Gabrielle Marijanich

KINS 4306

Reflection Paper
Introduction

My name is Brie Marijanich, and I did my internship this semester at The Bright House.

The Bright House is a sexual assault and child advocacy center. The Bright House is a division

of Southern Crescent Sexual Assault and Child Advocacy Center. In 2018, staff from Southern

Crescent met with District Attorney Stephen Bradley and community stakeholders to discuss the

need to provide more comprehensive services to victims of sexual assault and child abuse in the

Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit. Once funding was established, The Bright House started providing

services in July of 2019. Current services include crisis intervention, forensic medical exams,

forensic interviews for children, legal advocacy, court accompaniment, counseling, community

education programs, training for stakeholders, and resource referrals. All programs and services

are free of charge. The mission and purpose of The Bright House, A Division of Southern

Crescent Sexual Assault and Child Advocacy Center, is to provide a collaborative, coordinated,

community response in an effort to reduce the incidence of child maltreatment and sexual

violence through prevention, intervention, and education.

Description of Experiences

As an intern, I had a multitude of roles at The Bright House. My main role was to serve

as a child advocate. This entailed sitting with children patients in the waiting room and playing

with them, sitting in the interview room during a break, or sitting in with them during a medical

exam. It was crucial to make these kids feel safe and as comfortable as possible. Another role for

me during my internship was to do administrative work. I would make a lot of copies, shred

some old paperwork, and sort files. I also had the opportunity to sit in the back and watch some

forensic interviews. This was really interesting because I got to see it all. I got to meet detectives

and DFCS workers. Being able to see the process and all the questions our forensic interviewer
asked was very interesting. Another thing that Shannon and I did a lot during the week was

clean. Because we had so many people coming in and out of the house, we would clean the

house more than once a week in order to ensure that no one was getting sick or bringing germs

into the house, since we work with kids.

I think the best part of my internship was being able to interact with the kids. Although I

did like the legal aspect of my site, this was my favorite part because it helped me discover my

passion for working with kids. Being able to sit with them in the waiting room, play with them,

and keep their minds preoccupied for the time being was so fulfilling. This job can be

heartbreaking but so rewarding at the same time. Having to hear what these kids go through and

seeing the pain in their eyes is disheartening, but then turning around and being able to take their

minds off of it, even just for a little bit, is why I loved my role at The Bright House. The most

challenging thing during my internship I think was starting to become comfortable in those

uncomfortable situations. At the beginning of the semester, I wasn’t ready to start interacting

with kids I didn’t know, especially not kids who were going through a lot emotionally. Then I

realized that I wasn’t going to be comfortable with it until I finally started talking and playing

with them. Once I was out of my comfort zone, my new passion for working with kids was

discovered. Looking back on the first 10 weeks of the semester, I wish I could have had more

interaction with the kids. Sometimes only one intern was allowed to be out in the waiting room,

depending on how many kids were out there. In those situations, Shannon and I would have to

switch who went out there. I also wish I could have seen some more “behind the scenes” work

that our forensic interviewer did. I know that she had a lot of paperwork to do and things to fill

out on some online database, but I never got to see her do it or what the process was.
Perception and Evaluation of the Internship

This internship exceeded any personal expectations that I had. Going into it, I was a little

skeptical having to do my internship in Milledgeville, instead of Atlanta where I originally

wanted to do it. Since I had to take another class, I didn’t have that option. With the nature of the

work that they do at The Bright House, I was nervous because of the environments of the

communities outside of the Georgia College campus. The Bright House had the most welcoming

environment for the interns and especially their patients. The individuals working there are so

kind and truly care about their patient’s needs. My site supervisor was so understanding when it

came to things that came up, such as doctors appointments or having a cold. This internship will

forever be one of my favorites, and I am devastated that I won’t be able to return.

The Bright House is a very welcoming place, like I have said before. They are not only

open to new individuals, but also to our ideas and contributions. When Shannon and I brought up

our project idea, they loved it and couldn’t wait to see it. They are also very encouraging

whenever new ideas were brought up; they would even help us with finding resources. I never

felt like my coworkers didn’t have my back. Supervision from my siter supervisor, JoAnna, was

great. She is a really great communicator, and she would always come to us whenever she would

need something done. JoAnna is a great leader; she knows what needs to get done, and she

makes sure it does. If we didn’t know how to do something, she was always very willing to help

us and teach us. She always made sure that we had something to do, which was nice, because

those days where we didn’t have any cases come in, it could get a little boring. I would say that

supervision was extremely effective.

There are not many things that I can think of to improve the experience that I had at The

Bright House; I loved it there. If I had to pick one thing to be improved, I would say having more
work for the interns to do. I noticed that a lot of times our child advocate would get really

overwhelmed with things she was working on, but she never asked us for help and told us she

was fine when we offered to help. I think giving the interns more tasks to handle would have

made things more productive in the office.

I would absolutely recommend this setting to future interns. I would also warn them

about the nature of the work because it isn’t easy. It’s hard sitting there during the day and

listening to these kids stories; things that they have witnessed and experienced. It can be

heartbreaking but rewarding at the same time. I think I could certainly consider a career like The

Bright House. I am thankful that this internship experience brought this site to me because I

never would have thought about a place like this before. It really opened up my horizons to

different things, and I can’t wait to see what I may find in the future.

Internship Preparedness

On the academic side of things, I never felt unprepared for anything that I was dealing

with, aside from the legal aspects. One aspect where I did feel confident in was communication

with my superiors and peers. This, I believe, is due to the constant teacher-student interaction

that is implemented in the classroom. This allowed me to effectively communicate with my

coworkers. I think one of the most relevant courses, in relation to my internship, that I have taken

would be Human Sexuality and Community Health. In Human Sexuality, we talked about sexual

assault and what kind of toll it takes on its victims. This course allowed me to sympathize with

patients that had been victims of sexual assault, harassment, or rape. In Community health, there

was a lecture about underprivileged youth, and there are many circumstances where that is the

population that I ended up working with. This course is also relevant because I was working with

the community and focusing on bettering their health, which was the main focus of the class.
Also, we had the potential to write grants, but the semester came to an end earlier than

anticipated. That portion of Community Health certainly would have come in handy.

I think in order to better serve their students, the School of Health and Human

Performance and their academic advisors should put an emphasis on starting a minor early on in

college. I feel that if I would have had a minor, I would have had the potential for more job

opportunities. I hardly remember anyone mentioning a minor to me until my Junior year, and at

that point, I was already behind in my courses. I didn’t feel like I could have added anything on

at that point. What I am trying to say is that I don’t feel as though there was much information

given to me in my first two years of college regarding minors. I think having a minor would have

been a very useful tool; more education could never hurt!

Internship Performance

During the first 10 weeks of my internship, I had many experiences that helped me gain

new skills and knowledge.