Tagged: Interviews
Till We Meet Again
Six months ago, this day seemed so far away, and now I am writing my last blog as an ANCA – WR intern. I remember the first time I came to the Western Region office for my interview. The office was empty when I walked in and I was so nervous, I thought I was going to faint. I met with the Executive Director, William Bairamian. As if I was not already intimidated enough by him we went into the giant conference room for the interview. After the interview, I was sure I didn’t get the internship, since I couldn’t answer some general knowledge questions. Apparently, I had answered some other questions correctly since I got the internship.
I have said before that I was never really involved in anything too Armenian and my parents disliked that. Now, they mention something that happened in Armenia and I give them a detailed report about it, since I have read about it from more than one news source. They are definitely very happy that I had the opportunity to do this internship.
Before I started working on this blog, I went back and scanned all of my blogs and I feel like what I wrote is just a small portion of what I have experienced at this internship. I have met so many people who are very smart and interesting. I have worked with different people and participated in countless events. Before I found out about the ANCA I did not know of any Armenian organization that does so much. This internship has given me the chance to learn a lot. There were times that I felt it was too much, but I decided to stay and follow through with my choices. I am already planning on what I will be doing with ANCA after I come back from Armenia.
There were so many events that I was able to participate in other than all the main ones I have written about. I have gone to so many festivals, parties, and community events that I lost count. I was of course working at the ANCA booth, but I was able to explore. Each event opened my eyes to what type of impact ANCA has in the community, but the most eye-opening event was the Telethon, because I was able to speak to donors. I got to speak to people who cared so much about the Armenian Cause that they were patiently calling in and donating money. Since the telethon was a nationwide event, there were more people working on event planning. For any other event that people participate in, there is only a handful of people who are planning it all. The small number of people working on events always shocked me. Now that I have had an insider’s point of view, all I can say is ANCA has so many dedicated staff and volunteers who make sure things get done. I am very glad to call myself one of ANCA’s volunteers.
Intern Project
Yesterday, as part of our internship my co-intern and I interviewed previous interns for a project we are going to do. To me, interviewing these interns means that people actually survive from this internship. At first, I was very scared about how the interviews were going to work out. Even though I was not the one on camera, I was still nervous.
I think what scared me the most was that this was not part of the internship experience as you call it. This was something that we had come up with as part of our project and it was something new for me. Just like on the first day of working at the WR office I was very afraid of answering phones, I was just scared of failing in some way. With the interviews, I kept thinking everything we had done and have asked is not enough.
I feel that every day we do things that we are afraid of. It can be something small like an interview or something huge like trusting certain people. As far as the interviews went, I had a lot of fun getting to know what past interns are doing. I am very excited about the other interviews we are going to have because now it is not so intimidating. The next step to tackle in the project is editing the videos, which I think I was even more afraid of but, like I said, the interviews went so well, I have a more positive outlook on everything else. But thinking about the fact that in the very end we have to present the project to a bunch of people gives me the chills. I will definitely be writing a few blogs about glossophobia (fear of speaking in public.)
