Reflecting on Summer Internship at Texas Appleseed

As a new crop of interns gets started for the fall semester at Texas Appleseed, I wanted to share the wonderful experience that the summers had here.

As a second-year undergraduate student double majoring in Journalism and African Studies, I was accepted onto the Texas Appleseed team as a Communications intern. I’ve learned about newsrooms in Texas and used my writing skills for various projects, ranging from blog posts to radio public service announcements. However, after spending a summer here, I’ve become clear about my future goals. Though I love my journalism background, it is now my goal to go to law school. Not only has Texas Appleseed challenged and improved my communications skills, but it has also helped me find the path that puts fire into my bones, excites me, and motivates me to work for a greater good.

For other interns, Texas Appleseed has also propelled them into important spaces and helped them in unforeseen ways. Kara Mitchell, a senior at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, who is planning to earn a Master's in Education Policy, came to Texas Appleseed hoping to do research on the school-to-prison pipeline. Mitchell said, “I only know bits and pieces of what’s going on in North Carolina, so it was very interesting to get to know what’s going on in Texas public schools.” 

Nearing the end of her internship, Kara has learned that “it’s easy to say what’s wrong in public schools around the country and in Texas, but it’s a totally different thing to actually hear the solutions and how many solutions are already in practice. I can use the information I learned here and apply it to what’s going on in North Carolina.” Kara has been applying to various internships for the upcoming school year, and she noted that many of the skills required are ones she’s developed by working at Texas Appleseed. 

Mikaela Casas, a rising fourth-year Journalism and Government student at The University of Texas-Austin also joined the team as a Communications intern. Her internship started in January of 2016, and over that time period, she has conducted interviews, filmed videos, and helped create the Texas Appleseed vlog, The Core. From the beginning of her college career, Mikaela always knew that she wanted to go to law school. “I got to see what my options were if I wanted to go into nonprofit work rather than pursue a newspaper or magazine career, and I think I really gained a better understanding of what that looks like. Through Texas Appleseed, I’ve definitely decided that I want to do nonprofit work,” Casas said. 

She will be working for Teach for America San Diego once she’s out of school, helping low-income students, and after a year, she plans to go to law school with an even clearer idea of the type of work she wants to pursue. 

Conversely, some interns are already in graduate school or law school. Kari Pennington, a student at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, pursuing a Master of Public Affairs, joined the team as a Criminal Justice Reform Policy intern. Pennington calls herself “one of those weirdos that actually enjoys sitting in front of a spreadsheet forever.” As a result, her work on the bail reform project was a great fit as well as fascinating to her. Because she grew up in Chicago, Pennington did not know much about the Texas system of bail bonds. After leaving graduate school, Pennington says Texas Appleseed would be pretty close to a dream job. “I want to be able to affect policy from the advocacy side by being able to have solid research, and not just research that’s informed by data, but I also really appreciate how Texas Appleseed also ties in personal stories as well.” 

Our remaining three interns have all finished their first year at the UT Law School. Emily Eby worked as the Pro Bono and New Projects intern. So far, she has been working on civil asset forfeiture and assisting on a comprehensive homeless youth report. One of the things that Eby has really valued is being able to put what she learned in class into practice. “With the civil asset forfeiture videos, I walked through a court case, and it was really good to see what I learned in my civil procedure class at an actual civil procedure. I enjoyed seeing how I could make that something that normal people who maybe can’t afford a lawyer would be able to understand,” she says. Projects such as these align with Eby’s goals. Though she doesn’t know exactly what field she wants to work in, she is very interested in pro bono work. “It’s about working for people whether they have been able to ask you for your help or not, and getting to help people who may not even know what they need, and trying to use your position and your knowledge to help those people.”

Eva Sikes, who is also a law school student, is interested in nonprofit work and hopes to practice public interest civil law. She has been working mainly with the Fair Financial Services project as the Legal intern to see how state law protects elderly people from being exploited. She has also conducted research on payday and auto title lending. Some of what Sikes has enjoyed the most is seeing the behind-the-scenes process of Texas Appleseed work. “I pictured policy being a little more cut and dry, but seeing how collaborative the process can be has been very valuable,” says Sikes. 

Kiah DeBolt, a rising second-year at the law school, plans on working in public interest environmental law and has been working on the Disaster Recovery & Fair Housing project. Coming into the internship, DeBolt definitely wanted to get experience working in public interest law, but she also “wanted to learn about the policy side of public interest law as opposed to litigation, direct representation, or things like that,” says DeBolt. Nearing the end of her internship, she reflects on the fact that this internship has greatly sharpened her communication skills, just by being able to report her progress in meetings or going out into the community to speak with other organizations. It has also been comforting to see that “the policy side of law is something I’d be really interested in doing and something I’d be really good at,” she continued. 

Our group really jelled — you’ll see in one of the photos that we went to a Round Rock Express baseball game together. Texas Appleseed helps their interns greatly when it comes to each individual’s goals and dreams, but it also strengthens each person in ways that they did not anticipate. I have greatly enjoyed my time here, and am sincerely sad to leave, but I am incredibly grateful for the lessons I’ve learned and the personal growth I’ve gained.