Intern Highlight

By Tori Snell For My Story Matters
My Story Matter relies heavily on interns. They are such a integral part of our success. We love and appreciate all they do to help us with our mission. This month we wanted to highlight our incredible intern for Winter Semester. Tori Snell. Tori not only interned for us, but she is also a student, and wife and a mother and works a part-time job as well. We asked her to share part of her story.

“When my husband and I decided to have a baby while we were still completing our bachelor degrees, we knew that it would be difficult. We would have to make some changes in order to make everything work. Because I had fewer classes to take to complete my degree and I worked from home already, we decided that I would be the one who would spend most of the time looking after the baby.

“Juggling motherhood, work, and school have been difficult. Surprisingly, there has been a lot of support from other people so that I could still do everything I needed to. I was very blessed to have a job where I could work from home, and the professor who supervises me was very understanding after I had my baby and let me take the time I needed to get back to work. My husband and I figured out our class schedules so that we could both go to class without the baby. On the occasion one of us had to take the baby to class, the professors were very understanding and welcoming to the little visitor.

“I needed to have an internship in order to graduate. In my search for an internship, I knew that it would be difficult to find one that would work with me, as I would have the baby for the majority of the day while my husband was at school and work. One of the reasons why I looked into My Story Matters was because they were flexible with hours that interns worked. I would be able to bring my baby to most of the meetings and most of my work would be done at home, letting me work around my baby’s schedule.

“Having to go to class after spending the night feeding my baby every three hours made it hard to concentrate and engage. Finding time to do my homework was hard, so I started to get creative with my time. I would read my textbooks during my late night and early morning feedings, I could write essays while the baby had tummy time or took a nap. I would take breaks from work to play with her which would always make me feel less stressed.

“I may not have been able to devote all my time (or even most of my time) to exclusively looking after my daughter, but she is the most important thing in my life. Even though it was hard I feel that having a baby while we were still in school was ultimately a great decision. When I look at her and think about how much I love her, it makes everything worth it.”

Such a dedicated student, wife and mother, Tori is a great example of why we love our interns.

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