End of Year Reflection by Maryann, Intern
I’ve always been a person with diverse interests and a desire to explore new experiences. I began my college career as an education major and eventually switched to an English major, but my passion for language and working with kids remained equally strong. When it came time to figure out my post-college plans, one of my professors, Kirsten Parkinson, told me about Lake Erie Ink. She got me in touch with Amy Rosenbluth, and I made my first visit to LEI’s space a couple months later.
During my interview, I told Amy my two goals: I wanted to learn how to share my love of writing with kids, and I wanted to learn how to write grants and get a sense of how non-profits operate. Over the course of my one-year internship at Lake Erie Ink, I can say I learned those two things—and so much more.
I immersed myself in new forms of technology that I’d never had a chance to use before. I learned how to make beats on an iPad and edit videos on iMovie. I learned how to get rid of eraser smudges on scanned drawings using Photo Shop. And during one of our in-school projects, I got to write on a Smart Board for the first time.
I was trained in basic first aid—how to administer an EpiPen, how to apply pressure to a wound using gauze, and how to correctly put on and take off latex gloves to prevent contamination.
I learned how to paint with water colors—how to glide the brush over the paper to get a nice gradation of color. And during a summer camp session, I learned how to make inked prints using unflavored Jello and feathers.
(I did not, however, learn how to whistle, though a group of girls from the after-school program tried their best to teach me.)
Among the many new skills I learned, my internship at Lake Erie Ink also gave me the opportunity to teach. I helped a fourth-grade boy with his science fair experiment and showed him how to display his results on a tri-fold board. I taught our Ink Spot students how to launch their words into the stars by writing their own constellation legends.
I organized a Teen Fiction Symposium and met several local authors. In the summer, Joshua, the Cleveland Foundation intern, and I also led a blogging workshop for a group of teens from Mexico.
On the final day of the Ink Spot program, the students and staff gathered in a circle to share their favorite experiences during the year. We tossed a yellow spool of yarn as we took turns speaking. Whoever caught the spool would wrap the yarn around their wrist, say something they learned or enjoyed this past year, and then toss the spool to someone else. By the end of the activity, we’d formed a tight-knit web that showed us how we’d influenced one another during our time together. When we cut the web, we kept the loop we’d each tied around our wrists to wear to that evening’s end-of-year celebration.
I will continue to feel the ties of that web as I begin my next adventure: pursuing an MFA in Creative Nonfiction at West Virginia University.