Media & gender education in rural Appalachia

Major: History and Gender Studies

Internship organization: High Rocks, Appalachia

High Rocks is an alternative education program in Rural Appalachia where I did workshops to inspire, educate, and empower young women who lived in the surrounding area. We did programs that were geared towards empowerment, feminism, and the liberal arts–creating classes that were about media, gender and sexuality, nature, and exploratory learning.

Working with eight other interns, I organized workshops, was a camp counselor at times, and taught horseback riding lessons and gave feedback to students to help students enhance their writing.

My History major in action
I used my ability to communicate directly with others, I used my skills in research to come up with curriculum guidelines, I used my ability to problem solve, and synthesize data. In this internship, there was an education component where I had to practically apply my classroom experience, with communicating in-depth analysis of concrete details and facts in an organized way, and then I had to use my writing skills to create curriculum strategies for my workshops. I had to use my oral, written, and communication skills learned in the classroom to teach and mentor others. I had to know what it means to act professionally and cultivate a productive relationship with the students that I learned specifically in the seminar setting.