This podcast is being brought to you by WXAV.com. WXAV. Bringing the best artists to you. Hi everyone, my name is Mia Guevar Morgan and I'm here with Esra Voraz, double majoring in Business Administration and Finance and I'm minoring in Sociology and Middle Eastern Studies and Christian Sanchez.
I am majoring in History with four minors in Political Science, Philosophy, Communications and Middle Eastern Studies. Wow. And we're here today to talk about internships because recently you received an internship, right? So which internship did you get?
Anyone can go first. Alright, so I have received a summer internship with Kerishikago, which is the Consul and American Islamic Relation as an outreach intern. I too have received an internship with Kerishikago. I was working in the Operations Department.
Cool. And how did these internships come about? Well, for me, my situation was a little particular. Basically, we had a community based learning course that we had to take an internship for.
And I was looking around and since I was interested in the issues that were going on in the Middle Eastern as well as here in the United States, I noticed that there was an organization called Kerishikago that was here that was assisting with civil rights issues for Muslim Americans. I was also told about this by a close friend that's out in Orlando Park. And what I decided to do was to apply to them in order to get an internship. I had actually initially applied to the outreach department and I was actually not available to get that because the outreach department was overfilled at the moment.
But thanks to the internship coordinator, Gerald Hankerson, he decided to forward my application to the Operations Manager at the time who was Fatima. And she actually took a look at my profile. We did a little interview over the phone because I'm actually from out in Indiana. So I have to give me the Chicago every day.
And basically that's what I got in. That was a great opportunity. And for me it was a simple announcement from my professor, Iman Saka. And she told me that Kerishikago is looking for somewhere interns and all that.
So I looked into Kerishikago because it was my first time hearing about Kerishikago and what it does. So I went to their website, looked at what they do as an organization and I fell in love with it and outreach was the best thing for me. Yeah, nice. So how has it been working?
Well, you've started the internship, right? Yes. Okay. So how has it been working?
Like actually getting through everything and doing the internship? For me as an outreach, it was an amazing experience. For me, it taught me how to be independent, taught me how to reach out to different communities, different organizations that fight for similar things that they do, especially if I'm in bigotry and changing the stereotypes of Muslims, especially right now with the rising of this election and the whole thing and jumping the president, it was a kind of an experience about having that outreach and meeting new people was a great experience. And being in the operations department, I had an opportunity to basically man the front desk at the reception area.
And though I didn't learn a lot of sectoral work, which I will be able to take that into a possible career fields, it was a very great opportunity in order to actually meet our clients face to face, you know, because you know, you get a chance to talk with the lawyer there, Phil Robertson, great guy. And you'll hear him discussing cases and all this and that in order to help the clients out. And it's a little different though when you actually meet them face to face because then you have a face to the issues that they have and you know sometimes they'll even tell you their story and it happens several times actually. And it's a really great opportunity and you get to learn, you know, the situations that they're in and you get a sense of what's really going on in their world.
And it really is home, you know, because then you actually have a person with a visible issue instead of just, you know, a name on a paper and an issue in a courtroom. So that was a great opportunity for that. So what have you taken away from this experience? Well, actually, I've taken quite a bit away.
I guess I'll start off with more of the sort of standard stuff since I was working in the city so often it was a great opportunity to actually learn about the city. I've always been in Chicago before, you know, I'm just over the board in Indiana, but it was actually a great opportunity to understand how the city works, you know, learning how to use the L and all this and that and all the different shops around there and how to actually access and utilize the city as a tool for growth and expansion, even networking, for example, for future careers and all that. And I think probably the more important thing, so that kind of hit home was that something I actually learned from the staff attorney in the middle of Robinson one mention before is that we need to have empathy in our career fields. And that was interesting because I'm planning on going to law school and trying to either become an attorney or a politician or something like that.
And too often times people forget about the empathy within law. It's always about the letter more so than the spirit of it. So it's a good idea to have empathy in that career field and it's one of the things that I'll really take with me from that. I'll try to cherish that when I'm going to law school and bring all those difficult exams and papers, you know.
Nice. How about you? For me, it was since I'm a finance major and this internship did not have to do anything with business. It was more of my minor, but for me I felt that the responsibility as a Muslim to find a way to reach out to people, to tell people the struggles that Muslims face in these world and especially in the United States right now, for me it wasn't just to have it in my resume as more as me making a solution or making an effect for this world to get by and me.
Yeah. It was a great experience along with having to know the city because I did not really know the city as much. So having that transportation, learning how to take the trains and all of that stuff was a great experience. Wow, it sounds like you took a lot away from us.
So what was your favorite part of the internship? My favorite part was networking with different organizations like the Jewish Voice for Peace. I remember the first day that I started we went to a unitary and universalist organization that we talked about, our organization and explained a few things. So from the beginning it was like a start.
It was just an amazing experience. It shows you that connecting with different organizations that really have an empathy with our organization as a Muslim organization. So that was a big one for me. I would agree with the networking aspect.
Since I was in the operations department though, I was basically kept more so on the office, but it gave me a good opportunity to network with people that were actually inside the office. So speaking with the staff attorney, talking to my other colleagues, we're actually in the civil rights department and getting to know them and getting to know the issues with law school and what to expect that's coming up for me. And basically just the idea of the conversation because there we had an opportunity to have a frank and open conversation about the things that are going on in the country at the moment. And it's a good chance to also build networks along that, but also to pass along ideas to learn from other people in the office and whatnot.
But I do also appreciate learning about the clients and meeting the clients. That was a really heartwarming experience from my perspective as reading them and having them come and they turning all this and that. Cool. Do you have any advice for someone who might want to look for an internship that's similar to yours?
The one advice that I give to everyone is to not be afraid. Just take it and go with the flow even if it doesn't give you a paid internship, even if it doesn't give you any money. Just take in a lived experience and for me as not majoring in anything that does what care does, it just gives me an open eye of how it should be and I think you should take any opportunity that opens up for you. So yeah, nice.
I would say, well actually I think I'm going to go about it a different way. First, say in regards to getting the internship, having great writing skills, practicing that would definitely help being able to craft an argument and get your ideas along in paper that are clearly able to be understood. But I think more importantly, it's more so than just trying to get the internship as actually while you're in the internship and that is to remember that even though you're doing a job essentially at this internship, you know, for as well as, you know, outreach and whatnot, you know, meeting with different organizations, you know, whereas me, I'm kind of like a secretary basically doing receptionist type of work. But even though you're doing a job, the real main purpose of internships is actually networking.
It's really focused on networking, it's being able to talk to your colleagues, being able to talk to your superiors, being able to talk to different organizations like that's really what it's about. And you don't want to take, you know, you don't want to leave any opportunities behind. So really I think my advice more so as well, your internship is to not leave any opportunities, you know, behind always, don't leave any stone unturned basically. Nice, well, really great.
Anything else you want to add about your experience or about the internship? I mean, I want to thank my, you know, the people that I worked with outreach as an outreach especially, Daryl Hankerson, and what I like about him that he made us go along with different, different departments that are there, especially the communication department which, and now, whoa, takes it, takes over and then the operation coordinator at Sydney. So I really appreciate it and I, you know, that attorney fell, it was an amazing and the debut guy. It was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was a great experience and, you know, having that ability to work and have a real job experience for me was the first time and having that, you know, that experience was just amazing and I think everyone should take it, should take responsibility of living and, you know, and being in college, you should take any opportunities that are out there.
I also want to thank Bill Chambers, the Chicago Monitor, the Chief Editor of Chicago Monitor, who gave us the opportunity to write and be our voice heard through writing and he helped us a lot through telling us that the media shows the states that you can write and voice your opinion in a writing that can be going out there and, you know, explain things like that. Well, actually I'm very thankful for the opportunity as well. For Bill, for example, basically him being the editor and chief of the Chicago Monitor, he gave me the ability to voice my concern and issues and opinions on the issues that are actually plaguing the Native Americans of this country today and that was, this actually before and during the APL pipeline issue, you know. So that was great, I got that put that out in there and so I'd like to thank Bill for that.
I'd also like to thank my supervisor who was, Sunanya Visani, she was in charge of the operations department. She was coming in new actually because I was actually hired by a different person but she was leaving at the time and so for me and Sunanya were kind of the new people in the pool, you know, Sunanya has been there before as an intern but now she's actually officially there, you know, fully working and it was a new opportunity, it was a new experience for the both of us and it was great, you know, working together, kind of in some ways growing together actually and having that sort of freshman experience as it were and then I'd also like to thank Phil Roberts actually for our conversations that we've had and him assisting me with the legal fields and trying to understand law school and what to do with that. Also as well as my civil rights department interns, colleagues, they were great for helping me understand the other staff that are coming up for me and trying to get into law schools, that was great. Also, I could rehab, who's the executive director of care, I didn't get many opportunities to speak with him, he's a very busy man but the conversations that I have had with him, they're very close to the heart and very special and it's great meeting him and working with him and I think most of although Gerald Hankerson, I'd like to thank him because honestly if it wasn't for him I wouldn't have gotten the internship because I tried applying for his department as I mentioned and he forwarded my application so that was great and he's a great friend to have so I appreciate him very much.
Wonderful, well thank you for taking time out of your day to come and be interviewed, I thank you for sharing your story, your experience and I'll be seeing you around. Thank you very much. Thank you for listening to the WXAV.com podcast, check out WXAV.com for future podcasts, WXAV, the Escape from Ordinary Radio.