The Carter Center

The Carter Center was founded in 1982 by President Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter. The Carter Center aims to wage peace, fight disease and build hope. I work in the health programs, specifically in the mental health program which was started by Mrs. Carter.

I just finished my first week and it felt like a really long week. Two of the days I was out at a different site for a Mental Health First Aid training. I think that is why the week felt so long because the trainings seemed to last forever (unfortunately the trainers didn't seem very competent in what they were talking about). The Mental Health team is really nice and I am excited to work with them. There is another intern in the program and a graduate assistant. This week they didn't really give me any tasks because they wanted me to do some background reading and read Mrs. Carter's new book. Out of any of the other interns I think the mental health group spends the most time in meetings. They really want us to have a taste of everything, so we are constantly being invited to meetings which I think is really cool because I enjoy meetings! The Carter Center Mental Health Program judges Voices Awards nominations and I got to participate in that this week. Voices Awards are given out to movies, t.v. shows, documentaries, etc that portray mental illnesses accurately in the media. One of our supervisors had the three of us (myself, other intern and grad assistant) watch episodes of "Private Practice" that had been nominated. I am pretty sure no one thought we were working so it was kind of funny.

On Friday we had an "assignment meeting" and they divided up short-term projects for all of us and said they will give us long-term projects soon. My projects include working on the journalism fellowship program and preparing for the big meeting they have in september. The Carter Center awards $10,000 each to 10 fellows every year who propose a project that will allow them to use their journalism skills to accurately portray mental illnesses in the media.
The Mental Health Program is teaming up with the Conflict Resolution Program to implement a mental health training initiative in Liberia, so I will be doing some work on that but am not sure what exactly...most likely research.
My third task that I was given was working on writing a speech with the Director of the program that he will give at a conference in Austria.

There are 45 interns at The Carter Center this summer. I guess the most they have ever had is 34, so this is a big increase. Because schools get out at different times, interns have been starting sporadically throughout the last month, which I think has made it hard for the newest interns to really get to know everyone because most people have been around for nearly a month (plus there are so many to meet!). We had an intern social after work on Wednesday, so that was nice and I got to talk to quite a few interns. All the interns have had such amazing experiences so it is really cool talking with them.

So....The World Cup is going on this month. The grad assistant and I have offices next to the finance office and they were all watching the soccer games yesterday. I overheard multiple employees saying that they would be at their desk watching the games if anyone needed them. It was so funny. I predict that productivity at The Carter Center will be very low this month :)

Last thing...the humidity is getting worse...it is really gross. The air is so thick you can feel it. It poured a couple days ago and that made it so much worse :(