Day 15

     Today when I went into the Clery Center, I went straight to work on gathering more information on the RA boards. However, I was not able to work on that for long because today was the day that the Annual Report had to be put together. So everyone was in the board room stuffing, gluing, and stamping all the envelopes that needed to be sent out. These letters were being sent to donors, sponsors, board member, etc to keep them up to date with what had been going on the past few months at the Clery Center.
     So I was only able to work on my RA board materials for NCSAM for about an hour and half. The rest of the time was taken up in the board room getting the annual report ready. It was really nice having everyone in the same room. We all get along pretty well, but since everyone has their own work space we do not really get to chat and get to know one another. So it was a good bonding experience I think for everyone. Although I do not think anyone would have thought of it as a bonding experience because of what they were doing. But none the less it was nice working with everyone at the same time.

~Kaitlan

Day 14

     Today when I walked into the Clery Center I spoke with Abby and Amy. They wanted to me take lead on creating materials for an RA Board in college dorms. To help raise awareness and promote National Campus Safety Awareness Month. While also giving them tips and facts about what happens on campuses and how acts of violence can occur, even though you may not think that it could never happen to you. I find it very interesting because in all of my years living in the dorms I always saw the RA boards and I just thought that most of the time they made them up themselves. It did not occur to me that they might have taken ideas from another program that was created or from an established organization.
    So I spent the day working on gathering the materials that I would need to put in the PowerPoint presentation that I was creating. That way when RA's open it up all the materials will be available to do them. The board will already be set up for them, all they would have to do is print out the slides and arrange them on the board how they saw fit. I feel that this will be beneficial to me because this is just one of the many ways to reach and help students. Even if it is not directly communicating with them and handing them the information. One single student may see a statistic or a tip to help get out of violent or uncomfortable situation on this RA board and it could save their life. If I can help reach one person/ student that's more then I could even do in a lifetime.

~Kaitlan

Day 13

     Today was a very short day it seemed. I was not there any less time than usual, but it was just one of those days where you are just working on something and the time just seems to fly by. They had me work on creating flyers for the Clery Act Seminars that they have throughout the year. People can sign up and go to them. My part was creating the flyers for the different cities, changing the dates and the times if they were different from last years.
     Once I was done creating those flyers Amy had me watch a video that was created by the organization PAVE (prevention, awareness, victim, empowerment). It dealt with sexual assault. It was about these three girls who had been sexually assaulted and how their life was after it happened. They talked about the experience and what happened.
     Then it went on to the things that they did not do that they should have done. Like called the police, told someone, not showered, and gone to the hospital. They went on to say how their life was changed by the experience and what they and their family and friends went through after the assault happened. At first it was a really sad video but as the video went on and showed how the girls were able to move forward in their lives and over come what happened to them through the help of family and friends it became empowering. Making me realize that being able to help people was why I wanted to be a psychology.

~Kaitlan

Day 12

     Today at the Clery Center there was a board meeting in the office. So there was not a lot of space for all of us to work. Usually I work in the office on the computer. Sometimes I bring my laptop to do work, but it is easier for me to work on their computer because I have a regular PC and they have a MAC. So I would rather just get all my work done in one place and not have to worry about it not being compatible with their office computer and it not working. One of the other interns who usually brings her laptop was in a huge rush this morning so she forgot to bring it and was working on the office computer when I walked in, so I went and spoke with Amy to see what she wanted us to do.
     Michelle and I ended up working on the press release. Rewording, changing things and adding needed information. It took the whole 3.5 hours that we were there, but we finally got it done. We emailed it to both Amy and Abby to look it over to see if there was anything else that needed to be added. They also asked us while we were working on the press release to also watch this conference that was going on live through a website. They had different seminars and such at different times that day and we were in perfect timing for the last one of the day. It had to do with sexual assault and violence. What we heard was very interesting, but we only were able to hear bits and pieces because we were so focused on getting the press release done.

~Kaitlan

Day 11

     Today when I came into the Clery Center, we were to send out the constant contact blast. This was so exciting for me. I do not know why because technically it is just sending out a mass email to all of the donors, sponsors and organizations that have signed up for the NCSAM toolkit so far. I guess it was because this was the first major thing that I worked on since starting at the Clery Center and it was being sent out to a whole bunch of people. So everyone would see all the hard work that was put into this event and thanking them as well.
     Then for the rest of the day I continued to work on unfinished projects like the student group list and the media release.

~Kaitlan

Day 10

     Today when I came in Amy and I had sent out the Constant Contact email blast that we have been working on. Thanking all of those organizations that have signed up already for this years NCSAM ( National Campus Safety Awareness Month) toolkit.  I spent more time today finishing up the Media Release for this years NCSAM. It mentions the other organizations that we have partnered up with and what the "Safe Campus, Strong Voices" campaign is all about.
     The "Safe Campus, Strong Voices" Campaign is a nationwide campaign to raise awareness and shatter the silence on college sexual violence. To end the epidemic of sexual violence on universities, students and faculty, men and women, will work together to create safer and more supportive college campuses. So its important that we get this Media Release done and out there to help promote this campaign and NCSAM.

~Kaitlan

Day 9

     I was not able to make it to the Clery Center today. I had another prior commitment before I got the internship that I was not able to get rescheduled. I spoke with Amy and Abby and they were completely fine with me not being able to make it because of a school commitment. They said that I would be able to make up the hours during my spring break like we had discussed during our first meeting when we signed the paper work.
     They did however tell me that I could work on some projects that I was previously working on such as the student group list and since I got the email for the media/press release I could work on that so I would be able to get some hours in.

~Kaitlan

Day 8

  When I walked today in they wanted to me to write up a Thank you letter to all of the organizations that have signed up for the NCSAM toolkit. So far we have 87 organizations, which is fantastic. I am using the website Constant Contact, which allows you to send mass emails out in a very professional form. They called it an email blast, kind of like when we get the GMC message alerts on the portal. This would be something that everyone got at the same time.
     Constant contact is a really cool website. Amy showed me how to set everything up. How to change the pictures, write text, etc. When we were finished it looked like a flyer but it had a Thank You letter within it. So it was able to give the supporters an update and promote NCSAM at the same time. Also the woman in charge of the organization PAVE (Prevention. Awareness. Victim. Empowerment) created a wonderful video that we attached as well.
     I found this useful because in any job there is the paper work aspect. You are always going to need to know how to communicate to others in a professional manner. So whether I am a therapist, a crisis hotline interventionist, guidance counselor, or continue to work in the non-profit feild this would be a much needed skill in the psychology field.

~Kaitlan

Day 7

     Today Amy and Abby had to leave early, so they gave me work that I could do from home so I would not miss any hours this week. They had me continue to work on the Student organization list so that we could get more supporters. Also to get more organizations to be part of National Campus Safety Awareness Month. The more organizations that we have to get the word out the better.
     Especially with big events like this and having it held on college campuses. Word of mouth is the biggest weapon that we have to getting students involved. Then I also was supposed to start working on a press release for NCSAM and the email never got to me. So I am assuming that is something that they decided would be better to work on in the office tomorrow, unless there is another project they want me to work on.

~Kaitlan

Day 6

     Today was a very interesting day. When I came in Amy had me start making phone calls to the organizations on the student list we had been gathering together. She wanted me to use the transcript that I created the day before when speaking to the representative of the organization. The reason why were were calling these student organizations was because we wanted to reach out to them to see if they had heard of National Campus Safety Awareness Month (NCSAM).

     If they had, we wanted to see what activities or events they had participated in and how they went. If they had not, we wanted to get them to sign up for the toolkit that would help them get started if they were interested in participating this year. A lot of the people that I needed to talk to were unavailable so I left messages on the machine. However, some of the people that I got to talk to were really helpful. One conversation I had with a girl was the head of a newspaper who puts their issues in bathroom stalls. That way they have a huge number of readers. She said that if the Clery Center was interested she would be happy to post an article in the paper so that NCSAM could be advertised in that area. I had some other  really good conversations as well and got some good information that will hopefully be used to further NCSAM and make it that much stronger.

~Kaitlan 

Day 5

     Today when I came in Amy had sent me an email earlier that day. It said that they wanted me to work on a transcript to call the organizations that we have been collecting for the student group list. So that when we call to see if they have been apart of NCSAM previously or if they wanted to be apart of it this year we knew exactly what to say to them. I found this very scary and useful at the same time. Scary because I had never written a transcript for a phone call before and because I did not want to give the people I was calling the wrong information. I know this may be a silly fact because of course Amy and Abbey would not even let me touch the phone without going over the transcript and making sure that I was comfortable enough to do it.
     I felt that it was useful because in any profession you need to be able to communicate well with others and get your point across. Especially in the psychology field, all you do is communicate. Whether it be through the written word or word of mouth. This is a useful skill to have. This is what I worked on for the two hours that I was there and looked for more student groups to add to the list.

~Kaitlan

Day 4

     Today when I came in I sent Abbey the feedback on the previous NCSAM toolkit. She said that she liked all the positive feedback, but that I should go back through and see if anything could be changed for the better. That I needed to look at it from a students point of view from going to campus events. That I should not be afraid to be critical because that is how programs such as NCSAM get improved over the years.
      Then Abbey asked me if I could help think of ideas for the last 7 events in the 30 days 30 Activities part of the NCSAM toolkit. I have only come up with a few so far. Most of the ideas that I came up with were already taken. I am trying to think of things that GMC has done in the past that have worked and students really enjoyed. Hopefully by tomorrow I will have all 7 event ideas ready to present to Abbey.

~Kaitlan