Dates: June 5- June 9. 

Organization: Youth Work Ireland

Project Goal: Organize and host Youth Work Ireland's 2023 PRIDE event

Please see my reflection below:

1) What went well? Thanks to this program, I can gratefully say that I have now spent my first ever week abroad! Dublin, Ireland is absolutely beautiful, and I am in love with Trinity College Dublin's campus. As I connected with my team remotely in the first week, I already felt secure in the work community. This week consisted of one major accomplishment: I successfully booked a local artist to create our PRIDE 2023 mural! I am excited to aid in the creative design process.

2) What could have been done differently? I have a quick answer for this question: Always download ALL applications and softwares that your office will use prior to your arrival. I had (what I believed) to be most of the applications downloaded, but I forgot the Outlook email software. As I am only familiar with Gmail, there was a little bit of a learning curve, but once IT got me logged in, I was good to go. 

3) What did I learn about myself when working with others? In team environments, I really enjoy bringing high energy and companionship. This has really stood out to me as I join Youth World Ireland abroad, and I find myself really energized by the community development. Thus, I can confidently state that community care is a value I currently and will continue to prioritize in my work environments. This community care can occur in many ways: Energetic conversation, shared meals, routine check-ins, effective delegation, consistent communication, safe spaces to ask for help, and in the small things our team does to engage and welcome each other. 

4) What did I learn about leadership? Last week, I wrote about how my supervisor created a strong social foundation for our team. This week, my supervisor created a strong work foundation. On day one, she invited us all into the main room, whipped out a white board, and she summarized every single goal, intention, and need that our organization has in the coming four weeks. It was an extremely effective exercise, and I felt completely prepared to begin to address my work. 

5) What do I want to develop or focus on next? We have an artist coming soon for the mural, and my primary goal is to be a part of the mural design process! I love art, but I have never practiced the skill to be an artist myself. This weekend, I plan to create a collage of possible reference images, and I am excited to see how I can contribute. I am really pumped for this project!