Jolly 1

Internship Reflection Paper

Camden Jolly

Public Health Internship

April 17th, 2023

 Jolly 2

Introduction

My name is Camden Jolly and I have been interning at The Bright House in

Milledgeville, GA this semester. The Bright House is a Division of the Southern Crescent Sexual

Assault and Child Advocacy Center. The Bright House opened in 2019 to provide services for

individuals who have experienced sexual assault and child abuse. It is the mission of The Bright

House 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.” The services we offer are for children, women, and those with special needs. Some

of the primary services that they offer are: a 24-hour crisis line, forensic medical services,

forensic interviews for children, support groups, individual and family counseling, and legal

advocacy. All of the services that are provided are free of charge. On-site, we have a counselor,

child advocate, interviewer, the person who runs the office, and our nurse that is here one-two

days per week.

Description of Experience

As an intern at The Bright House, I have had multiple roles. My main roles were to:

advocate for children while making sure they are comfortable on interview breaks or while they

are in the lobby, answering phones in a professional manner, providing answers or taking

messages when needed, light house cleaning, assisting with various administrative tasks, and

creating and distributing infographics. Some of the administrative work I would do is to make

copies, shred old documents, sort files, and put paperwork in folders for each case. As part of my

internship I was also able to watch some interviews from the present and the past and ask

questions about the cases. This was interesting to me because I was able to see what goes on
 Jolly 3

during an interview and see the reason people came in for help. I also had the opportunity during

my internship to sit in on a medical exam with a 3-year-old that was autistic.

The most rewarding part of my internship had to be hanging out with kids and making

sure they feel safe here. I would spend time playing with them, talk to them, and watch them

during interview breaks. It's hard to handle some of the situations that people come in with, but it

felt good to know I am making them feel welcomed and safe. In contrast, one of the more

challenging parts of my internship experience was hanging out with the kids that did not want to

talk or play with you, and just wanted to sit in silence the whole time. Some kids come in scared

because they were abused in some way and do not want to talk at all until they know they are

safe there. Although, It was hard sometimes finding the kid's comfort zones but once you did, it

was easier to talk to them. What I wish I did more of was to sit in on medical exams and see

what goes on during them and give me experience if I ever decide to go back and get a degree in

nursing. Another thing I wish I did more of is watching more interviews of the cases we have

come into our office.

Perception and Evaluation of the Internship

This internship definitely exceeded my personal expectations that I had going into it.

Before going into my internship I was nervous because of what they do at The Bright House and

did not know if I would be able to handle it. However, The Bright House was very welcoming

not just to us interns, but to the families that come in as well. If I ever needed something or had a

question my site supervisor would be there to answer it. Everyone else that worked there was

also very helpful if I had a question. At the beginning it was a little boring because they did not

give us interns much to do except when families came in. This changed throughout the semester

and when one of them became overwhelmed with too much to do, they would always find one of
 Jolly 4

those tasks for me to do to help them out. They are always open to new ideas and contributions

and would be excited when the interns would come up with new ideas for them. My supervisor

was out for a little while because she was having a baby and the child advocate, Shelley, was my

new supervisor during that time. Shelley was able to help me come up with ideas for my

internship project and approve it. She was excited about the ideas I had for my project besides

the ones she suggested.

I loved interning at The Bright House therefore there was not much I would improve to

make it better. If I had to choose something to improve it would be more work for the interns to

do. On a lot of days, we would sit in the office and not have anything to do unless we had an

appointment scheduled. Sometimes they would find us other stuff to do such as organizing the

office, cleaning, or small little tasks one of them needed. However, I wish we had a little more to

do some days instead of having to find something to do to keep myself occupied.

I definitely would recommend this internship to future interns because it is very

rewarding. There are a few things I would like them to know before interning here. One of them

is always to make sure you ask for help or if you want something else to do. The other thing is

just to be mindful of the field you are getting into when you sign up to intern here. It's a great

environment but some of the stories people come up with are hard to handle. Before interning at

The Bright House I had never thought of becoming a child advocate or something related to child

abuse or sexual assault. After interning at The Bright House, I have changed my career goals and

I would like to pursue this field with a focus on special needs.

Internship Preparedness

Going into my internship I did not know what I was prepared for or what I was not

prepared for. After a few weeks of my internship, I felt prepared for almost everything except the
 Jolly 5

legal aspects that they have to deal with, such as working with DFCS and other law enforcement.

Since I am not a law student or a criminal justice major I have not known much about how we

work with them. I think it would be great if there was a course that related Public Health

concerns and how they interact with agencies such as DFCS and law enforcement. The things I

felt prepared for were answering phone calls and taking messages since I do that at my other job,

hanging with the kids and making sure they feel safe, administrative work, and working with

tools to create Infographics.

The most relevant courses I have taken in relation to my internship would have to be

community health, human sexuality, and methods of health promotion. In Human Sexuality, we

talked about sexual assault and this helped me understand a little more about the victims that

would come in. My Community Health class helped me a lot during my internship time. In

Community Health we learned a lot about underserved youth and this happened to be a lot of

who we were working with here at my internship. Another aspect of this class that is relevant to

my internship is working with the community to better help the health of people. This was a big

aspect of what my community health class was about. The last thing I learned in this class was

how to use Canva to make infographics and I have used that a lot here when doing my project to

spread awareness to the community. In my Methods of Health Promotion course, I also learned

how to use Canva to make graphics for our mock career fair. Another thing about this class is we

learned how to update our resume to make it better and practiced doing interviews and both of

these things I have had to do during my internship. Lastly, in this class, we learned a lot about

social determinants of health and many people who come into The Bright House come from

different backgrounds.
 Jolly 6

I feel that GCSU and the School of Health and Human Performance should bring up how

important it is for people to have a minor when doing public health as their major. A minor in a

foreign language would be beneficial when getting a Public Health job because you never know

when you will run into someone in healthcare that may not speak the same language as people

and you could be the one to communicate with them. Another minor that would be important is a

law minor or something similar because of Public Health jobs such as my internship at The

Bright House works with DFCS, investigators, and other law enforcement when dealing with a

victim's case. If I had a minor in one of these fields it would have helped me tremendously in my

internship or future job. Another thing that would be helpful to teach us more diverse jobs that

we can get in this field. I feel that we are taught about the main public health jobs and there are

so many ways you can go with a public health degree we just don’t always know about them.

Internship Performance

During the first few weeks of my internship, I learned some new skills and knowledge

that I did not already know. The most important skill I learned is being able to communicate with

the victims and their families that come in for medical exams, interviews, or counseling

appointments. Since I have never been in a situation where I was abused it is sometimes hard to

realize what someone is going through after they have been abused, especially a child. Another

skill I have learned is ways to spread awareness about sexual assault or child abuse to the

community to help stop it, or show resources that are out there if someone is in this situation.

During my internship, I have been able to learn a lot about sexual assault and child abuse

because these are topics I was not as familiar with, and honestly did not realize is as widespread

of a problem as it is. I also was able to watch some interviews of the children that were coming

in to see the different ways they were abused.

 Jolly 7

Overall, I am satisfied with my performance on assignments, projects, and presentations.

I was able to get the tasks that I was assigned done in a professional manner and not wait until

the last second to do them. However, there were a few things I could have done a little better on.

One of the things I wish I did better on was putting up more flyers around town. There are a lot

more places I could have put up these flyers that I did not go to and I feel that I could have done

more. Another thing I wish I did better at was asking for more to do when I was finished with

tasks or assignments for my internship class. I feel as if I was just trying to come up with stuff to

do myself when I was not asked to do something instead of going to ask people if they had

anything for me to do. A skill that I need to work on would be not being shy and to ask for help

on something and be able to give my honest opinion about something. I would overall rate my

quality of work as an 8 out 10 because there are still some things I could improve to be

successful in a job after graduation.

Personal/Professional Insight/Benefits

My internship has had an impact on me personally and on my academic goals. I have

always wanted to be a pediatric nurse or work with autistic children in some way. The Bright

House has changed my career goals because now I want to pursue being a child advocate with a

focus on special needs. If it wasn't for this internship opportunity I would not have known what

exactly a child advocate does and did not know that it is something I am interested in becoming.

My internship has impacted me personally through the families who come in and the stories of

the victims who were abused. I never realized how many people, especially children, are abused

in some way. It has made me realize that I should be thankful for the life I have and never take it

for granted because there are many people that do not get to experience a safe, happy life.
 Jolly 8

Interning at The Bright House has given me insight into the community, law

enforcement, and people that are underserved such as many of the youth we see. I never realized

how much of Baldwin County and other surrounding counties are living in poverty and what

they are living through until interning here and seeing the families that are coming in for

interviews or even counseling appointments. I have also learned a lot more about DFCS and that

their purpose is to provide services and programs for families and children that are in need. They

want to ensure that children are safe from abuse and families can be more self-sufficient. I also

learned a lot about investigators and what they do to help figure out what happened during a case

where someone is abused and how they help stop the situation from going further. Overall, I

gained insight into organizations that help abused children that I did not already know while

completing my internship at The Bright House.