Creating A Vegan World
Lucía Rivera's VRG Intern Experience
Since I first became vegetarian at the age of seven, I aimed to balance that component with my day-to-day life. I wanted to make a difference beyond avoiding meat products, and luckily, I found an amazing opportunity. By becoming a long-distance intern with The Vegetarian Resource Group, I opened up a new pathway of activism.
The VRG is based in Baltimore, Maryland, and I live in Southern California; so my work mainly consists of creating content for the VRG blog and Vegetarian Journal.
I'm accustomed to doing articles for my high school's student-run newspaper, but this internship gave me an opportunity to try out different kinds of writing. For example, I enjoyed working on an in-depth review of one of my favorite vegan restaurants, Native Foods. Writing about an enjoyable eating experience allows one to savor a dish a second time!
Additionally, I shared insight on vegan diets for kids. I am very grateful to turn my experiences into something helpful for others by posting articles on a larger platform. This assignment also led me to reflect on my decisions from over five years ago, reminding me how I have grown.
Similarly, I wrote an article about vegan options for Latinxs, both in English and in Spanish. This was an important piece to me because I was able to hit a target audience of Latinx people and Spanish speakers. Culture plays a large role in determining diet, so it makes sense to write about veganism for certain demographics.
Besides the writing projects, I gained a general understanding of what an internship is like. While I never interacted with anyone in person, I developed my communication skills and time management, plus made use of my creativity.
One project like this was completing an article on vegan lunch ideas. I worked to make sure the written text was effective, accurate, and informative by going through several stages of emails and editing online. To then see the final product — my article — posted on the VRG Blog and Facebook Page was inspiring. It reassured me that not only was I improving my writing skills, but also producing helpful content for other plant-eaters like myself.
Throughout my work for VRG as a long-distance intern, I faced some challenges but was happy to work to overcome. As a high-schooler, I do not have as many options for activism as an autonomous and financially independent adult has. Writing, however, is definitely a way to share my experiences and promote healthy and caring lifestyles to a wide audience, which I have been able to do thanks to The VRG.
For information about The Vegetarian Resource Group internships, see www.vrg.org/student/index.php.
