Internship Photo Essay

So this is the front door of the office that I was working in. Its not much bigger than it looks. Usually there were only two people in there at a time (myself and the office manager, Jen). BUT, there was A LOT going on in that office. There were constant calls to the office with questions, concerns, appointments, just about any type of call you could imagine. As these calls were coming in, we were trying to do other work as well. It was so busy in that little office, let me tell. There was constant talking, constant ringing, constant printing, faxing, copying. I sat in a room off to the side. See it for yourself.......

Yup, that's where I worked for 4 weeks. That computer was min. That whole, big, clean table was mine....except when they needed it. Let me tell you right now that table was not clean for very long. I quickly piled all my work on that thing. (You'll see in a second). But anyway, I sat at that computer and worked on tons of stuff for SEEDS. Mainly I worked on re designing their website. I came into this office through the front door everyday. i would pass by Jen and say hi. If Stacy, my mentor was in i would said hey to her as well. Then I would go unpack my stuff, clutter my desk and get to work.

There is the mess that was my desk. I promise, I made it look as nice as the first picture everyday before I left.

This is some of the stuff I worked on while I was there. I did a lot of computer stuff for them. they aren't very computer literate, so I helped them a lot in that aspect. You can see the brochures that I created for them. They aren't in color in the picture, but I am happy to report they are now and they are currently being used as the company's brochure. Also there are business cards I created for them. We ordered them the other day so they should be being used in a couple of weeks. There are also a few of the CD labels that I made for them. One day my mentor just asked me to make her some, so I did some research on how to make them and I think they came out really well.

This is my car...how I got to work everyday. I went into internship late and left late so my mom couldn't take me (she has a job, you know). So I drove myself to work, to lunch, and home everyday. It got a little scary at one point....


Dangerous job eehh? On my way to our second internship seminar, something went wrong. After that, I was afraid to drive to internship. But can you blame me?

Thai is Stacy(my mentor).....what I saw of her at least. About twice a week she was in the office, the rest of the time, she was out teaching her curriculum at schools around the state, or she was in her office in a meeting with one of her students. She is one busy woman! I got the opportunity to go to one of her classes before and see her teach. She took me to Murrietta with her one day to see what SEEDS was all about and watch how it helps people with developmental disabilities. I really enjoyed the experience and opportunity to see why it was so important that somebody be doing what SEEDS does.

This is Jen, the office manager. Since Stacy was out so often, she sort of became my mentor. Stacy would tell her what she wanted me to do and then Jen would tell me. I would also help Jen out with whatever she needed throughout the day.

Overall, I really enjoyed this internship experience and I am going to continue to work with SEEDS for a few weeks to help them with a few other things they need.

Internship...The Final Week

3. How might you continue your internship experiences beyond the scope of the HTHMA internship? What ideas, skills, connections and so on will you bring back to the rest of your life? Will you continue working with your internship beyond January of 2011?

One skill that I have now that I will bring back to my life and future jobs is the ability to anticipate and foresee what your boss will ask you to do. You can quickly and easily get a feel for what you boss likes and wants and you can work ahead and impress you boss. I also have a couple of connections that I was fortunate enough to gain from my internship. My mentor has a psychologist, Katie working with her and she introduced me to her and I worked with her a little. Katie also works at a company called CARES and my mentor has set me up to go in and see what they do. CARES is a company that works with Autistic kids and psychology. I am interested in psychology so I thought that was really neat and I appreciate it a lot. Another connection I will be able to bring back/use is my mentors connection with Stanford. She is friends with some people at Stanford and is going to give them my information and talk to them about me. I thought that was really neat and I am excited about it. I do plan on working with my internship after school starts again. They asked me to stay on with them and help them with a few more things that I wont be able to do by Friday

and just to help them whenever they need my help after that. I was really happy and excited when they asked me to say and told me they like me and what I was doing for them. They told me that what I was doing was helping the company a lot and I was stoked to hear that.

Internship Week 3 Blog 2

What are you thankful for in your internship experience?

I am thankful that I was able to get an internship at an organization that helps people. That makes many people's lives better. All the people that work there are there because they genuinely want to help keep these people safe and teach them. They aren't there for any money or recognition. I am also grateful that I am able to be a part of helping those people with them. I have read through and edited a few lessons and by putting together their new website, I am helping to get the word out about the company and hopefully that is able to keep more people from being abused. I am also grateful that all the people at SEEDS are so nice to me. I feel like I have made some really good connections with people. My mentor told me that she would love to write me a letter of recommendation for colleges and talk to people she knows at colleges I am interested in. I am really enjoying the experience and am grateful for every minute of it.

Internship Week 3 Blog 1

Describe one challenge that arose this week at your internship site (related to the work the company does). How did your mentor and their colleagues solve this problem?

My mentor, Stacy created curriculum for people with developmental disabilities. The curriculum teaches these people how to act in public and interact with people so that they are not taken advantage of and abused. She then goes to schools or individuals that need to be taught her curriculum and either teaches it herself or teaches the teachers at a school how to teach it. On Wednesday, my mentor took me with her to a school that she is working with to teach them her curriculum. There were two classes we were going to visit. One class went smoothly but it was her first time being to the second class and it didn't go as smoothly. The second class didn't have their own curriculum, they were trying to share the same curriculum with the first class. Normally this would have been fine, except that the first class was mild to moderate disabilities and the second class was severe disabilities. This means that the first class is able to understand and retain harder and more difficult information. The second class, on the other hand had students who could barely talk, let alone understand a lot of the stuff my mentor had ready to teach them. The class became very chaotic and everyone began getting out of their seats and stopped listening to the teacher give the lesson. Stacy happened to have brought her flash drive that had picture from a simpler curriculum SEEDS has almost finished and she was able to teach the lesson from those pictures in a way that the kids could understand.

This is the picture off the front of the book/lesson my mentor was teaching that day.

Internship Week 2 Blog 2

How do you see yourself growing or changing over the course of your internship???

So far over the course of my internship I have become more independent. When I first started I did exactly what the y asked me to do and then when they asked me to make a couple of changes I would do just what they asked again. I did what they asked well and I did it fast, but I have come to realize that I can figure out what they would ask me to do before I show it to them. In a sense I am now able to work ahead and waste less of my mentors time. I feel like in the beginning of my internship, I wasn't really sure what they expected or wanted, but now I understand the company and my mentor better and I can do things I know she wants without her asking me. I think after internship is over, I will be able to take this independancy to future internships I will have and it will impress my mentor and I might get a job?? Through this internship, I also see myself becoming more social with the people I work with. At first I didnt really talk to the office manager who sits near me any more than I had to. But recently I find myself starting conversations with her and just talking to her about regular stuff, outside of work. Now that we are being more social, I enjoy going to internship more and have more fun there.

Internship Week 2 Blog 1

Descibe a technical/skill challenge you faced that affects your ability to complete your project...

This past week, I have been working on the SEEDS website. I have been making it look more professional, adding pictures and making sure there are no typos. The pictures I had to add were from pdfs and they had writing next to them. The first technical/skill challenge I encountered was that I didnt know how to take the text out of the picture without photoshop (a program that SEEDS doesnt have). I had to use Publisher (which I didnt know how to use before two days ago) to cover up to words. The next technical.skill challenge I came across was that I didnt know how to change a document in publisher to a jpeg. This was a problem becasue the only way I could get that picture that I just spent so much time and energy on onto the website was if it was a jpeg. After a lot of research and playing with it, i figured out how to change it to a jpeg and get it on the website. I am now an expert on publisher and jpegs!!! and taught it to my mentor and office manager.

Internship Week 1 Blog 2

Describe the company culture at your internship, including how people interact, communicate and work together.

At my internship it, everyone is pretty loud and comfortable with each other. Stacy, my mentor is always going in and out running errands and going to meetings. When she comes in the office she is almost always on the phone, then when she gets off she starts talking (very loudly) about her day so far and what have we been doing? She laughs and yells and talks on the phone then yells some more then talks on the phone then goes to her office. When any of us want something from some one else we just yell it to the other room. She'll ask the office manager what time someone's coming by or tell me to get her the business cards all from her office. When people come in she just yells at them to come on in to her office and sit down. We also have people with developmental disabilities come in and clean or organize for us. They're really nice and very social. The first time you meet them they act like they've known you forever. In the office, everyone works together or with each other. We are all on the same page and everyone moves along to the next thing with each other. Overall I enjoy the enviroment at my internship and I am getting a lot done.