Kellie Wallace
By Zoë Eitel
When Kellie Wallace started her internship at the American Red Cross in January 2020, her role looked a lot different than when the internship ended in August.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic turned this and many other internships remote, Kellie was mostly doing secretarial and disaster response duties. The most rewarding aspect of this work was helping house fire victims by giving them financial support and connecting them to mental health caseworkers.
Once her internship went remote, Kellie switched to more project-based work.
“I helped virtualize some of our in-person training modules and supported my supervisor in the creation of an entirely new housing placement model,” she says. “The hardest adjustment between in person work and virtual for me was figuring out how to manage my time. I pursued many different projects during the virtual half of my internship and if I had not figured out how to set aside time for them all, I would have been swamped.”
Intern at American Red Cross
BA International Studies & Spanish 2020
Though she was sad when she learned she wouldn’t be returning to the office to complete her internship, Kellie was still able to get experience in the field she wants to join after graduation. She experienced firsthand how hard but rewarding the work is and taught her to be more flexible.
“The hardest adjustment between in person work and virtual for me was figuring out how to manage my time. I pursued many different projects during the virtual half of my internship and if I had not figured out how to set aside time for them all, I would have been swamped.”
“I gained a ton of confidence in my ability to work professionally and handle stressful situations,” Kellie says. “It supplemented my education by forcing me to use my Spanish to speak to clients; it helped me get over my mental block in that area.”
Kellie found this internship through her program’s Facebook page. Her supervisor at the Red Cross—a DePaul alumna—posted there asking for intern applications and Kellie sent hers in.
“Landing it was a little scary as this was my dream internship, but I just made sure to be super nice to everyone while interviewing and to not be afraid to show my personality,” she says.
During her internship, Kellie learned about what she does and doesn’t like in a job and what she’s going to look for in the future.
“One thing that I really enjoyed about working for the Red Cross is that employees are never stuck doing the same thing over and over again; there are always new and exciting challenges to tackle and it makes going to work everyday more interesting.”
Although this internship was unpaid, Kellie applied for and received an Internship Plus through the Career Center. She found out about the program from a professor and was glad she was able to apply because she couldn’t justify working for free over the summer without some other monetary support.
