First Week of my Internship – 2025 JOIN intern
What I learned in Week 1 of my JOIN Internship
My first week of my JOIN internship at Yad Ezra has come to an end, which went by insanely fast, and I have learned and seen a lot. My first day consisted of learning about what Yad Ezra does and how they serve their clients. I got many tours of the building (I had the Willy Wonka moment when going into the pantry for the first time) and I got to go to the Harvard gardens and saw all the stuff they are growing and harvesting. I even got to try some of the strawberries, and they are delicious (better than the ones sold in grocery stores). I have enjoyed learning about the garden because I do not have a green thumb and I know little about gardens and planting, so it has been very eye opening to learn from Josh and Hannah and the rest of the gardening team.
The next day consisted of even more learning and more tours which helped all the information seep into my brain. I feel like I could give a tour now. Now that I had a day under my belt, I learned how to use the infamous software system Bloomerang. This software, as I have come to know, is very important and helps keep many things in order. My first task was to go to the funeral home listings of the 3 major Jewish funeral homes and mark who had past and make sure that was marked in Bloomerang.
The 3rd day was my favorite so far because I got to observe a serving session and help shop. The serving sessions are when the clients come to get their food for the month. I got to chat with the volunteers, and one took me under her wing and showed me the ropes of how to tie the bags onto the cart, so they stay open and how the shopping worked. I was surprised at how many bonus items there were for the clients to take home. They were able to get cabbage, peppers, tomatoes, hot dogs, and much more. I enjoyed being able to see the serving session in action after hearing all about it for the first couple of days. In addition to helping at the serving session, we had lunch and learn. Hannah taught us all about how agriculture and the Jewish calendar are tied together, and it was very informative. I learned a lot as well as everyone else.
The last day of my first week, which happens to be today, was laid back, but still eventful. The day started off to be very quiet and calm, but as the day progressed it was like a family day. So many staff members, kids and partners came in, which was very fun. It showed me how welcoming and family-oriented Yad Ezra is. For most of the day I spent in Bloomerang merging people into households, to make Bloomerang more concise. Today we also had a staff meeting to put together a one sentence mission statement. Currently Yad Ezra has a mission paragraph, so we were trying to scale it back to a sentence that encompasses what Yad Ezra does. We got a draft sentence, but it is still in the works, as I learned making a mission statement is difficult. The meeting took up most of the afternoon, so I did not do much else this day.
Overall, my first week was very eventful. I learned a lot and got to experience things I had not before. The days flew by, but it feels like I have been here for more than just a week, which is a very good thing.