My Last Day as a Corazón Latino Intern:
Eight weeks ago, I walked into the Corazón Latino (CL) office unsure of what to expect. I had never really been active on environmental issues, unless you count every once in a while retweeting articles that were saying that our planet was dying. But there I was, ready for an 8 week deep dive into the environmental nonprofit world.
Now that I’ve resurfaced, I have come out with experiences I would have never imagined. I planted trees, cleaned up a park, attended numerous conferences on the environment (including one where I saw Speaker Nancy Pelosi, paddled on the Potomac River, and attended a climate rally in front of the Capitol. There was never a week where I was sitting in the office for the entire day. CL gave me and my cohort so many opportunities to spend quality time with the community we were working with through events led by us and other environmental organizations. Learning about all the other environmental organizations made me, first, feel better about the state of our planet - even though climate change is imminent, there’s so many wonderful people fighting against it! Secondly, it made me value our mission at Corazón Latino so much more.
Being Latinx, I know firsthand the disproportionate impact climate change has on my community. Working for an organization whose mission focused on environmental justice and the inclusion of a community that is often left out of the conversation, made me excited to go to work every day. Not only is the work we do fulfilling, the people we do it with makes it that much more worthwhile. It was awesome to work with people from all backgrounds and experiences, which allowed us all to complement each other. Working with two other interns made it much easier to acclimate to the work environment, having a built in coworker and friend every time I came to work.
I spent eight weeks at Corazón Latino and have enjoyed the entire experience. Not only have I gained office experience, I have also learned so much about the nonprofit world and, specifically, the environmental justice world. As someone who may want to work in the nonprofit world someday, CL was an amazing first look at what could potentially be my future. I’m so glad I had this experience. Thank you Corazón Latino!
