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Contact Us: (800) 894-7201
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THE PESA POST
The latest news, views and announcements from
Parents, Educators/Teachers & Students in Action
April 2, 2021
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THE REAL WORLD
A PESA internship is more than just filing and fetching, it's a roll-up-your-sleeves educational experience
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A good internship should be a two-way street: Interns provide support to an organization, and that entity in return provides exposure, education and professional growth opportunities to the intern. PESA prides itself on internships of the highest order. We believe that by providing challenging opportunities to students starting out in their new or hoped-for careers, interns can become broadly knowledgeable contributors to their professions and society.
“We have a four-phase program that exposes interns to PESA’s primary areas of focus: law, education, advocacy and outreach,” says PESA’s Director of Youth Services Araksya Nordikyan, who conceived of and manages the program. “Participants attend weekly workshops such as Development of Social History, How to Cross Examine, How to Advocate for Clients, and How to Participate in Government. Then, they are assigned tasks to apply what they’ve learned, and these include things like working on an actual criminal case, developing and hosting educational presentations, grant writing and attending government meetings.”
The result is a win-win situation for PESA and its interns, the following three of whom from the recent fall 2020 class exemplify the quality of the program.
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Giselle Macias
Giselle Macias wanted an internship that could give her a peek into the field of law while also allowing her to explore different options and make connections along the way. Despite having attended a high school that had no Teen Court program, Giselle quickly got up to speed and is now a proctor for Teen Court sessions at high schools such as Northridge Academy, Franklin and Taft. An internship with PESA, says Macias, “will help you decide what you really want to do. I would recommend it because if you want to go into law or education, PESA opens your mind to so many different things. It helps you take steps into that career.” Not only did interning with PESA help guide Macias, she says it, “felt like a real job.” When asked how she would improve PESA’s internship program, she says, “It should be longer.” We love that attitude, and duly noted!
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Teo Brinsley
With his eyes set on becoming a physicist with a degree from the University of Toronto, high school junior Teo Brinsley is, at the moment, an intern with PESA. Brinsley decided to participate in Teen Court over the summer due to the Covid-19 quarantine and the subsequent dip in his regular extra-curricular activities. Quite plainly, he is not a fan of politics, law or the court system. Yet, he was inspired enough by his Teen Court experience to continue his involvement through an internship with PESA. “Helping people is a part of my own moral compass,” he says. “Collectivism is an idea which I really believe in, which is part of the reason why I want to move to Canada for university, because I think their society is a little bit more collective-oriented.” Brinsely’s advice for others considering the opportunities achievable through a PESA internship? “If this was something you really wanted to do, your mind would explode.”
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Sophia Venables
“If you are someone who believes in the power of change and wants to see it happen right before your eyes, this is the internship for you,” says Sophia Venables. For the Fulbright 2021-2022 Spain English Teaching Assistant semi-finalist,connecting with students at the foundational level was crucial when seeking an internship. The self-described “optimistic, motivated and organized” Loyola Marymount University senior has done just that, making virtual educational presentations to classes at Challenger Middle School, an underserved public school in Antelope Valley. And it’s clear Venable’s learned a few things herself along the way. “[Effective] intervention in students has to start with education, it has to start with what students are learning and how engaged they are with what they’re learning,” she says. “I have thoroughly enjoyed every single moment that I have worked for PESA. Understanding the intersectionality of how we handle law and how we handle education has been really incredible and definitely something I’m going to use to inform my future career.”
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If you’d like more information or to support PESA’s many social and educational initiatives, please contact us. ■
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