Research and Data Intern Reflects on Her Summer 2023 Internship Experience

This summer I got to work as the National Council of Urban Indian Health (NCUIH) Technical and Research Center (TARC) Intern. I worked alongside Deidre Greyeyes, Nahlah Holland, Isaiah O’Rear, and Alexander Zeymo.

To get my internship rolling, I jumped right into the Knowledge Resource Center (KRC) where Nahla taught me about one-pagers and their purpose. After getting a few one-pagers completed and under my belt, I was tasked with the job of compiling three years’ worth of GPRA Data, from 2018 to 2020. I took the pdfs and created an excel document formatted to display the data in a way that was easy to read and relevant to our goals. At the end, we achieved those goals by creating graphs to showcase the trends and significant increases or decreases in values from year to year. We presented our findings to the Data Standards Committee meeting at the end of August. After completing that project, I dove headfirst into my next task where I created an infographic based on the Traditional Healing Meta Analysis Report. The infographic showcased the benefits of common traditional healing methods practiced at Urban Indian Organizations. This infographic will go on the final study poster presented by the data team. I wrapped up my summer by looking at another data set where I got to look at values given by UIOs that did not report values for the GPRA data. Though the measures did not line up perfectly, it was still interesting to see and compare another data set and how measures were taken and defined.

This summer I learned a lot about the importance of data collection, got to take a look at large-scale research projects behind the scenes, and dabbled in graphic design. Before this summer, I had never worked a remote job before. There was an adjustment period in getting used to the teams’ platform, but I feel like I improved and got a better feel for remote work by the end. I could not have done any of this without my wonderful team who so kindly guided me through each project and were always there when I needed them on a regular day-to-day basis. I strengthened my teamwork and communication skills while practicing managing my time as meeting deadlines played a crucial role in each project. Overall, I had an amazing time this summer and I would not have wanted my time with NCUIH to go any other way.