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DME Intern Spotlight: Claire Bednarski

The DME internship thrives due to the dedication and skills of our interns. In these posts highlighting the work of individual interns, you can get a sneak peek into what they do, how it’s developing them, and whether DME might be a good fit for you too! If you’re interested in joining us, please see the link at the bottom of the blog post.

For our first post in this series of intern spotlights, we spoke with Claire Bednarski, an intern with the Social Media department. She gave us the inside scoop on what she’s been doing during her time on the DME team.

Interested in seeing what other interns are up to? Check out our other intern spotlights here!

What do you contribute to the DME team and how do you further their goals?

My main job is to find content (articles) about positive information or events or items of interest to Veterans. These posts are then voted on in Reddit and eventually scheduled for Twitter and Facebook via Trello for our late afternoon and evening posts. Usually, these stories get great responses because Veterans enjoy reading them. This helps the VA look positive to the public, helps the social media reach more people, and helps the DME team grow and succeed. I am also a comment moderator for Twitter, so I go through the tweets at least once a day to check for any suicidal comments and report any I find. This is a heavy responsibility but very important because I have seen first-hand how Veterans can be touched and saved by the DME team’s efforts.

How does your work at DME help you reach your professional goals?

My work at DME gives me incredible experience. It is definitely impressive to have an internship with the VA on a resume. I have definitely gained experience in communication, research, writing, self-discipline and self-motivation, social media skills, and so many more. These are all highly applicable and desired in today’s job market, and I’m very grateful to have developed them further through this internship. Working with DME has also given me insight into how government agencies function, which helps prepare me if I ever seek a government full-time job. I’ve learned how to communicate professionally and efficiently online with my fellow interns and superiors, collaborate on projects, etc. It’s all been a great experience for my future career.

Why would you recommend DME to others?

I would definitely recommend DME to others! So many aspects of this internship are great for college students. I love that I can essentially do this work anytime, anywhere due to it being remote and flexible. Ten hours a week is not a huge commitment compared to the valuable experience gained in return. Also, it’s so great getting to work with everyone, even though we just talk virtually! It’s a great team, and so understanding if an issue comes up. I really appreciate how great of a workplace it’s been. This internship is pretty hard to beat.

Interested in joining the DME Interns team? Click here to find out more and sign up to be notified when applications open!

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