Category: Europe

As a first-generation student, every experience I’ve had in upper education has been different from what I thought would be my life after high school. Freshman year at DU, I would walk around full of gratitude over the fact that I made it out of my hometown and did something more. When I returned after the harder parts of cancer, it was unreal to be back on campus. Having my own apartment in Denver feels like such a major accomplishment. Now, being in Brno, those feelings of gratefulness and pride are especially beaming. 

I wasn’t necessarily taught about internships and what they do for you. In high school, I associated internships with opportunities mostly for students whose parents had a connection to some large company that would set them up with a job once they graduate. I wasn’t taught that some people get new internships every year or semester to expand their resume. I didn’t even consider doing one until this past year when I noticed everyone around me wasn’t working a part-time job anymore, but interning before they graduate. Doing an internship while studying abroad seems like it would add more stress to an experience you plan on enjoying, but it doesn’t. Most of my stress came before I started working- not being aware of hours, expectations, and nerves over joining a work environment in a language I had never heard out loud.

I am privileged to be interning for communications and fundraising at Dům pro Julii, the first children’s hospice in the Czech Republic. As a cancer survivor, NGOs like Dům pro Julii have quickly taken precedence in my heart. Serious illness and death are sensitive topics for many people, it’s scary, traumatic, depressing, and hurtful. Especially when children are the ones being focused on. The first couple of weeks my supervisors were focused on teaching me about the importance of respite care and how their NGO functions, fundraises, and provides support for families under their care. The end of life deserves to be treated with compassion, and hospice doesn’t mean immediate death, there is still life to be loved and cared for after diagnosis of terminal illness. 

The organization’s motto is “At to Maji Lehci” which translates to “let them have it easier.” This means to try and help make the lives of parents and children easier while dealing with one of life’s toughest challenges. Parents and families of children with serious illnesses are heavily affected by the situation and take up the role of being a 24/7 caretaker nursing their child. It’s exhausting being stuck in that situation all day, every day, so care nurses and hospice workers help relieve that exhaustion by taking over for a few hours a day or week. 

I think working my first internship here in Brno is such a major step towards my professional goals. I want to be able to work for and advocate for patients across cultures and starting in a completely different country is a huge step towards that. It’s so valuable to me to work in an environment that is dedicated to helping others, and also keeps a positive attitude towards the world they’re doing despite the topic being one that’s taboo and depressing. 

Having an internship here in the Czech Republic (let alone studying abroad) was never something that was on my radar. More opportunities have found their way to me in the last couple of years and I do feel blessed. Doing an internship hasn’t negatively affected my ability to have free time to explore or study, and it has allowed me to be immersed in the local community more than I would by just going to school. I hope that over the remaining weeks, I get to learn more from Dům Pro Julii, and in the end feel like I have a strong connection to the work I did.