A Program With An Equity-Minded Focus

You never know how impactful a decision can be without taking a chance on it. That is exactly how I felt about being a part of the PEER Internship Program for the 2021-2022 academic year at NC State’s Friday Institute for Educational Innovation. I came across the job posting when I was looking for work-study opportunities that would fit my upcoming school year. I wanted something that would not just have flexibility but would help me grow personally and professionally. When I read that the internship had a goal of an equity-minded focus for future educational researchers and program evaluators, this statement resonated with the direction of how I would like my career to be in relation to equity-centered engineering and design. Also, I am a part of the NAE Grand Challenges Scholars Program where my grand challenge is to “Advance Personalized Learning”. I see how urgent it is for students of all demographics to have access to education and educational styles that fit them best after growing up as an underrepresented student in the K-12 public school system in North Carolina, so combining this with the passion within my grand challenge shows how my lived experiences could bring another perspective to the program that may have not been seen before. Originally, I had some reservations about the internship because I had never completed research in the education field before nor had I heard much about the Friday Institute. After exploring some background about the Friday Institute and the PEER program, I read about how they both impact education systems in the community and felt more inclined to apply. In addition, I knew if the job provided a hybrid environment where I could have virtual and in-person work, flexible hours every week, research opportunities and a great work culture, I would be very satisfied and successful with the work-study program.

After having an amazing interview experience with Dr. Kevin Winn and onboarding from the associate director of the PEER Group, Dr. Callie Edwards, I instantly felt a sense of belonging. This led me to participate in the PEER intern biweekly meetings and inquire about projects I could be of assistance to. Some meetings that I felt were very impactful during my time as a PEER intern were Dr. Winn’s “Evaluation Foundations: Evaluation 101” presentation and “Educational Equity and Inclusive Leadership” with Dr. Jose Picart. Within these meetings, I learned the importance of centering equity in evaluation to make sure the voices of those who are impacted are heard and that those closest to the problem may be able to get the best and most effective solution. I also learned the significance in inclusive leadership practices and how it links diversity to high-performing teams. Along with the theme of inclusivity, I was introduced to the Liberatory Design Process within a biweekly meeting, where the emphasis was on practicing self-awareness and overall learning among those who use a design process that focuses on environments where inequities are prevalent, fostering an atmosphere that focuses on collective liberation. Alongside these transferable professional skills, many personal skills were learned during the internship. The interns were lucky enough to have a meeting with the executive director of the Friday Institute, Dr. Hiller Spires. In this meeting, Dr. Spires shared how paying it forward and investing in people and ideas are essential to creating a lasting, positive impact.

[pullquote color=”wolfpackred” align=”alignright”]With the knowledge learned from the program, I plan to cultivate an equity-focused mindset within engineering and my field of choice, aerospace.[/pullquote]

Furthermore, I was able to work on many tasks as a PEER intern that were vital to the success of programs and presentations. I performed various tight reads and copy edits for reports, conducted literature searches for scholarly articles and created a research poster with the other PEER interns on “Amplifying Student Voices in an Equity-Centered Research and Evaluation Program”. I learned that the size of the project does not matter; it is the impact from the project that is of significance. Therefore though I did not have a huge project during my time at the internship, completing all of the smaller projects and tasks that were assigned to me showed me how critical my job still was to the team. 

Altogether, I learned an incredible amount from the PEER Internship Program that I plan to take with me post-graduation. The personal and professional development from the program were a gift, and I believe that anyone can find this internship useful. It is more of the matter of what one takes out of the program. With the knowledge learned from the program, I plan to cultivate an equity-focused mindset within engineering and my field of choice, aerospace. In addition, I plan to combine this mindset with the humanities, and more specifically, my women’s and gender studies and English minors, to use the women’s and gender studies framework to help create a more egalitarian approach to aerospace. Moreover, I plan to continue to “advance personalized learning” with what I have learned from this program and through activities I will continue to pursue, like outreach. Consequently, I am very thankful for the PEER Internship Program for being such an integral part of my last year at NC State, and I am eager to see how it continues to shape individuals for years to come.