Written by: Brianna Leavell
My name is Brianna Leavell and I am a sophomore international studies major with a communications minor. This semester I have been given the wonderful opportunity to participate in two internships.
One of the internships is with an Register Student Organization, the Baptist Collegiate Ministry, where I am a part of a team of interns working on evangelism events. As part of this team I partner with the international mission board in doing OneLife projects. Our first project we raised awareness to support OneNotebook, a program that works to bring children in Zimbabwe notebooks for them to be able to take notes in class and do their homework. The second project we are doing is called OneBrothel, a project to rescue girls from human trafficking in Asia. This project is especially exciting for me because ending human trafficking is a huge passion of mine and the reason I am currently getting the degree I am. I hope to one day work for a nonprofit that works toward ending human trafficking.
The second internship I have is with a company called Concilium Incorporated. As part of this internship I work directly under one of the founding partners, Jonathan VerHoeven. On a daily basis I research current news about specific countries or terrorist groups and write summaries for the daily information sheet that goes out. I get to be actively involved in the intelligence gathering for the company and have the opportunity to learn how certain actions affect specific people and countries. Through my research, I’ve also had the opportunity to learn about different ethnic and terrorist groups in these countries and learn how specific events affect these groups or their government and how actions affect decisions made worldwide. Through analysis of these events I’ve had the opportunity to learn the military and political indicators that could mean a country is potentially going to break out in war, either within itself or with another country.
Both of my internships have opened my eyes to the world around me and have taught me valuable skills I will use for years to come.
