Arlen Taliaferro ’20 Gary Human Relations Commission – Earning an internship can be such and hard objective to achieve being student in college. You have so many other competitors attempting to be in the same field as you and it is often hard to make yourself standout to the employer. I have found that getting your foot in the door is the hardest thing to do in chasing the career path you aspire to haven go down. I have done this in deciding to intern at the Gary Human Relations Commission. The Gary Human Relations Commission is a place that promotes equal opportunity for employment and housing to people regardless of their race, color, creed, religion, sex, or national origin. A person may come in to file a charge and the commission will investigate thoroughly and impartially, since its job is to ensure the provisions of the equal opportunity ordinance is followed as well as promote equal opportunity reflecting the commitment of the commission to Civil Rights. What does this have to do with the career path I aspire to have? Well, everything as a matter of fact. I have and aspiration of working and having a career in human resources and the Gary Human Relations Commission has opened my eyes to so many things in a business setting, as well as the skill set and work that goes into operating a Human Resources department.

Even if I may not be in a Human Resources department specifically, I am still receiving the precious knowledge of working in an equal opportunity office. At the Gary Human Relations Commission, I have participated in and completed a number of things like filing a basic data charge, sitting in and helping with intake, and assisting with fact finding. I would say by far that my favorite thing to do is intake. Aside from actually filing the basic data charge, it is one of the first steps in actually beginning the investigation and finding out if there is a case to pursue. During the duration of my internship, I have found that the intake is the most important step in investigating a discrimination complaint. I had to be as clear and concise as I could possibly be, which proved to be quite a challenge at first but eventually I adjusted. I also learned that you need to be that clear, concise, and nit-picky to make sure the report is as accurate as can be. This is a skill that will help in the long run when I write reports in my future career in Human Resources. I am extremely grateful to have had this experience and have no one to thank but the generous funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, for without it, this experience would not have been made possible to me.