We at Safe Harbor IM know that 2020 hasn’t been an easy year for anyone. Many terrible things happened throughout this year, but there were good things that happened too! This article will address the intern’s perspective about the positive and negative things that have happened this year, as well as some of our takeaways as interns at Safe Harbor. 

2020

School 

Photo by Compare Fibre on Unsplash

COVID-19 naturally had a large impact on all of us in 2020, and while it needs to be acknowledged that a lot of people lost their lives to this pandemic, it has also affected the quality of education students received this year. HR intern Jacob called his school’s response to COVID-19 “a roller coaster ride: At the beginning of the semester, they allowed for around half of classes to be done in person with social distancing and let students stay on campus with roommates. I was one of the few that had a single room so I felt safe to stay on campus, but as the COVID cases started to surge three weeks later, that feeling slowly faded away. Due to the surge in cases, the school decided to stop classes from being delivered in person and removed a large number of students off-campus. This made it difficult for me to find a place to live close to campus that didn’t cost a fortune. With everything online, mostly through zoom courses, it was difficult to keep myself focused on the class since it is not as interactive as in-person classes are. I think ultimately that how the school handled the COVID crisis was okay, in comparison with other schools, it would be ranked somewhere in the middle with how effective their response was.”

Like Jacob, blogging intern Samira, also found that online classes made it harder to motivate herself and stay focused: “Particularly my small-group tutorials were impacted negatively by being moved online because that made it easier for students not to participate. However, I nonetheless do think that online learning works better for universities than for high schools: my sister’s school, for instance, was not prepared at all and she essentially missed out on two months worth of classes. One of this year’s biggest takeaways in terms of education is simply the immense value of in-person teaching.”

Mental Health in 2020

Let’s put it simply: 2020 was tough. Whether you’ve lost a loved one or spent months in social isolation, this year has taken a toll on a lot of people’s mental health. Intern coordinator Rebecca looks back on this year and its impact on her mental health: “I have been trying hard to focus on the positives. This year included me giving birth to my first daughter, graduating from college, and going back to school to become a doula. So many highs have happened but I have struggled to celebrate myself and be excited about all of the identity transitions that I have gone through this year. I want to say that my mental health has been awesome, but that isn’t completely honest. I feel overwhelmed more days than not. I am working on finding out what balance means and how to find rest in all of the busy, demanding roles in my life. I am working on figuring out ways that help me show up in the best ways for myself, even when it’s really hard.” 

Blogging intern Jackie also reflects on her and her friend’s mental health and how she supports them: “I have noticed a general decline in the mental health of those around me. I think it makes sense, given the conditions. We’re not made to be put under this much stress, and especially when that’s combined with the stress of college classes for most of my friends, it’s created some mental health issues for some of my friends. Something else that I’ve noticed is that people are unable to plan for the future. A lot of things seem to hang on the condition of the pandemic as well as changing restrictions. While this makes sense, and these changing restrictions benefit our health, it’s frustrating! I know I try to just be a sounding board for my friends and those around me, and I try to offer advice or creative solutions when I can. Mostly though, I’ve found that my role in offering support to my friends relies mostly on being a distraction from the world’s problems. My friends and I talk about other things, or stream movies on Netflix Party, and just generally try to take a break from the world! I think that is what is most helpful right now.”

Photo by Janko Ferlic on Unsplash

Personal Relationships 

2020 has brought many changes in our personal relationships. Social Media team leader Mikayla noticed some positive things: “I believe this pandemic has brought everyone together. This is the first time in today’s time that our entire nation has gone through something together. People are talking and checking up on people more online all while spending a lot of time in solitude learning about themselves, their spouses, their children, etc. This year was a year of growth, especially for me. The person I was in January is completely different from the person I am now. This year might have sucked for most of us, but I think it was a year that was needed.” Team Lead of the HR section, Elizabeth, talked about how it can be difficult to connect with others, but when a connection does happen it’s worth the struggle: “For me, it is easy to forget about the outside world when I am alone and isolated. I think that the thing that I have noticed with my friendships is that I need to put intentional effort into them. It also doesn’t mean that I have to invest a lot of my day into communicating with friends because I think that is what deters me away from reaching out. I have found that if I am just intentional about sending a message to one of my friends every couple of days it allows me to feel connected to them still but also gives us each the opportunity to share. It is easy to get overwhelmed but I have found a quick check-in to be great to still have communication without being able to see them in person.”

Good Things About 2020

While some horrible things happened over this year, some good things happened too. It’s impossible to mention the Black Lives Matter movement without the deaths of George Floyd and countless others, it’s worth mentioning the number of people who were educated about issues of racism in America and around the world this year. Also, many of us have gone through a lot of personal growth this year. Intern Amanda said that “Although this was an incredibly challenging year, I would say I have also grown a lot during the last year. Like everyone else in the world, I have endured a lot of change throughout the last few months. I think I have grown in terms of being thankful for the here and now, and focusing more on what I can do with what I have. If there is anything that this has taught me, it is that you can only control so much. Most of the changes I faced, I had zero control of. You can only control your reactions to situations, and how you proceed with life. I have definitely realized this more, and focused more on doing what I can with the circumstances”.

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

Safe Harbor Internship

Things We Learned

Each of us learned different things throughout the course of our internship. Julia, one of our Office Admin interns, talked about her new skillset: “I am most impressed by the number of new skills I have gained as a result of this internship. The first is my organization skills have increased tremendously. With school, work, and this internship, I had to be extremely organized and manage my time wisely. Additionally, my skills in programs such as Canva, Slack, Thinkific, Zoom, and Audacity have greatly improved. I have learned to work with a team, put myself out there, and hold myself accountable for my mistakes. I am very proud of these new skills, and I know I will use them for the rest of my career.” Our current Office Admin team lead, Shannon, talked about her takeaways from the virtual aspect of the internship: “I learned just how much I was a worker and we as a team were able to accomplish in a fully virtual format! Traditionally, internships with a non-profit would need to be done in-person at the organization. For this internship, we used Slack and Zoom for communications and Google Drive to collaborate on tasks. I learned concrete strategies for how to communicate and collaborate with my team members virtually. I think that I can carry these strategies forward beyond this experience.”

Professional Relationships 

As much as this internship taught all of us interns, it also allowed us to build relationships, both professional and personal, with so many amazing people. Administration Assistant intern Corrine reflects on working with interns Shannon and Julia: “I have always felt incredibly lucky to be paired with them because they were amazing teammates to work with! We all got along so well but one of my favorite memories involves our Wednesday and special Saturday meetings! Keeping each other up to date on the latest assignments and chatting about what was going on in our lives was always something I looked forward to. It was so fun to be able to be creative and collaborate with my teammates and we came out of this internship as friends.” 

Photo by Clint Patterson on Unsplash

Conclusion 

While 2020 brought a variety of hardships and struggles with it, it is also important to acknowledge some of the positives that happened this year. Looking back on 2020, while we interns at Safe Harbor will – just like everyone else – remember COVID-19, we will also be able to look back on a year of personal and professional growth, filled with new connections and friendships. 

If you, too, are interested in expanding existing and building new skills, surrounded by a bunch of amazing people, consider interning with Safe Harbor in 2021! 

To hear the current interns speak about their year and internship experience, make sure to give our ‘2020 Wrap Up’ podcast a listen. 

We at Safe Harbor hope that you have a positive start into the year 2021! Happy Holidays!

Written by Jackie Ebel and Samira Rauner, bloggers at Safe Harbor International Ministries. For more articles, visit our blog page at https://safeharborim.com/articles/.