One of our Women’s and Gender Studies seniors, Anna (she/her/hers), spent the summer working as a sexual assault team intern at Assault Care Center Extending Shelter & Support (ACCESS), which helped her meet her WGS 491 credits. Anna worked as an advocate for victims of sexual assault and helped the organization with training development.
Double majoring in WGS and Psychology, Anna says she decided to intern with ACCESS because “the work they are doing within Ames and the surrounding communities is something I find incredibly inspiring.”
“They are fully victim-centered and provide a safe space for those that need it; that was something I wanted to be a part of. ACCESS also interacts with many different organizations and agencies within the area and I felt I would have the opportunity to learn a lot about the ways different spheres of society interact to support survivors.”
“I originally took WGS 201 to meet credit requirements, but a week into the class, I was hooked,” Anna recalls when asked about when she decided to join the WGS Program. “Each week I would walk out of recitation seeing the world differently.
“I remember sitting in class one day and we were talking about women’s healthcare, and all I could think is, ‘Why aren’t more people talking about this?’ Just an introduction class stirred up so much passion in me that I knew this was an area that I wanted to pursue more.”
As with all WGS internships, the goal is to provide an application of Women’s and Gender Studies principles and methods in a workplace. Anna knows that this internship will help her in her future career, too. “I want to work in gender violence prevention programming and research,” she explains. “ACCESS gives me the opportunity to learn from people doing prevention work as well as direct service providers. It also provides me with essential training about trauma, victim advocacy and our social structures which is important to the work I want to go into down the road.”
If you are interested in using WGS 491 to meet your requirements, contact WGS Adviser Christiana Langenberg. If you would like more inofrmation on ACCESS and volunteering/interning, click here.