Internship Experience

Hi, my name is Melanie Lopez-Pedroso, and I have been interning with The Worthy Ranch, a nonprofit organization that supports female human trafficked survivors and provides them with a temporary home to heal and get back on their feet with equine therapy, job development, and life coaching. My role was being a planning and marketing intern. I assisted the founder, Heather Estus, with creating new marketing strategies to promote the building of the Worth Ranch property in Montana. I worked as a social media content planner, researched nonprofit grants for the organization, and worked with a fellow UNLV to help me create a short video ad. My biggest project was creating the short video that advertises the ranch and the “She’s Worthy” campaign, I learned more about Canva through this internship and utilized it to create media and videos. My main goal is to become a Couples and Family therapist and this internship has taught me a lot about Human trafficking, the effects it has on one’s mental health, and the kind of solutions that we need to have to eliminate this issue once and for all in the U.S. It gave me relevant experience in the mental health field by working on a subject that is tied to a cause of mental health issues and is one of the leading sources of depression, post-trauma, and PTSD. I participated in activities and small courses that gave me a better understanding of how our mental and physical health is affected by the actions of these traffickers and the importance of increasing the percentage of identified survivors. There were no educational requirements, I was learning new things alongside my internship supervisor and was taught throughout the duration of my internship how to do things. My advice to incoming interns is to not be afraid and try new things because these experiences really help you gain leadership skills and can help educate you on current matters related to your field. Take a chance and learn more about different areas even if they aren’t specifically geared toward the subjects you are researching. You’ll gain professional skills, and competency using digital technology, and can practice creating the statements and essays you will need to write for Grad school applications.