My final week at OMSI was filled with a lot of joy, excitement, and reflection! Dyllan and I met on Tuesday happily anticipating the week ahead. Our primary focus was ensuring that the open house was executed well and successfully. To start off the week, I made my list of action items for the week to ensure that things went smoothly. I sent out an email to all of our partners checking in to make sure they were prepared to table for the event, and asked them if they needed anything from OMSI or the TTC for their set-ups.
Then, I spent some time in the Teen Tech Center looking around the space to finalize the facilitated activities for the event. We had decided that to make the open house more successful for visitors, we would set up different activity stations staffed by volunteers so that people would be able to complete something and have a small victory while in the space. While I was looking around, I talked to one of the museum volunteers, a teen named Aryan. I had met Aryan before, since he is a regular volunteer, and we had talked about the open house. Aryan told me about his passion for spreading awareness over noise-induced hearing loss and his organization, Hear Us Out. He asked me whether he could also table at the open house alongside the other organizations with his friends. I told him he was more than welcome to!
On Wednesday, I had another meeting with Sebastian of Hacienda CDC and we talked about the activities he would facilitate in more detail. Sebastian runs digital-access focused maker spaces for Hacienda and often runs workshops on various topics in technology. He expressed familiarity with 3D printing and modeling, and offered to run a short presentation on 3D modeling of a barrel or fidget toy. He also shared that he has a degree in music and offered to DJ Spanish-language music at the open house, which Dyllan and I were very excited about! I was glad that the plans were coming together and less nervous as the week went on. Then, I spent more time in the TTC talking to different teens about the space. I also had lunch with Rubby, now in her second week, and we talked about her experience growing up in the Portland area as a Mexican-American and being a first-gen student at the University of Oregon. She gave me some great college and career advice, which was more than kind and helpful!
On Thursday, I mostly stayed in the office making final plans and preparations. I looked for coloring page designs, printed various resources that would be displayed at the event, and made welcome signs! I also met with Annemarie from the marketing department of OMSI to talk about potentially featuring the internship on social media, as the open house was also recently advertised on Instagram. Dyllan and I were excited at this prospect and decided we would come up with some social media possibilities on Saturday following the event!
Friday was finally the day of the open house! In the morning, Dyllan went to Dollar Tree to buy some last minute restock supplied for the TTC while Rubby and I began to set up the space for the event. I did a last minute check in with our partner organizations. Sadly, one of the organizations, Adelante Mujeres, wasn’t able to make it at the last minute, but they expressed interest in bringing their Latina youth program, Chicas, to come visit the TTC another time. Then, it was time to begin! Sebastian of Hacienda arrived with his DJ set up, and the vibes were lively and excited. At first, the space was absolutely packed because of the student groups that arrived in the TTC at the start of the open house. It was great to see the space so bustling and full of energy! Rubby and I stayed in the check-in area to help keep track of attendance as people arrived. We had a few families that told us they had learned about the event through partner organizations and OMSI marketing and that they had come to OMSI that day specifically to attend the open house, which was great to hear! Additionally, I spoke to a woman who asked about the various resources on the table, including one print-out about the Young Ambassadors program that I had put out. She told me that she was a teacher and taught seniors in a predominantly-Latino high school, and wanted to know more about the NMAL and YAP! When I told her about the program, she was very excited and said that she could not wait to share the opportunity with her students.
During the open house, I spent time talking with our partners, including those representing SHPE Oregon, Hacienda CDC, and FreeGeek about the importance of Latino access to and representation within STEM. I learned a lot about their experiences being Latino in the technology world and why they believed the work they did was important. We also talked about their experiences working for non-profit organizations, including both the highlights and challenges. Additionally, I got to speak with Jessy, who was there representing Best Buy (which sponsors the TTC/Clubhouse Network). He was also Latino and was very interested in the NMAL and YAP! Jessy talked to me about the work that he did with the Best Buy Foundation to improve digital equity and access. Overall, my conversations with the various partners that attended the open house were very enlightening and I loved hearing how passionate they were about the problems they were trying to solve through their work. At the end of the open house, we cleaned up and thanked the partners and volunteers for their time with popsicles!
My last day of the internship, Saturday, was focused on debriefing, reflecting, and tying up any loose ends and uncompleted projects from my internships. I began with writing my blog post while Dyllan set up the TTC. Then, we sat down together to complete our formal reflection on the internship experience, including what my strengths and areas for improvement could be, what my suggestions for the space are, and any other loose ends and thoughts! We came up with a list of my major takeaways from the internship, which included: the value/importance of community engagement, “It takes a village” as applicable to digital access and equity in underserved communities, what it is like to work for a non-profit, including the upsides and downsides, and how to stay organized juggling multiple partnerships at once.
Overall, I’m very grateful for the internship experience, and of course the Young Ambassadors Program as a whole! I learned so much during Washington Week and the internship program, and I know I will take the skills I learned to university and future career opportunities!
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