Internship

Internship in Criminal Justice

During the Summer of 2020, I had the opportunity to participate in a criminal justice internship which was an independent research study on COVID-19. I worked with my fellow peers and supervisors Dr. Ellen Cohn and Suman Kakar on this research project. We researched the effects of crime on containment policies before and during COVID-19. During the span of the summer, I collaborated with a team of five people where we met weekly or biweekly to further discuss our findings. Our goal was to gather all information about shutdowns, executive orders, reopening procedures, and any other type of containment policies that affected the State of Florida and more specifically Fort Lauderdale/ Broward County. I was able to develop and improve my skills. I was able to take initiative during the meetings and providing any opinions about our research findings. I also wrote detailed meeting minutes after certain meetings which I provided a thorough summary of everything that was discussed during these meetings. I kept all data collections organized by creating folders within the shared drive. My goal for the summer while participating in this internship was to work on my communication skills. I was able to improve my communication skills through verbal and written communications. I was able to speak up and speak in front of my peers with many practices. I was able to present any of the findings and data that I collected. I was able to manage my time efficiently. Having proper time management and organizational skills will prepare me for graduate school. Despite not being able to meet in person and having to perform this research study during a global pandemic was tough. We were able to persevere through any difficult obstacles that came our way. Having to adapt to a new way of learning was difficult and rather a quick shift. We all had to communicate online and communicate with each other via electronic devices. 

Furthermore, my expectation for the study is to be able to summarize the results of our findings and be able to come up with a research question or hypothesis. This will allow us to be able to present our findings at a conference. I hope to gain the ability to critically analyze a given article or research study and be able to conclude my findings. It is an important skill to have as it will show that you are a creative and logical thinker. Moreover, it will also show that you can think critically. The best take away from this internship was that I have the opportunity to work with a team of different individuals. Who share the same interest as me. We all got along very well and I was also able to gain mentorship with my supervisors. Under the circumstance s of the global pandemic, we were still able to achieve our goals and complete as much information that we could gather. 

This internship solidified my career choice of becoming a physician assistant. Not only was I looking at the different containment policies that were implemented, but I was also looking at all the number of cases and whether they increased or decreased throughout the summer. I would watch the news and see how different medical facilities were treating their medical providers. They had a scarce amount of medical pieces of equipment and personal protective equipment to protect their medical providers. These providers were working on the front lines and dedicating their lives to helping those who were infected with the coronavirus. These providers are heroes and are working very hard to take care of our loved ones.