Meet Jennifer Chiao, our newest intern!
My name is Jennifer Chiao and I am currently a junior at the Richard R. Green High School of Teaching. I have a passion for education, travel, and life. One day - I would love to do teaching abroad programs to combine my passions. I also love to learn about new cultures, watch theater plays around the city, and Mexican food. I am currently a part of an organization called The Future Project - where students get to build projects out of what they are passionate about. Two years ago, I created an event - ImagiNATION, a education conference where I got speakers from NYU to come talk about the educational systems in their home countries and to also share a part of their culture with my peers. I am currently in the process of creating another one, set to take place March 12th.
I first heard of Trip of a Lifetime through a teacher at my school. I thought TOAL only had traveling programs for high school students, until I looked around the website myself and saw that there were internship opportunities as well. I decided to become an intern because I love TOAL’s idea of giving underprivileged students the opportunity to travel. As someone who is surrounded by school peers and friends who consider themselves underprivileged, I believe the effect of traveling for them would be great. Traveling would broaden their horizons on the different types of people and the different ways people live outside their communities. Being an intern would put me behind the scenes of an organization that helps students like myself.
Being a TOAL intern and just being apart of the organization, I know I would learn a lot. This is my first internship so I hope to gain skills that I do not have yet - such as writing proposals, video editing, and fundraising. I am excited to meet the other interns and learn from them. Additionally, I am also excited to meet the board and staff, who work everyday to carry out TOAL's mission statement. I also hope to discipline myself more with the tasks - since this is a virtual internship and it is my responsibility to complete the tasks on time. Lastly, I hope Trip of a Lifetime can help me learn more about the teens we are serving and the reasons why they would like to travel and what they would do with their experience once they come back.