By: Christine Feghali

Trying to figure out what to write my final blog post as an ANCA Western Region intern about is difficult, to say the least.  There is so much to discuss and too little time to get to it all.  During the course of this internship (which I highly recommend to anyone who has a desire to help the Armenian community and is willing to put in the hard work necessary to make a difference) my fellow interns and I have written about topics ranging from the important figures in our history, the importance of speaking Armenian, and the possibility of repatriating to Armenia, to the national dog of Armenia, and the Armenian atheletes in the Olympics.

Over the past eight weeks, we’ve filled these pages with in depth discussion about issues that we deem important to the Armenian community.  Rather than making this another heavy blog about some issue of concern, I’d like to take this moment to do what some of the other interns are doing and say thank you.

First and foremost, I want to thank the ANCA for providing me with the opportunity to help my community in a way that I haven’t been able to before.  This internship has allowed me to work very closely with members in our community and to actually make a significant, tangible impact.  The work that we’ve done is the beginning of something huge and I can’t wait to see the expansion and the further success of our project.

I want to thank our Executive Director, William, for expecting so much out of us both as individuals and as a team.  If we didn’t have those expectations placed upon us, we wouldn’t have been as successful as we were and continue to be.  If it were not for the several e-mails every single one of us interns undoubtedly received about grammar mistakes, spelling errors, or formatting issues, we wouldn’t have improved.  I find myself including both a salutation and a valediction with every single e-mail I send, even if it’s an e-mail to my mom letting her know that I’ll be late, or if it’s a Facebook message to a close friend.  All of us interns learned a lesson about professionalism, whether the lesson was to maintain eye contact while speaking or to not fidget in a chair while in a meeting.  These are things that we will all carry with us as we leave this internship and go onto whatever is next.

The internship has also given me the opportunity to work with people that I would otherwise not have met.  I have been able to build friendships with not only the other interns, but also with some of the staff as well.  Honestly, I think I got extremely lucky with this group of interns.  I had not anticipated that I would actually like everyone that I would have to work with, but I do.  There may have been times when I would disagree with one of the interns and even times where I’ve been extremely frustrated and I let it show.  But at the end of the day, the eight of us made a great time and I couldn’t ask for a better group.  Thanks guys 🙂

I want to extend a huge thank you to all of you for taking time out of your busy lives to read our blogs and engage in thoughtful discussion about the issues raised.  It’s very exciting and encouraging to see that the eight of us interns aren’t the only ones that care about these issues and thanks to you, we’ve broken several of this blog’s readership records!

All in all, I will forever be grateful for all the things I learned throughout the course of this internship.  It’s truly been an amazing experience and if given the opportunity, I would do it again in a heartbeat.  It’s a lot of work and it can be tiring at times, but it’s worth it.