This blog post was written by Spencer George, Communications Intern at Girls Write Now.
As interns here at Girls Write Now we come from a variety of backgrounds and interests, but one thing we all have in common is a dedication and commitment to Girls Write Now. This past summer, there were four interns working on a variety of projects. Nina Luo and Victoria Sanchez worked as our Programs interns, helping to run mentee interviews and facilitate our College Bound workshops. Emily Henning worked as our Development intern, helping handle everything from fundraising to social media, and I had the opportunity to work with Girls Write Now as a Communications intern, spending my days posting on our social media, researching into potential partnerships and helping out on exciting projects celebrating our 20th Anniversary.
But regardless of how we spend our time at Girls Write Now, we can all agree that the internship experience is exciting, rewarding, and absolutely unique. One of the things that makes being a Girls Write Now intern so special is how the organization values our thoughts and opinions. Development intern Emily writes, “I really appreciated how valued my voice was. They genuinely cared about my opinion and trusted me with important work. If I requested experience in a certain field or asked to help with a specific initiative, they tried their best to accommodate me. Flexibility coupled with the ability to have a meaningful impact is rare in an intern position, and I’m very grateful to have gotten both of those experiences through Girls Write Now.”
Not only do the staff members value your opinions here, but they also truly want to see you succeed. Girls Write Now is an all-female office, and the environment is incredibly collaborative and welcoming. The work you do has no boundaries, and each department frequently works together. Even though I worked in Communications, I had the chance to participate in mentee interviews and attend our June CHAPTERS, the culmination in our spring mentee reading series.
Programs intern Victoria writes that she also feels that working for the Programs team “allows you to sample every aspect of Girls Write Now, giving my internship both breadth and depth… By taking part in this organization’s work, it’s possible to gain while you give, learning valuable job skills while impacting New York City’s community for the better. It’s impossible to find a more fulfilling experience—the people in this organization love what they do, and they make it easy for you to love it, as well.” Fellow Programs intern Nina says that interning at Girls Write Now gave her “a necessary perspective on working in a nonprofit office. The staff included interns in meetings and treated us as equals. They were all incredibly supportive and friendly, immediately making me feel welcome.”
Former intern Jessica Merino describes Girls Write Now as “calm, compassionate and creative, yet driven by firmly-held convictions and raw, unapologetic attitudes. The office doubles as a place of work and a space of activism, and as such has helped shape me into a strong, confident woman who believes that the sharing of beauty, creativity, and unfiltered expression is just as important to social justice work as is analytical criticism.”
In addition to spending their days in the Girls Write Now office, many of our former interns have pursued careers in writing, media, and nonprofit work. Past interns have gone on to work at companies such as WNYC, Rolling Stone, Publisher’s Weekly, the National Organization for Women, the Brooklyn Historical Society, the Global Gender and Climate Alliance, Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, the International Women’s Health Coalition, Time, Inc. and CNN. Our interns are Fulbright scholars, published authors, book reviewers, research assistants, musicians and poets, channeling their love for Girls Write Now into various mediums, as former intern and mentee Tiffani Ren does with her spoken poem, “Love Letter to Girls Write Now” and summer 2017 intern Victoria does in her poem reflecting on her experience at Girls Write Now.
I have absolutely loved my time spent this summer working with Girls Write Now and am so excited to be continuing into the fall as an intern. There is no other organization like Girls Write Now—nowhere else allows you to do meaningful work while forming empowering connections with other incredible women. If you’re looking for a fulfilling experience that will both inspire you to help change the world and immerse you in the amazing work of our generation’s future writers, there’s no better place to be than Girls Write Now.