As a rising senior at Skyline High School, I knew the last two years of high school  would be the most important and possibly filled with the most responsibilities. Because I never had a job until now, I didn’t know what it would be like to work in an actual working environment. I had known about the Mayor’s Interns Fellows Program (MIFP) for a long time, but because I was not a Dallas ISD student, I wasn’t able to get the opportunity to participate in the program until I transferred into Skyline High School as a junior. Coming in as a junior with excellent grades, I was given some amazing opportunities. Participating in MIFP is one of those great opportunities. I was extremely excited to start the journey of working for a Dallas organization and see what new experience I might gain.

The process of getting into the program was long and I had to be extremely patient. The application process consisted of essays, multiple choice questions and survey questions. I had to wait months to figure out if I made it into the program and if any companies wanted to hire me based off my application. Eventually after the long wait, I got the announcement that I made it into the program and seven companies wanted to have an interview with me! One of those many companies was Education Opens Doors. Sandra, an Impact Manager at EOD, interviewed me. I had many questions and I was eager to learn what this company had to offer to all students. Soon enough, I heard back from my college advisor that Education Opens Doors had hired me! I was so excited that I would be working with Education Opens Doors Education Opens Doors was an easy choice and I couldn’t wait to meet the people I would work with! On my first day I felt extremely welcomed and met my fellow intern, Victor. Every single staff member was kind and very helpful; we even had the chance to all eat together. People’s attitudes did not change from the first day; they continued to be kind and helpful. I got to learn a lot about every single staff member when I had an informational interview with them.  Everyone, especially my supervisor Sandra, was willing to help and cooperate with me for whatever I needed. Every question I had was answered and my colleagues demonstrated appreciation for my accomplishments.

During my time at EOD, I was able to perform many tasks and establish new skills. One of the projects I worked on was to edit Do-Now slides and questions. I created questions that students would like to be asked at the beginning of each lesson that they worked on. I also worked to create and edit Teacher share out slides and questions, where I brainstormed questions that students could ask their teachers at the end of the lesson. For example, one question that students might ask is “Did you receive a scholarship to go to college?” These questions enable students to learn more about their teacher’s experiences and hear first-hand accounts of the college-going process. When performing these tasks, I was able to share my opinions and thoughts in my work.

Another project that I had was to simply give feedback on the parent workshops, sharing my honest perspective and viewpoint. Additionally, I worked on the photo and book audit, ensuring that all photos that were included in the book currently were purchased stock photos. Lastly, I worked on powerpoint revisions, eliminating animations, making edits to powerpoints, changing vocabulary and aligning all words and pictures together. Working on all of these projects, I was able to self-motivate and prepare my mindset to finish and focus on my work. Because I had various responsibilities, I managed to develop better organizational and communication skills.

I am very thrilled to see what Education Opens Doors has in mind for the future of all of our students! EOD has  an amazing and hard working team who I believe will certainly make the organization rise higher than they already are. I would like to thank everyone for being so cooperative and understanding. I could not have asked for a better to team to work with this summer.

Best,

Angelica Juarez