By Lucia Rivera, VRG Intern<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ever since I first became a vegetarian at the age of seven, I have aimed to\nbalance that component of my lifestyle with everything else that was part of my\nday-to-day life. I wanted to make a difference beyond avoiding meat products in\nmy diet, and luckily, I found an amazing opportunity to do so. By becoming a\nlong-distance intern with The Vegetarian Resource Group, I opened up a new\npathway of veggie activism for myself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since the VRG is centered in Baltimore, Maryland and\nI live in Southern California, my work with The VRG mainly consists of writing\narticles for the VRG Blog. Throughout the last four months I have completed\nmany exciting assignments that are refreshing in comparison to my busy life as\na high school junior. I am used to writing articles for my school\u2019s student-run\nnewspaper, but this internship gave me an opportunity to try out different\nstyles of writing. For example, I enjoyed working an in-depth restaurant review\nof one of my favorite vegan restaurants, Native Foods. I had never written a\npiece like that and found that writing about an enjoyable eating experience\npractically allows one to savor a dish for a second time! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Additionally, I was able to share some insight on\nvegan diets for kids. I am very grateful that I was able to turn my own\nexperiences into something helpful for others by sharing articles on a larger\nplatform. This assignment also led me to reflect on my decisions and practices\nfrom over five years ago, reminding me of how I have grown since then. Many\npeople adopt veganism or vegetarianism later on in life, but I find it\nimportant to reach specific audiences even if they are not the majority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Similarly, I wrote an article about vegan options\nfor Latinxs, both in English and in Spanish. This was an important piece to me\nbecause, not only was I able to spread information about vegetarianism, but I\nwas able to hit a target audience of Latinx people and Spanish speakers. Since\nculture plays a large role in determining one’s diet, it makes sense to write\nabout veganism for certain demographics. Due to this, I was very happy that I\ncould play a role in outreach to the Latinx society. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Besides the writing projects I partook in, I was\nable to gain a general understanding of what an internship for a large group is\nlike. While I never interacted with anyone in person for this internship, I was\nable to work on my communication skills, time management, and make use of my\ncreativity. An example of this was when I was completing an article on vegan\nlunch ideas. I worked to make sure my writing was effective, accurate, and\ninformative by going through several stages of emails and editing online. To\nthen eventually see the final product of my article posted on the VRG Blog and\nFacebook Page was inspiring as it reassured me that not only was I improving my\nwriting, but I was also producing helpful content for other vegetarians like\nme. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Throughout my work for VRG as a long-distance\nintern, I faced some challenges, but was happy to work to overcome them as part\nof my journey towards improving the world. As a high-schooler, I do not have as\nmany options for activism as an autonomous and financially independent adult\nhas. Writing, however, is definitely a way to share my experiences and promote\nhealthy and caring lives to a wide audience, which I have been able to do\nthanks to the VRG.<\/p>\n\n\n\n