My Internship Experience
by Mikya Wright, Leadership Training Project student and Summer intern
Growing up in Kansas City has fueled me to want to better and to grow with my community. This past June, I was chosen to be a summer intern! I was more than thrilled to have this opportunity to learn more about and help improve my community. Having been with Mission Adelante since elementary school, I was so excited for the chance to get involved even more!
I was chosen along with four other interns, Edna, Shae, Flori, and Innocent. I didn’t know it at first, but by the end of the summer, we would grow to be extremely close. Even though we had a lot of fun times, we were also there for each other during the hard times. When some of the interns lost a close friend in a tragic accident, we stood by each other. We were there for one another when it really mattered. So while the fun times were amazing, I believe it was ultimately the struggles we faced that made us stronger as a team. But we definitely had more good times than bad! We would play four-square, card games, dance, fight over who got to choose the next song, and really just laugh a lot! One of my favorite memories (there are a lot!) is how we would just hang out and listen to music. We would play our favorite songs and argue about who got the aux. Rocking out together (whether in Ashley’s car, the bus, or at Mission) was a ton of fun and usually ended in a lot of laughing!
We had amazing leaders. Laxmi, Patrique, Ashley, and Ranjana truly gave us so much, more than they probably know. Not only were they our leaders, but they were also our mentors and friends. They gave us so much wisdom, guidance, fun times, new opportunities, and really cared for and loved each of us deeply. They helped us grow into the leaders we are today!
Our group did so many activities, we were never bored! We were, quite literally, together all day long, four days a week. Which felt pretty long then, but now looking back it seems as if time flew by. We drove each other crazy sometimes, but ultimately it brought us really close together! During the week, we helped plan Adelante Youth Club and Tuesday Youth Activities, did community service projects, intern training workshops, ministry exposure, devotional time, and more. We went to so many places in Kansas City and learned so much about our own community.
Working together as a group has taught me a lot about teamwork. Our group was so diverse in many different aspects, and everyone brought new ideas. It was somewhat of a struggle at first to learn how to work together, which is to be expected with a group of people with different personalities and backgrounds. But we all worked hard and listened to one another, and we made the best team! Because everyone brought different and new ideas, we were able to do so much more. Our youth programs are incredibly diverse, and we were able to foster that because we ourselves were so diverse. We ended up learning so much, not only about each other but about our different cultures and backgrounds. Another one of my favorite memories was Cultural Night at Youth Club. We learned so many dances from such a diverse group of cultures. It was so fun (as someone who loves to dance) to be able to connect with everyone doing something we all loved. Through making these connections we were able to cultivate deep relationships and a deep appreciation of each other's cultures and backgrounds!
I grew so much in my faith this past summer. During our devotional time, we dove really deep and asked the hard questions, and had really good discussions. We heard each other's testimonies and were able to see how God impacted our lives. And in some of the workshops, we heard people’s stories about how God changed their life for the better. Most notably, I saw how God was (and continues) working in our neighborhood. The people we reached and the things we did would have had no impact without Him. At the center of all the crazy and fun activities we did, was a love and desire to grow closer to God as a group through community.
This past summer has been one of my all-time favorite summers! The relationships I’ve made over the summer are one of my favorite things that continues to stay with me - not only in the internship but also in the different programs I was/am a part of. The internship group really grew to be like family (love you guys!), and I’m so glad I got to go on all of those adventures with them! I have so many unforgettable memories that I will cherish forever. I’m sad the summer is over, but I can’t wait to see what God has in store for the future. It was definitely one for the books!
