AOITreneew2017

Overall, my internship was an okay experience. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either. I feel this way because it was not a true internship. As a high schooler, it is hard to find something that will pay, last long enough, and fits the technology guidelines. If you're not at SAS, Town of Cary, or Lenovo, it doesn't seem like you're doing anything in comparison to what they are doing. I think this would've been a better experience for me if I could make a summer long commitment to a real business. Unfortunately, I was not able to do that. I think it would be beneficial to find some options that are more flexible so students like myself so we can get a true internship experience.

There weren't really any major problems or frustrations in my work. Having been on this trip once before, I knew what I was getting myself into. I also knew that whatever I did, would be helpful for Mark and Kelley since they usually did all of this stuff themselves. I did have trouble coordinating the donor list with the list of people who needed to receive thank you notes. It took me a very long time to get that issue sorted out but once i did it was smooth sailing.

As I said in my last post, I learned a lot about myself. I need to get better at learning to work on my own. I also need to get better at managing my time when I am sent to work on a task. This means that I need to stop procrastinating. There were a few times when I forgot about deadlines or put off my work because I could. This is something that I need to work on and change.

My internship has helped to enforce my career plans. I want to go into information technology management and I believe that this internship has helped me to learn more about what that may entail. I have also learned that working with your client is so so so important and making sure they are happy is my top priority. I believe that this is a career that I would really enjoy and be good at, so I am glad that this internship provided the opportunity to learn this about myself.

My duties have grown as I moved through my internship. This process has gone on for nine months so there has been a lot of growth and change happening regarding what my duties are. At first I was just in charge of the website, and then I gained more responsibilities by starting a remind and helping to create our sweatshirts for the year. I was also tasked with writing an article for our church news letter, and designing a postcard to send out to those who donated to the mission trip.

My main contribution to my internship and thing I am most proud of is definitely the website. I put a lot of hard work and long hours into the website and I had to deal with Weebly being spotty while in Bolivia. I loved creating something for family, friends, and potential new team members to see forever. I also had a lot of fun getting to know my friends more before the trip started when I collected information about them for the website. I really liked seeing it all come together and hearing the feedback from people about how much they loved it. That made me really happy and made my work feel worthwhile.

How is the internship meeting or not meeting your expectations/objectives and why? This internship was not something I had envisioned for myself. Due to my busy schedule this summer, I was unable to obtain an internship like some of my peers. This was difficult for me to come to terms with because I wanted something that would look really good on applications, such as SAS or Town of Cary. I soon realized that my internship still had a lot of value, even if I didn't feel like it did. I learned a lot about holding myself accountable and going off and doing work on my own. I may not have had the title I wanted, but I learned a lot of ethical skills that I will be able to put to use as a further my career.

My classroom experiences helped me SO much for my internship. The classes that I felt were the most important were Multimedia and Webpage Design as well as E-Commerce. Multimedia and Webpage Design This class (MAWD) taught me what was pleasing to the eye of the public. It allowed me to learn how to mix graphics and colors to discover what worked best for different types of target markets. I used these skills to pair colors and graphics that would allow the website I created to be effective and pleasing to the eye. I also used the skills I learned in Photoshop and Illustrator to aid in the creation a logo for the trip. Here is an attachment of the logo I helped to create. E-Commerce Although I did not use the HTML that I learned in this class, I put a lot of other skills that I learned to use. During ecom, I got a lot of practice applying the skills I learned from MAWD. The aesthetic skills were put to use in ecom when we learned how to make websites. Having this experience mad...

The Work Atmosphere How are decisions made? Decisions are made in two different ways: by Kelley and Mark or by me. In the case that Kelley or Mark decide, it is something that is important and will impact the entire team. Typically this is case with most decisions. Decisions made by me are usually smaller and will not impact the team on a large scale. Is it cooperative or competitive? The work environment is very cooperative. I work together with Kelley and Mark and they work with me to ensure that planning and communication for the trip runs smoothly. What is the dress code? Considering I work mostly from my bed or wherever my laptop connects to the internet, I can wear whatever I want. This typically includes but is not limited to t-shirts, athletic shorts, my bathrobe, hoodies, sweatpants, fuzzy socks, and various hairdos. What is the work ethic? The work ethic is: get it done on time. Kelley and Mark were very hands off and allowed me to work on my own time, but wer...

My internship is with the Bolivia Youth Mission Trip run through my church, First United Methodist Church of Cary, North Carolina. This mission trip is an annual trip to La Paz and El Alto, Bolivia. They work with their   in-country partner, Consejo Salud Rural Andino (CSRA). CSRA is a nonprofit, non-governmental organization that specializes in administering health networks and offers services in designing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating health projects with a family and community-based model. They call the people who attend the mission trip a team. Team members accompany the CSRA health care workers on these home visits. At these visits, native doctors, nurses, & community health workers gather information from targeted households whose census information reveals a high risk of illness or death. During these home visits, health knowledge and practices are measured and vital events are recorded so that families’ illnesses, health experiences, deaths, births, and migra...