As Liv interns at FASD United, she will share what she is learning and doing to inspire and explore FASD awareness through a public health lens. In her time with our organization, she will have opportunities to experience the roundedness of our programs, aid in important projects, and explore her understanding through reflection.

“This week, I was very happy to be back at FASD United after spring break.

I had a lot of work to catch up on after the week that I took off. My favorite project that I worked on was a blog post for National Social Work Month. Casidee and I had the wonderful opportunity to interview a social worker before I left for break. My task for this week was listening to the audio from the interview and picking my favorite quotes to write about. I thought that the interview was incredibly informative. I had previously worked at an internship that was challenging as I worked with domestic abuse victims daily. I had heard from a lot of people in the public health sector that social work can be a difficult job because of how emotionally involved it is. I wanted to make sure that I asked about how they handle balancing their personal life with their professional life and not letting what happens in their
workplace affect their well-being outside of work.

She (the social worker) talked about how she shuts off her phone once she leaves work and tries not to look at it until she gets back to work. She acknowledged how hard it can be to want to check on her patients and see how they are doing, but also mentioned it is important to prioritize yourself and practice self-care. I think that this is essential for people working in the public health field. People who work in public health often encounter very challenging, upsetting, and stressful situations. However, It’s important to strive to be your best self so you can help other people be their best selves. I feel that some individuals are so focused on other people’s well beings that they can forget about their own. I am passionate about working with vulnerable communities, and I often see them as a priority over myself. However, in order to do my best work, I also need to make sure that I am focusing on my well-being. I want to keep this idea in mind as I continue to grow through my adult life and enter the workforce once I graduate.

This week, I also worked on some more of the fact sheets. If anyone has read Learn with Liv before, you’re probably tired of hearing me talk about them. However, it is truly one of my favorite projects I’ve got to work on so far. I am currently wrapping up one more design and making sure that I feel confident enough in my design to be released to the public!

The final project for this week is an outreach project that I am working on. This project involves me reaching out to individuals or companies over the phone or by email. This was definitely something that I was a little bit scared of because it can be intimidating to talk to people in a professional setting. I’m hoping that this project will enhance my speaking abilities, and let me feel more confident when talking to other people in the workforce. Thank you all for reading, I am so excited for my Learn with Liv’s to resume after my time away. It was so wonderful to see everyone in the office again and online. I will continue to keep everyone updated about my ongoing projects!”

Reflection from 3/18 to 3/22 2024