This summer marks the beginning of something that has been on my heart for a very long time.
Since the early days of The Giving Gifts, I’ve hoped to create spaces where people could bring their skills, ideas, energy, and creativity to the table while also discovering more deeply who they are and the gifts they carry. Spaces rooted in learning together, curiosity, care, and meaningful connection.
Over time, I’ve continued coming back to the same idea:
What would it look like to build an internship model centered a little less around productivity or experience and a little more around helping people recognize their gifts and explore how those gifts can be used in the world around them?
This summer, that vision is actualllllly beginning to take shape!!!!
As The Giving Gifts community continues to grow, so does the opportunity to create more space for people to learn alongside one another, contribute meaningfully, and feel connected to something bigger than themselves.
Bringing interns on has never really felt like bringing on “extra help” to me. It feels like inviting people into a shared process of growth, creativity, reflection, and care.
Developing this internship model has also challenged me to step more fully into my own gifts. Gifts that, honestly, I wasn’t always sure when or how I would get to use. Gifts in mentoring, teaching, encouraging, listening, and being open to the growth that naturally comes with building something alongside other people.
There is something really meaningful about learning in real time with others that I have been craving for a long time, and I genuinely could not be more excited for this season.
At the core of this internship model are a few guiding ideas:
Identifying our gifts
So often, people move through life without ever being given the space to slow down and recognize what naturally lives inside them.
Part of this experience is creating room to ask:
What do you truly care about and why?
What are the things you naturally create, imagine, organize, communicate, or keep returning to?
What unique perspectives and strengths do you carry?
What parts of your story are asking to be expressed?
Learning how to use those gifts
Discovering your gifts is one thing.
Learning how to use them takes courage.
There is a vulnerability that comes with caring deeply. In allowing your voice to take up space. In creating something and sharing it with others. In showing up fully and letting yourself be seen while also choosing to truly see the people around you.
Sometimes we carry parts of ourselves quietly for a long time because using our gifts asks us to step into the unknown a little. It asks us to trust ourselves. To participate. To take up space in ways we maybe haven’t before.
Throughout this internship, Susie, Haven, and myself will all be navigating that process in our own unique ways. Exploring how creativity, care, perspective, and community can create ripple effects far beyond what we initially imagine.
They’ll also be helping create spaces that invite others into this process too. Spaces where people can reflect, participate, create, connect, and recognize that they also carry something valuable within them.
More than anything, I hope this becomes a space where we can learn alongside one another with openness, curiosity, and care.
Learning together along the way
Over the past few months, I’ve been developing a more in depth trauma informed training that we’ll move through together throughout the summer. Together, we’ll explore what it means to understand people and ourselves through a trauma informed lens, how experiences shape the ways we move through the world, and how we can deepen our understanding of one another with more compassion and awareness.
Alongside this, we’ll also be reading through What Happened to You? together and continuing to create space for reflection, conversation, and learning throughout the summer.
Since Haven and Susie will each be working on different aspects of The Giving Gifts, much of their experience will reflect their individual interests, creativity, and strengths. Throughout the summer, we’ll gather together once a month as a group, have individual one on one meetings, participate in monthly community events, and continue engaging with the Tus Olas program in different ways.
At the heart of all of this is the belief that people flourish when they feel seen, supported, and invited into meaningful connection.
I genuinely could not be more excited to begin this journey with Susie and Haven, two incredible people who each bring so much thoughtfulness, creativity, and care into this space.
We’ll be sharing more about them and their individual stories after our first gathering together next week. For now, I simply wanted to share a glimpse into the heart behind what we’re building and why this next chapter feels so meaningful to me.
This internship model is still evolving. We are learning as we go, and honestly, that feels like one of the most beautiful parts of all of it.
I know the past few emails hold a lot of updates between the refreshed website, this new internship model, and a few other things still in the works. In a lot of ways, this season feels like a really big transition point for The Giving Gifts, and I’m genuinely excited to continue sharing more of it with you all as it unfolds.
I also want to say that if any part of this sparks questions, ideas, curiosity, or conversation, I would truly love to connect. Some of the most meaningful parts of this work have come through unexpected conversations and people choosing to engage more deeply with what we’re building.
As this community continues to grow, so do the needs, responsibilities, and possibilities that come with it. With a growing team, ongoing community programming, monthly events, weekly commitments, and the development of new initiatives like Tus Olas and this internship model, I’ll also be sharing more in the coming months about ways to financially support and sustain this work for those who feel connected to it.
There is still so much more to share.
More introductions to Susie and Haven after our first gathering together next week. More about the Tus Olas pilot program. More trauma informed resources and reflections as we continue developing them. And of course, more moments of community happening here in Ensenada, including this weekend where we’ll be hosting a community activity centered around whales, mental health, and collective care!!
Thank you for continuing to be here and grow alongside all of this with us. It means more than I can fully express. I can’t waittttt for you to get to know more about Haven and Susie!!!
If you made it this far I have a little surprise for ya! I have attached the YOUR STORY - reflection activity. This is actually the first thing we will be doing together next week and I thought it would be a fun way to have you be part of the whole things with us if you’d like. Maybe it’s been awhile since you’ve shared your story with people or you just want to revisit how. Id love to know if you check it out and if you do I hope you share your story with someone soon!
