For my final internship days, we held three Voting Rights tabling events to encourage City Tech students to take part in voting for elections at both the local and nation wide level. During these, we would walk around the campus and reach out to students and inquire about their voting rights eligibility, stance, and opinion on recent democracy related events such as Roe v. Wade. Also, we would encourage them to join the NYPIRG mailing list through which they could be updated on NYPIRG related events as well as volunteering and internship opportunities.

To be honest, although we had some minor progress with these events, the majority of students were not receptive to us at all. Most of them would decline discussing these issues at hand and joining NYPIRG.

My last days also mostly consisted of intensive writing work, I was tasked to write responses to various articles and case studies that addressed a plethora of topics from climate change to public health crisis.

Many of the case studies were dense and required 2-3 readings for me to understand the issue being addressed and discussed. Furthermore, I was usually led into an even deeper rabbit hole when I will find out an interesting piece of information and go on to further research about it. One of the most interesting pieces I read was an article addressing the lead exposure in NYC school water systems. Interesting but jarring, it was to my horror that I read how much lead exposure presents as a high risk public heath crisis and how it disproportionately affects Black children compared to white ones. Upon more research, I found out that that is because schools with poor water systems are predominantly populated with an African-American demographic. Another interesting article was one addressing the disproportionate effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on CUNY students’ mental health and financial stability.

Although intensive and daunting at times, I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed my readings. As someone who often shelter themselves from real world issues out of self-preservation, it was an eye-opening experience to read all these pieces and to my dismay realize how disrupted is the world we live in. Also, I finally came to understand the plight and work of NYPIRG and my supervisor, Jenna, with whom I’ve at numerous times, inquired about her personal motives working such a job. I have a newfound respect of NYPIRG and Jenna and the work that they do and I find their commitment to making a change in this world nothing but admirable.