Caitlin Meader

Major: Child, Adult, and Family Services
Minor/option/emphasis: CHFS-Youth Programs
Company/Organization: Opportunity on Deck
Company/Organization website: http://www.opportunityondeck.org
Destination: Des Moines, IA
Timeframe: Spring
Advisor/Coordinator Email: enloe@iastate.edu

Responsibilities

At Opportunity on Deck, I was the curriculum development and program intern. My main responsibility was to design, market, and execute the new leadership academy for 6th-9th grade students. I also revamped the our life-long values curriculum and coaches training to reflect the three R's of language, as well as being trauma informed.

Accomplishments

My greatest accomplishment from my internship would be creating two different curriculums from scratch. The first curriculum I created was for our leadership program for 6th-9th grade students. I wrote what we would be teaching, the activities we would do, and included guest speakers from the community to talk about their experiences with leadership. The second curriculum is a life-long values curriculum that we teach in each of our sports practices. I designed the curriculum to have a conversation about the value with the coach and a game or activity the participants will play based on the value.

What advice would you give?

My advice would be to go outside of your comfort zone when choosing your internship experience. Try to choose an internship that you do not have a lot of experience in. I think it is a great idea to get experience in an area that you are not familiar with and expand your knowledge base.

Career Connections