Nathan Dozier | CIIP 2023 Blog Portfolio

Orientation Week

This week at orientation, I felt like I had the opportunity to learn so much not only just about Baltimore but also about myself in terms of why I am doing what I am doing and where I see myself in the future. The speakers that were invited were truly inspirational- it’s eye opening to see a collective group of people that are passionate about bringing change to this city help show us how we can also contribute towards those efforts being made. Topics such as generational and systematic racism, discrimination, segregation and wealth-disparaties are things that sometimes might dangerously just become a thought of like “Oh right- that exists and is bad” but I felt inspired during this week to help bring about actual change in this city, being both a citizen and student living in it. I also want to shoutout to my Peer Mentor group- I had the most amazing time getting to know each one of them and already consider them to be dear friends. All in all, I’m excited for this summer to come and continuing my internship at CIIP!

Week 1

This week I had the opportunity to step into the space I’ll be working in during the summer and get introduced to the type of work I’ll be doing. Bernard, my supervisor, has been incredible in helping me understand how everything works and communicating what exactly needs to get done. We’ll be working with kids from all over Baltimore in summer camps during July, so right now we’re redesigning the space the camp will be help in and beginning to create programs that they might learn from and enjoy. I think some of the challenges this week has to do with me taking initiative and deciding what to do with the program, mostly because Bernard has given me so much liberty, but at the same time this challenge is something that I enjoy and am excited about for this summer as it feels like I’ve been given an opportunity to really create something that could be used potentially in future years and be a benefit for kids in this city!

Week 2

This week cemented more of what tasks I was expected to do and the general plan for the rest of the summer. I think Bernard (my supervisor) and I have a really great pattern going and the space were working in is engaging and fun to constantly improve and prepare for the summer camps coming up. I think one of the main challenges has to do with transportation, as the 30-40 minutes of extra time spent waiting for buses or dealing with the ones off-schedule or any other problems is a bit of setback, especially in the mornings, but overall it has been working out great. Bernard has been super flexible with times and even drops me off at my apartment sometimes after work- I think he’s really spoiling me!

Week 3

My typical days includes getting on the bus to Madison Rec Center, and starting off the day by finishing whatever project Barnard and I were working on the day before. This includes tasks like setting up the classroom we’ll be teaching the kids in, printing out posters, organizing schedules, counting the rosters of kids signed up for our summer camp, and small tasks like taking out the million boxes of cardboard we had piled up. I think the highlight of my day is definitely when kids come into our Rec2Tech space and hang out while we do these things- they occasionally bring us food, tell us about all the gossip going on in their summer camp and just enjoy being around. It’s a unique experience being able to just hang out with elementary school kids outside of a classroom or more professional setting. In each one of them I can see how their past experiences have shaped their lives and how their different interests might lead them towards different paths in the future. All in all, im excited for camp to start next week!

Week 4

I feel like I am learning alot from working with the children in my summer camp. For one, it’s weird for me personally to make that distinction that suddenly im the adult in the room and am responsible for these dozens of children running around, but it also made me realize that I enjoy caring for them, playing together with them and teaching them new things. My goals for this summer were to connect with communities in Baltimore and I feel like every day I learn something new about their point of view on life in general, and they challenge me in as many ways as I hope I challenge them too.

Week 5

I mentioned this a bit in my last blog, but I realized that I truly do love working with children! The ones i am working with at my camp make me laugh, cry (just kidding!), and at the end of the day they really do bring a smile to my face. I think there is something incredibly fulfilling about working with the generation below you- it’s not just about passing on a torch, its getting to share life experiences together and helping them out in any way I can. One of my dream jobs was to be a teacher or to work in a school, so now I’m seriously considering becoming either a school psychologist or something along those lines 🙂

Week 7

As we come closer to the end of CIIP, I’ve been looking back a lot and thinking about everything we’ve done this summer. I had a meeting with Becky and Barnard, my two supervisors, and we talked about whether or not I met my goals for the summer and if I wanted to continue working with children in the future- I answered yes to both! In terms of intersecting with other areas, I’ve definitely gotten a deeper insight to all the different organizations and partnerships available to us from schools, art programs, different companies in Baltimore and entrepreneurs starting their own creative or educational businesses. There’s endless possibilities for collaboration here- anything that is STEM related and works well with kids is worth a shot!