I admired this agency's amazing work with refugee and immigrant families. Everyone I worked with was incredibly nice and open to teaching me about what they do.
What I wish was different
Advice
Don't be afraid to ask questions and to get involved in the many webinars and trainings they offer! There's always something new to learn.
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Migration and Refugee Services Summer Intern
June - August 2019 • Manassas, VA
What I liked
They entrust interns with a ton of independent responsibility after you get the hang of protocols. As someone who wants to work in global social services, it was incredibly helpful, and often frustrating, to learn how state and federal services are distributed. My favorite aspect was the people; the office has a diverse staff to satisfy different language requirements of varying refugee arrivals and each person had such an interesting professional background.
What I wish was different
The internal communication within the office is poor due to people often having to be out of office on home visits, client appointments, or operating from the Arlington office. This created a very frustrating delay to client services when needing supervisor authorization.
Advice
Anyone interested with work involving refugees should take on an internship/volunteer opportunity like this; even if what you're interested in is purely policy or institutional management. It is so important to understand what goes on on the ground and remember that there are real people struggling to assimilate and who are affected by these policies. Very similar organization to the International Refugee Committee (IRC) in Charlottesville, my experience in Manassas was just more desk work than the volunteering I have done with the IRC.
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Refugee Resettlement Services Intern
February - May 2017 • Arlington County, VA
What I liked
This internship program was indeed an apprenticeship. MRS is the biggest agency for resettlement of refugees in Northern Virginia, and they have a robust Internship Program (we were eleven interns from all across the US). It was the most useful experience ever because they assigned me five rotations through all the programs for refugees they run (Resettlement Case Worker, Education Liaison, Career Developer, etc).
What I wish was different
I would have liked to do this formally, as a three-credit class, because what I've learned was as valuable as the better class.
Advice
Make it worth! An internship is a significant investment of time and it must to have a valuable outcome.
Do not go to any organization where they make you bring coffee for staff or make copies.
