunity to develop our ideas and projects for the community on our own, without needing constant approval has become something that has instilled confidence in us as interns. Typically, with internship sites, there is a sense of hierarchy within the workplace, with little respect for interns. However, YWCA has proven to treat us equally and ensure that we deserve an equal say in projects that we are tasked with developing. It is a very welcoming environment, where our opinions are validated and discussed for implementation. As interns, we had expected to get approval on everything before continuing forward, but the women at YWCA have the confidence to allow us to approach forward with our projects, trusting that we will meet their expectations. Overall, working at the YWCA has been one of the most impactful professional experiences as we have grown professionally, socially, and individually through implementing the mission of the YWCA in every aspect of our lives.

~Varenya Alvakonda and Mariam Khan, Advocacy Interns