Joy Ahn
Now that the semester is nearly over, I wanted to take a moment to look back on my experiences. Before this internship, I had little interest in teaching or anything pedagogy-related; though I am not fully converted yet, I did discover a unique sort of fulfillment from the mentorship relationships I had with my students. It made me grateful to have made a positive impact, however brief, on their undergraduate career and proud to have learned enough to be able to teach them effectively.
It was at times odd to interact with students who reminded me of myself in my first semesters at GSU. Many asked me for advice, which I sometimes wasn’t sure how to give because I had never taken a moment to pause and think retrospectively about my progress as an undergrad. I tried my best to think back to my freshman year and embody the kind of mentorship I wish I had then. I also made sure to let them know of the things I wish I knew when I was in their place, such as how to get involved on campus and mingle with other English majors. GSU is a particularly challenging school to assimilate to because it’s so decentralized, so their anxieties about how to navigate their department and what classes to take were very understandable and echoed concerns I’ve heard from many of my peers.
All in all, it was an exciting and enlightening experience to be able to be on the other side of the student-professor interaction. And it was fulfilling to see how my class became more and more engaged and enthusiastic as the semester went on. It is definitely an internship I hope to return to later in my later semesters.
