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Hello.

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My name is Megan
Schwartzmeyer, and I'm

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going to talk a little
bit about my internship

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with New Sector Alliance.

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I'm going to start
off by shedding

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some light about the
interview process, which

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I learned a lot about.

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And for any of you who
are interested in pursuing

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internships in the
future, I'm hoping

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that this will be
helpful for you

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in knowing how to go
about presenting yourself

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to a potential employer.

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And then I'm going to talk
about a very important lesson

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that I learned in how
to design a project that

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is your own project that you
need to develop a timeline for,

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and how to initiate that project
and complete that project

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to the best of your ability.

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So first off, I want to explain
what New Sector Alliance is.

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It's really
confusing to explain,

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so I made this nice
little illustration here

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with the umbrella.

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So the umbrella is
New Sector Alliance.

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So under that, there
were networking events

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that I got to do.

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There was social sector
trainings, mentoring,

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and a host site project.

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The host site project made
up the bulk of my experience

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and was the regular 9 to
5, what I did every day.

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But about once every week we
had social sector training

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that were specifically for
mentoring the social sector.

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So we went over how to look
at budgets, how to fundraise,

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how to be a good manager,
and how to deal specifically

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with the social sector.

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And then the mentoring
was really phenomenal.

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All of us were
paired with a mentor,

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either in the social sector
or the private sector.

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My mentor was in
the private sector.

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She was in an
advertising company,

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and she was fantastic
and so helpful.

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I learned so much from her.

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And then the networking
events, a lot of companies

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would put on networking
events specifically for us.

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So they would open
up their doors to us

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and they would
give presentations

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about why we should work for
them or whatever it might be.

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So it was really a
great opportunity

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to figure out a lot
of different careers

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that I could pursue
with the social sector.

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So a little bit
about interviewing.

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I learned a lot about this
because not only did I

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interview for a lot of
different internships,

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but once I got
into New Sector, I

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had to interview for
different projects.

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So I got to interview for
a lot of different jobs,

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a lot of different positions.

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So I learned quite a
bit about the process,

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which is really
great for me now,

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looking to apply for jobs--

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for "big kid" jobs as they say.

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[LAUGHTER]

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So the most important part,
I think, is the preparation.

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I like to ask myself
these three questions.

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So what is the mission
of the organization?

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What position are
you applying for?

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And what is unique
about you that you

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can bring to the position?

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So how can you bridge the
mission and the position

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you're applying for
and yourself to make

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a really unique
statement about how

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you fit into the organization?

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The next part is practice.

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I learned to memorize the
beginning of the answers

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to these questions, so
that when I get nervous--

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because I will--

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I can just start and go through
what my initial answers were

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to the questions and
then sort of think

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while I'm answering them.

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And then ask good questions,
and do your research

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on the questions,
because really questions

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are a good opportunity for you
to ask about things you are

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generally concerned
about or that you want

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to know more about, but
also to show that you

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have done your research.

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And it's an evaluation
of you as well.

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So my project was with
Massachusetts Housing

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Partnership, which is an
affordable housing organization

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right in Boston.

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So the bulk of my project
was to create a database

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for affordable housing trusts.

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Now nothing at all was really
known about these trusts

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previous to me coming in.

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So it was a lot of pressure
and a lot of learning.

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I didn't know anything
about affordable housing

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going into this.

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And that was really
intimidating because I

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had to learn the jargon.

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And everyone else
knew except for me,

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and they wanted me to do
something about it-- something

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that nobody else in the
organization had done before.

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So that was a big--

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it made me sort of anxious
in the beginning, I guess.

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So basically, I had to
figure out, first off,

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which municipalities in
Massachusetts had these trusts.

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So I had to call 184
towns in Massachusetts,

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literally by the phone
or email, and say,

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do you know if you
have these trusts?

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And then a lot of people
said, I don't know.

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So I had to keep calling
people and calling people.

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And once I figured
out who had trusts

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and who didn't, I
had to figure out

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how much money was involved,
where the money is going--

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who is in charge of this money.

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So it was a lot of
responsibility going in.

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And then at the very
end, I had to figure out

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where this organization should
proceed with these trust

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activities-- whether
they should oversee them

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or where they should stand.

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So it was sort of like
a consulting position.

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And then at the very end,
I researched specifically

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three different towns
in Massachusetts

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that I thought were doing good
things with their trust monies

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and that they could
really be a good example

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for other communities
who might not know

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exactly how to approach this.

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So that involved doing
really in-depth interviews

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with municipal employees and
then actually going to the site

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and taking pictures
of different projects.

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So what I learned is
designing a project can

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be kind of difficult. But I
think these three questions

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can really help--

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or these three points
could really help.

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First off, what does the
end product look like?

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What do you see the end being?

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I think that's really
important because then you

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can have your mind fixed
on that one end product,

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but also be ready for that
to change, because it might.

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And then, what are goals?

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I had three goals
throughout the process

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that I said, OK, I'm going
to get to this point first.

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I'm going to put all my
energy on this point, and then

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the next point, and then the
next point so that I make sure

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I get everything done and that
I'm not way too overwhelmed.

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And then this was the
most important part--

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going over your plans
with your supervisor.

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Because I found that I
would go to my supervisor,

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and I would tell her
what I was doing,

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and I would repeat
everything she

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said to make sure I had it all.

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And she would say, great.

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That's great.

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That's fantastic.

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I would do all my research.

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I'd come back to her.

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And she'd be like,
yeah, you know,

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that's not really
what I want anymore.

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I had to go back to
a lot just to make

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sure I wasn't wasting time.

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So that was huge for me.

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So what I learned
was there are a lot

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of different writing styles.

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Part of my project was doing
different one-page profiles

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about these different in-depth
case studies that I did.

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And I had to be very
specific to a type of writing

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that was going to engage
the community, which isn't

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necessarily academic writing.

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I wrote all of these
out like I would

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write a paper for a class,
and I thought it was fine.

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And then they brought it back
to me and they were like,

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no one is going to
understand this.

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So I had to go back
through and learn

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how to write to
my audience, which

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was really, really important.

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And I'm really glad
I got to do that.

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I also learned that
I love research.

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I kind of already knew this
because I had the opportunity

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to do some gender studies
research with a professor

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and just absolutely
loved the process.

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But I learned that maybe I don't
like research in this setting.

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It was a lot of-- they just
wanted a very general overview

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of what the trusts
were doing, and I

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was interested in
community engagement.

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I wanted to ask them
questions about how

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were these projects developed?

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What is the community
involvement like?

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And they didn't really
want to know that.

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And I saw that as being
very, very important.

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But they didn't really see it
as part of their objective.

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So I learned that I
love to do research

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where I can sort of pursue
what I think is important

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and just learn as I go.

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And then I also learned how
to be critically engaged

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with the social sector.

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The trainings were
really great in giving me

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an overview of
what the sector is.

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But I didn't necessarily
always agree with everything.

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And being a Mount
Holyoke student,

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we're challenged to
ask a lot of questions.

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And I had a lot of questions.

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And I learned how to
be critically involved

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in the sector in a
way that's beneficial,

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in a way that doesn't
necessarily throw up

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your hands, but doesn't
just give into it the way

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that it is.

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So that was my internship, and
I hope it was really helpful.

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And I would like to thank Zach
[INAUDIBLE] from New Sector,

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as well as all of my coworkers
at Massachusetts Housing

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Partnership.

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They were fantastic
and really helpful.

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So thank you.

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[APPLAUSE]

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