My overall experience as an intern for this organization was great! I learned many things throughout the course of this internship that will help me for years to come. I’ll just be summarizing the various things I did for the community and the research I did for my local garden. My first involvement was with Teatro de Artes se Juan Seguin at their summer art camp. In all honesty, when I was asked to help with the camp, I was unsure of what to expect and I had no prior experience working with kids. I knew I was faced with a challenge. But after just a couple of days, I found myself enjoying every bit of it! Showing the kids the garden, arts and crafts, and ballet folkorico was satisfying in a way that I had the opportunity to guide these kids to be more creative and also just helping them enjoy summertime! The camp went on for two weeks and after each week the kids put on a show to present everything they’ve learned to their parents. It was heartwarming to see kids learn about culture and make new friends outside of school!
In other parts of the internship, I helped the food bank at our church bringing the food from walmart and unloading it at the church. A handful of hours were spent making raised beds for the LULAC community garden. As you see in the picture these were made from recycled fence to conserve materials.
For the remainder of the internship, I wanted to do something that would benefit my studies in architecture. Before an architect starts designing, he has to have a good understanding of the site and everything that encompasses it. I studied the sun’s path, the traffic surrounding the garden, and the people working in the garden. I produced a few hand drawings and also started drawing the garden in a computer program that I use to design. I won’t get too far in depth with what I plan to do, but I eventually used all my research to come up with a question or “hypothesis” if you will. What changes can we make to the garden that will attract more of the public as a community to participate? It’s not necessarily that there is a lack of participation, but as a future architect I see amazing potential in this garden for the city. During my harvesting ceremony, I spoke with the LULAC organization and they are willing to work with me to find solutions for better public participation and they seemed excited that I’ll still be involved after this internship.
So again, this internship showed me opportunities to get involved in the community that I never even knew about! I will definitely be involved with Ogallala Commons in the future and look forward to another internship!
