Today was my first day as a Johns Hopkins Volunteer. My TB test came back negative, I received my badge and was ready to get to work. It wasn't the most exciting first day ever, but it was still good. I spent the majority of my time reading training modules and following around one of the staff, who I'll call Scott. He's the guy I'll be working with the most and for the next couple of days I'll be his shadow learning the ropes. Everyone, including all the participants, were very nice. I never felt unsafe or weirded out by any of them. Some you can definitely tell live on the street or pretty close to, but they were all very friendly.
For the next month, I'll be working in the Therapeutic Workplace. This is where participants come in and work. My job is to help them with technical problems and to assist Scott. I'll eventually move into working in the lab helping assist where I can. The lab is where the technicians collect urine samples for analysis. My next month will be working in the Outreach department where they recruit new participants. I'll help with assessments and getting the participants oriented to their new job. Once I get familiar with that, then I can decide where I want to dedicate most of my time. Both the Therapeutic Workplace and Outreach need help, so they're already fighting over me, but I've been given the choice of where I want to be. That's the nice thing about being a volunteer. They can't tell me what to do :)
It's going to be an adventure. I'm really looking forward to what all this opportunity has to offer.
