Katrina Douglass developed skills in qualitative research, intercultural communication, and creative storytelling methods.
How did you get your internship?
I found out about my internship through one of my Applied Humanities professors, Dr. Jasmine Linabary. I took PAH 201: Applied Humanities Practice with her during the fall 2023 semester. After taking the course, she emailed me about several positions that she was hiring for. I was immediately interested in the Shift the Power Undergraduate Research Assistant position. I emailed back with a short reflection about why I wanted the position and shared my resume. Afterwards, I completed an interview with her for the role. During this interview, I discussed why I was drawn towards the position, mentioning my passion for feminist topics and building community.
Why did you choose this internship?
I chose this internship because it would provide me with the opportunity to gain experience with qualitative research. I hope to go to graduate school one day, and I knew the skills gained from this role would better prepare me for that kind of work. I also was interested in the Shift the Power project specifically because I was previously introduced to international development in high school during AP Human Geography and I wanted to learn more. The job also required us to work with the feminist social networking platform World Pulse. I joined the (Feminists Organized to Create, Resist, and Empower) FORCE internship when I first began at University of Arizona, but I wanted a more global feminist perspective. One thing I remember mentioning in my initial interview was that during the COVID-19 pandemic, I became friends with a girl from South Africa. We would Facetime for hours, often discussing global and social issues. I was so excited to work with World Pulse where others built meaningful connections like these.
What kind of work did you do throughout your internship experience?
During this internship, I carried out a wide range of tasks. Initially, I began discourse tracing the #ShiftThePower movement. This involved collecting data and taking notes. I also began doing research about different qualitative research methods, specifically Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR). I also researched a variety of storytelling methods, especially those stemming from indigenous communities. The next step of the project was drafting Storytelling Briefs for the Amplify Storytelling toolkit co-created with several other researchers and members of the World Pulse Research and Evaluation Group.
This summer, I began transcribing interviews of stakeholders in the international development/ aid sector. This took a lot of time, but was fascinating. I felt like I had a much clearer understanding of what goes on behind-the-scenes in this sector of work. I also created slides to train members of the research and evaluation group who would be piloting the storytelling toolkit, and I presented on some of the various storytelling methods.
This semester, we really honed in on the Shift the Power campaign and Report released on World Pulse. This involved cleaning stories, taking notes, and running quotes through Artificial Intelligence (AI) Detectors. Throughout my experience in this role, I have taken on a number of tasks that I never imagined doing.
What is unique about your situation that influenced your internship experience?
During my time on the Shift the Power project, I feel like I brought many unique experiences to the table. I practiced reflexivity a lot in this role, and part of that was examining my own positionality. This meant looking at my own privileges and experiences as someone who is white and has greater access to education and technology. I also did have previous experience working in a feminist role as part of FORCE. I felt like I had a good understanding of topics like intersectionality coming in the role, which helped me feel more established in the beginning. A lot of what we were working on also had to do with community, building community and capacity building, themes I learned about in FORCE and my other roles on campus as a resident assistant and preceptor. I also do have experience with online communities, something that I contributed to a lot during the pandemic. Balancing so many roles made this internship experience difficult at times, but I was able to make connections between them.
How did your Applied Humanities major coursework help prepare you or give you unique insight for the internship experience?
I had only taken two Public and Applied Humanities classes before I started working on this project: the Introduction to Applied Humanities course (PAH 200) and the Applied Humanities Practice course (PAH 201). PAH 201 taught me the basics of qualitative research, including interview transcribing and coding. This was exceptionally useful this summer because of how many interviews I transcribed. During this course, we also discussed photovoice as a research methodology, and this is something that I wrote about during the storytelling briefs for the Amplify toolkit. I also utilized creative storytelling methods that I learned about in PAH 200, like zines. Last semester, I took an Intercultural Competence course, PAH 372, and a Pre-Internship course, PAH383. Taking PAH 372 was useful in navigating a multicultural space for our Research and Evaluation Group meetings. PAH 383 gave me more confidence interacting with others in professional settings, which allowed me to feel comfortable at the Aspen Engaged Communication Conference I attended this summer for my internship. These courses gave me more confidence in navigating my internship experience.
If you worked on a big project, describe it.
The Shift the Power project consists of two major outputs. The first one is the Amplify Storytelling Toolkit, which is finalized but still needs to be translated before it can be released. This storytelling toolkit is meant to uplift the voices of those without digital access. The other output was the Shift the Power Campaign Report on the World Pulse website. The report details how World Pulse audiences define and describe what power and #ShiftThePower means to them. It also has insights generated from World Pulse members, as well as insights from the REG Pilot Projects done this summer.
What advice do you have for other students as they search for and/or begin their internship?
I would say the biggest piece of advice is to be open to a wide range of experiences. I am extremely lucky that almost all of the experiences I have had in college have presented themselves to me. I found out about the FORCE internship when I went to the Women and Gender Resource center (WGRC) during new student orientation at the start of my first semester. The FORCE coordinator suggested I apply, and I hesitantly did. FORCE has been a huge part of my life since I began at the University of Arizona, and I would not have such a strong community if I had not accepted this opportunity. Dr. Linabary sent me an email about different opportunities, and I applied to this one. When you are in college, there are so many different opportunities that present themselves, and being open to them and taking action is how you gain more experience.