Description
The Asian American Donor Program is a nonprofit organization that helps patients in need of a bone marrow transplant find donors. They conduct outreach and donor registration drives in order to increase the possibility of patients finding their donor. As an intern, my job was to help assemble the kits that were used during the bone marrow donor registration drives, as well as whatever task my supervisor decided to give to me. My supervisor, Carol Gillespie, is the treasurer and executive director. She assigned me tasks and also introduced me to the communications director, Nittu Binnarh. Nittu was in charge of teaching me how to create content for their social media accounts.
Activities |
Log |
Social Media: Planning out Tweets for the week, finding events and activities to post about to gain a larger audience on social media.
Assembling Kits: Placing bar code stickers on the envelopes and cotton swabs that potential bone marrow donors use during the registration process. Comedy Trailer: Searching for content of comedians that will be featured in their comedy show "Laugh for Lives," which benefits their organization. The content we search for was intended to be used in the trailer for the show. |
11/15/17: 3pm - 5pm
11/22/17: 3pm - 5pm 12/6/17: 3pm - 5pm 12/20/17: 3pm - 5pm 1/3/18: 3pm - 5pm 1/10/18: 3pm - 5pm 1/17/18: 3pm - 5pm 1/24/18: 3pm - 5pm 1/31/18: 3pm - 5pm 2/7/18: 3pm - 5pm 2/14/18: 3pm - 5pm 2/28/18: 3pm - 5pm Total Number of Hours: 24 |
Journal
November 15, 2017 - 2 hours
Today was my first day interning at the Asian American Donor Program (AADP). When I arrived there, a fellow learner and I were assigned to the task of creating social media content for that week. We were expected to stay there for two hours, and I was not sure how long the social media task was going to take or how many tasks they were planning to give to us. Creating a variety of interesting content to be posted on social media surprisingly took up the whole two hours. It was really fun looking at the different stories of people who worked with AADP and finding ways to share their story on social media.
November 22, 2017 - 2 hours
Today the fellow learner and I were assigned the same task as last week. Like last week, it took up the whole two hours. We had to look at stories of people that worked with the Asian American Donor Program, both donors and patients alike. We also looked at different holidays and trends that the company could post about on social media. Because a person must be 18 to 44 years old to register, the people who are those ages are their target audience on social media. Our job was to find topics that AADP could post about that would attract people from those ages.
December 6, 2017 - 2 hours
Today my task was to assemble kits to be used during their bone marrow donor registration drives. The kits were envelopes that contained cotton swabs for the person to use when they register. I had to put bar code stickers on the envelope, and then stickers with the same bar code on the cotton swabs inside the envelope. The tricky thing is that I was not allowed to fully take the cotton swab out of its packaging. Instead I had to open the packaging a little bit at the top, and then place the bar code sticker on the stick end of the swab. I ended up finishing a total of 70 kits at the end of the two hours.
December 20, 2017 - 2 hours
AADP is hosting a comedy show called “Laugh for Lives,” and the task that my fellow learner and I were given was to find comedy videos of the people in their show to use in the trailer. It was really fun because we were able to watch a lot of different comedy videos of different people. Some of them were actually funny. It was a little difficult at times because some of the comedians had jokes that were not appropriate for the trailer, so even if it was funny we were not able to include it. I liked this task because it was way different from planning out social media posts.
January 3, 2018 - 2 hours
Today the fellow learner and I went back to arranging social media content. Similarly to the past two times we were given this task, we had to search to find different events that were occurring throughout the week so that we could come up with content about those events. We also included posts about the different registration drives they were holding throughout this week. The task was pretty much the same as it had been in the past.
January 10, 2018 - 2 hours
Today two other learners and I were given the task of assembling registration kits. It was a very relaxing experience, because we were just able to talk to each other while putting the bar code stickers on the kits. The people at AADP also encouraged us to watch television while doing so. We ended up making nearly 200 kits today, while watching Food Network and talking to each other.
January 17, 2018 - 2 hours
Today, we were told to assemble donor registration kits once again. I really enjoyed this rather than making social media content, because it is more informal. It is also more beneficial to AADP, because they use the kits we assemble during their registration drives. Once again we watched Food Network, and this time we were able to reach the goal of 200 kits.
January 24, 2018 - 2 hours
When we arrived at AADP, we were told that it would be nice for us to give a presentation at school about registering to be a bone marrow donor. After that, we were one again assigned the task of assembling the registration kits. It feels more of a routine at this point, because me and the two learners have been doing this several times now. Because it feels like a routine, we were also able to make the kits faster. We were given a box with all the registration kits that we had to do, and we were able to finish the box by the end of the two hours.
January 31, 2018 - 2 hours
Today we had to make kits again. Instead of watching the Food Network, we watched Mulan. We were able to complete the box that was given to us faster than we have in the previous times that we made kits. However, they did not assign us any other task, so they just let us watch Mulan for the rest of the time until we had to leave.
February 7, 2018 - 2 hours
Today, it was only me and one other learner that worked on assembling kits, while the other person was given a different task. It was weird for me because less hands were working to get the task done. I felt more panicked, and worried that we would not not make that much kits within two hours. Instead, me and that other learner ended up making roughly 200 kits, which is about how much we would make when there were three of us.
February 14, 2018 - 2 hours
Once again, the three of us worked on assembling the registration kits. I felt less panicked this time, so I was less stressed out while I did my work. After 10 kits are assembled, we need to place a rubber band around them to keep them together. Instead of placing the rubber bands after each time we finish 10 kits, we decided to place them after finishing a lot more. This allowed us to assemble more kits, because we did not have to stop in between every 10.
February 28, 2018 - 2 hours
Today me and another learner were once again given the task of assembling the donor registration kits. We watched Despicable Me while making them, and I was worried because I felt that the movie was a distraction. Despite that, we were able to complete the entire box of kits that was given to us. I felt sad knowing that I would no longer be coming back each week to intern here, but I would definitely volunteer here if my help is needed.
Today was my first day interning at the Asian American Donor Program (AADP). When I arrived there, a fellow learner and I were assigned to the task of creating social media content for that week. We were expected to stay there for two hours, and I was not sure how long the social media task was going to take or how many tasks they were planning to give to us. Creating a variety of interesting content to be posted on social media surprisingly took up the whole two hours. It was really fun looking at the different stories of people who worked with AADP and finding ways to share their story on social media.
November 22, 2017 - 2 hours
Today the fellow learner and I were assigned the same task as last week. Like last week, it took up the whole two hours. We had to look at stories of people that worked with the Asian American Donor Program, both donors and patients alike. We also looked at different holidays and trends that the company could post about on social media. Because a person must be 18 to 44 years old to register, the people who are those ages are their target audience on social media. Our job was to find topics that AADP could post about that would attract people from those ages.
December 6, 2017 - 2 hours
Today my task was to assemble kits to be used during their bone marrow donor registration drives. The kits were envelopes that contained cotton swabs for the person to use when they register. I had to put bar code stickers on the envelope, and then stickers with the same bar code on the cotton swabs inside the envelope. The tricky thing is that I was not allowed to fully take the cotton swab out of its packaging. Instead I had to open the packaging a little bit at the top, and then place the bar code sticker on the stick end of the swab. I ended up finishing a total of 70 kits at the end of the two hours.
December 20, 2017 - 2 hours
AADP is hosting a comedy show called “Laugh for Lives,” and the task that my fellow learner and I were given was to find comedy videos of the people in their show to use in the trailer. It was really fun because we were able to watch a lot of different comedy videos of different people. Some of them were actually funny. It was a little difficult at times because some of the comedians had jokes that were not appropriate for the trailer, so even if it was funny we were not able to include it. I liked this task because it was way different from planning out social media posts.
January 3, 2018 - 2 hours
Today the fellow learner and I went back to arranging social media content. Similarly to the past two times we were given this task, we had to search to find different events that were occurring throughout the week so that we could come up with content about those events. We also included posts about the different registration drives they were holding throughout this week. The task was pretty much the same as it had been in the past.
January 10, 2018 - 2 hours
Today two other learners and I were given the task of assembling registration kits. It was a very relaxing experience, because we were just able to talk to each other while putting the bar code stickers on the kits. The people at AADP also encouraged us to watch television while doing so. We ended up making nearly 200 kits today, while watching Food Network and talking to each other.
January 17, 2018 - 2 hours
Today, we were told to assemble donor registration kits once again. I really enjoyed this rather than making social media content, because it is more informal. It is also more beneficial to AADP, because they use the kits we assemble during their registration drives. Once again we watched Food Network, and this time we were able to reach the goal of 200 kits.
January 24, 2018 - 2 hours
When we arrived at AADP, we were told that it would be nice for us to give a presentation at school about registering to be a bone marrow donor. After that, we were one again assigned the task of assembling the registration kits. It feels more of a routine at this point, because me and the two learners have been doing this several times now. Because it feels like a routine, we were also able to make the kits faster. We were given a box with all the registration kits that we had to do, and we were able to finish the box by the end of the two hours.
January 31, 2018 - 2 hours
Today we had to make kits again. Instead of watching the Food Network, we watched Mulan. We were able to complete the box that was given to us faster than we have in the previous times that we made kits. However, they did not assign us any other task, so they just let us watch Mulan for the rest of the time until we had to leave.
February 7, 2018 - 2 hours
Today, it was only me and one other learner that worked on assembling kits, while the other person was given a different task. It was weird for me because less hands were working to get the task done. I felt more panicked, and worried that we would not not make that much kits within two hours. Instead, me and that other learner ended up making roughly 200 kits, which is about how much we would make when there were three of us.
February 14, 2018 - 2 hours
Once again, the three of us worked on assembling the registration kits. I felt less panicked this time, so I was less stressed out while I did my work. After 10 kits are assembled, we need to place a rubber band around them to keep them together. Instead of placing the rubber bands after each time we finish 10 kits, we decided to place them after finishing a lot more. This allowed us to assemble more kits, because we did not have to stop in between every 10.
February 28, 2018 - 2 hours
Today me and another learner were once again given the task of assembling the donor registration kits. We watched Despicable Me while making them, and I was worried because I felt that the movie was a distraction. Despite that, we were able to complete the entire box of kits that was given to us. I felt sad knowing that I would no longer be coming back each week to intern here, but I would definitely volunteer here if my help is needed.
Reflection
Throughout this internship, there were many things that I had to learn in order to get my tasks done. The skills that I had to use in order to fulfill the minimum requirement of 20 hours are time management and vocabulary. I had to use my vocabulary skills while creating social media content, and my time management skills when working to assemble bone marrow donor registration kits. There was no task that I was expected to complete for each and every week that I was there. Instead, the tasks were assigned to me when I arrived. For the most part, my tasks while interning at the Asian American Donor Program were creating social media content for a whole week and assembling bone marrow donor registration kits.
What I have learned in this internship is that even though there are tasks that I do not like to do, I still have to do them. I consider myself someone who generally tries to avoid doing things if they are things that I do not enjoy doing. That behavior is not what I wanted to convey during my internship. I felt bored while spending a whole two hours looking up topics in order to create social media content, but I was still able to complete my task. I think that it is important to set aside my complaints towards things in order to accomplish what I need to get done. An obstacle that I faced while interning at the Asian American Donor Program was when I was searching for content to include in the trailer for their comedy show “Laugh for Lives.” Some of the comedians that I had to find content for either had no videos that we could find or videos that were not appropriate for their trailer. This obstacle was overcome by using clips from the video we could find, and then using timestamps from parts that were appropriate for their trailer.
When I started this internship, I expected it to be much different from what it was actually like. I used to volunteer for the Asian American Donor Program, and when I volunteered I saw that all their interns only made kits. When I first came there to discuss the internship with my supervisor, she asked us what we would like to do. While we mentioned that we did like assembling kits, we also liked working with communication. That is why she had their communications person teach us how to plan social media content for the week. I also expected that social media would be the most enjoyable part of the internship, but instead I enjoyed assembling kits the most. Overall, it was a very fun experience and I am happy that I was able to intern for them. Asian American Donor Program helped my family by setting up registration drives when my sister was in need of a bone marrow transplant, and I am grateful that I was able to give back to them after all the effort they put in helping my family.
What I have learned in this internship is that even though there are tasks that I do not like to do, I still have to do them. I consider myself someone who generally tries to avoid doing things if they are things that I do not enjoy doing. That behavior is not what I wanted to convey during my internship. I felt bored while spending a whole two hours looking up topics in order to create social media content, but I was still able to complete my task. I think that it is important to set aside my complaints towards things in order to accomplish what I need to get done. An obstacle that I faced while interning at the Asian American Donor Program was when I was searching for content to include in the trailer for their comedy show “Laugh for Lives.” Some of the comedians that I had to find content for either had no videos that we could find or videos that were not appropriate for their trailer. This obstacle was overcome by using clips from the video we could find, and then using timestamps from parts that were appropriate for their trailer.
When I started this internship, I expected it to be much different from what it was actually like. I used to volunteer for the Asian American Donor Program, and when I volunteered I saw that all their interns only made kits. When I first came there to discuss the internship with my supervisor, she asked us what we would like to do. While we mentioned that we did like assembling kits, we also liked working with communication. That is why she had their communications person teach us how to plan social media content for the week. I also expected that social media would be the most enjoyable part of the internship, but instead I enjoyed assembling kits the most. Overall, it was a very fun experience and I am happy that I was able to intern for them. Asian American Donor Program helped my family by setting up registration drives when my sister was in need of a bone marrow transplant, and I am grateful that I was able to give back to them after all the effort they put in helping my family.