Ashley Ayers

Journal Three
Dr. Swenson-Lepper
Internship as Student Staff with CRU Summer Missions

Internship Journal Format:

Part One: Describe a specific communication-related experience you had during your internship this
week. Be detailed in your description. This description should be one to two paragraphs long. You
may also provide a work sample that you completed and explain the process you took to get you to
this point.
On Thursday June 23rd, I was a part of a race, diversity and ethnicity talk. My supervisor Devin
gave the talk that lasted 2 hours as well as one of my directors Jake walked us through an exercise that
helped us apply race and diversity to our own lives. During this time we sat with our bible studies so I
was in charge of leading a discussion after the talk with the three girls I lead here in NMB. The first part
of the night Devin talked about what it means to be different racially and ethnically but how we should
not be colorblind to others because we all have a heritage that makes us a certain way. All of the girls I
was leading were white middle class so it was interesting to talk about this subject and do my best to
communicate why it is important to learn about diversity and to bring it into the gospel as we learn how
we were all created. The second part of the night was led by Jake and that is when we got involved by
bringing in our own heritage. We were asked to make an I am from poem. This poem only had one
rule and it was that every sentence had to start with the line, I am from. This activity was very
affective for all the students as well as the staff members as we learned was diversity was and how we
all were diverse. After we wrote the poems, we then shared them with our bible study so we could
share where we came from and understand each other better. By letting the girls I lead share their heart
and where they came from, I was able to cater how I communicate differently to each of them so they
feel cared for from their history. This night was during out theme week of World Vision where we
learned the spiritual needs of the world and countries where we are called to go and serve. This topic of
race and diversity helped us to understand our differences but how we are all unified.

Part Two: Relate your experience/work sample to specific terms and theories you have learned in
your Communication Studies course work. Each week, you should strive to relate the experience to a
set of related terms and theories. (See list of terms and theories later in this packet.)

Cultural diversity was a key term used throughout the nights activity and the weeks theme. It
is the existence of a variety of cultural or ethnic groups in a society and that is what we were learning
about throughout the night through the talks and the activity. If one of our main goal while we are NMB
is to share the gospel, then we must know how to relate to others that are other cultures and are
diverse so we can be affective and successful. Another term that could be used for this nights activity
would be identity or identity diversity. We all place our identity in what we believe we are or what
others say we are so it was important to look at how we all in some way place our identity in our race
and ethnicity for good or bad. Our main goal throughout the summer was to find our identity in the
gospel and to help others do the same so it was important to look at race and diversity through the
identity lens. Another part of our summer is sharing our faith and having spiritual conversations with
people on the beach or at malls in North Myrtle Beach. When doing this, we first have to be aware of
our own personal stereotypes that we have formed. A stereotype is a fixed idea or image of a person or
group of people. Stereotypes are dangerous because they are the strongest for those of different races
and ethnicities than us which causes us to not get to know that person or share our faith with them. By
learning about the topic or race and diversity, we were able to start to break stereotypes we have had
formed in order to share the gospel. The final term that can be used in this weeks activity is persuasion.
Persuasion not in the sense of converting people although if they are at that stage, we will walk them
through that process but more like persuading people to talk to us when we go up and approach them
on the beach. We are trying to start small talk to they will be willing to talk to us and share their story
with us.

Part Three: What is one lesson you can take away from this experience/work sample for your
professional career? Why is this an important lesson for you and for other interns?

One lesson that I can take away to bring into my professional career is to learn and try to
understand diversity and race and how they affect me. Im always going to work with people that are
different than me either racially or with different opinions so it is important to learn how to
communicate effectively with them and be respectful through it. It is also important to learn about my
own diversity so I can share my experiences and help others learn about their own heritage, race and
how they are diversely different.