Editor’s Note: Brenda will be SSP’s Student Intern through June. She will assist with many jobs in the SSP office and we are excited to have her!
Hello my name is Brenda and I’m currently a freshman at The Met Sacramento High School. The high school that I currently attend is very different from traditional high schools in the Sacramento area. The Met gives students like me an opportunity to intern at different sites and businesses to gain a working experience and a working environment. We also have to create our own resumes and cover letters to obtain a shadow day. A shadow day is a day where a student goes to a specific site that they’re interested in and learn what a possible mentor does in their everyday job and the student can also help out. As a student, we have to be responsible enough to do all of our work including reading reflections, health and wellness, and community service.
I needed to complete my community service since it is a school requirement. On my school’s website, I saw a flyer for a harvesting day through Harvest Sacramento at Pacific Elementary. I decided to go since I’ve never harvested fruit before. That day, I met Megan Walsh, the director of programs for Sierra Service Project.
I was actually in her group along with five to six other people including my brother as well. When I harvested my first fruit, it was fun and when we finished harvesting throughout the day, it felt good helping out the community. Knowing that the fruit that I harvested was actually being donated to the Sacramento Food Bank felt really good because by doing something small, I helped out a lot of people. That is when I realized that I was passionate about helping others in need. Since Megan gave me her business card for my community service sheet, I decided to email her and ask her if I could have a shadow day with her, and she said yes!
It was a great experience at my shadow day and decided to go back and see if I could actually be an intern for Sierra Service Project and she was glad to have me as an intern. As of now, I’m currently interning at Sierra Service Project and hope to get an awesome experience from this site.