Interning into a new beginning
A senior extends her knowledge and explores an opportunity to better understand a lower income community
Photo courtesy of Camille O'Neill
Smiling for the camera, senior Camille O’Neill holds up her Certification of Completion of the WAGES internship. O’Neil spent 40 days down at the University of Lincoln helping people figure out ways to pay their rent. “I heard about this program through the Nebraska Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired,” O’Neill said. “One takeaway I had was to not take things for granted. I’m grateful I get to directly impact the lives of the less fortunate population.”
September 15, 2021
Walking into a new experience can always be challenging, but senior Camille O’Neill took this opportunity to grow as a person. Expanding horizons and exploring new opportunities her summer working at an internship called WAGES to help people with housing support.
Making several phone calls to gather information and enter data about rent and income of citizens everyday, O’Neill communicated with tenants and landlords all across the Lincoln area.
Being able to help others in the community led to many opportunities and challenges for O’Neill. Staying at the University Suites dorms on the University of Nebraska campus, and traveling on her own every day to and from work on the public transportation system she spent 40 days gathering information about tenants and working with landlords to help the tenants pay their rent. O’Neil was one of the first interns the Commission on Human Rights had for WAGES.
“I know that COVID has affected a lot of people and I wanted to help people with housing support because I like helping people,” O’Neill said. “I also am a companion to the blind community and I wanted to do that because I knew they were struggling and I wanted to help them as much as possible.”
O’Neill’s mother, Jen O’Neill, saw this internship as a way for her to grow as an individual and have the opportunity to do work for others. Having the possibility to spend so much time working with the tenants taught her a lot about life and the obstacles that people can face. Jen O’Neill was thrilled that Camille O’Neill had such an amazing opportunity as a high school student that involved truly meaningful work.
“The entire experience itself was such a gift in that she got a true taste of what it is like to live on a college campus, go to and from work independently using public transportation, and gain valuable work and life experience,” Jen O’Neill said. “She also gained valuable independence skills that she will undoubtedly use as she graduates and moves onto college next year.”
Going into the internship Camille was very inexperienced with working with tenants and housing. Down at Lincoln she got to learn directly from a law clerk at the Lincoln Commission of Human Rights herself. Ivy Lutz has worked there since May of 2021 and has been a role model for Camille.
“Camille excelled at the data-entry portion of the position from the start, but over the course of her work experience she showed immense progress in communicating confidently and efficiently with tenants and landlords,” Lutz said. “She was able to problem solve, find answers and resolve all issues with miscommunication, technology mishaps and interpersonal office relationships. She is a highly talented individual with great success in her future.”
Given this opportunity, Camille has been able to take away new skills from this internship and now has been opened up to a new view on how people live. Camille got to use this experience to explore the lives of the lower class and connect with them on a deeper level to make a difference. Being able to learn this information she will be one step ahead of her fellow classmates in helping make a difference.
