My Internship Experience

My Internship Experience:

This summer internship and career readiness class opened my eyes to some of my personal qualities. We completed many tests and quizzes on Waybook, and wrote discoveries for each one. I learned that my strengths are perseverance and a good work ethic. My internship at EarthScope was very stressful at times, but with my strengths, I was able to finish it with great success. After taking the values survey, it showed that my two most prominent values are ambition and logic. I have always been a goal oriented person who works hard to reach success. To include, I have always had a math brain. I like to analyze everything to find a solution. This can be very useful when living on a budget. My personality quiz said that I was neither social or reserved, and I was very neat and organized. This has always popped up in my life. For example, I always like to have several binders for classes, and I enjoy going to a party and being on my own every once in a while. My passion discovery reflected my desire to enter the medical field in the future. Lastly, the Autism Spectrum Survey stated that I have slight autistic qualities. These include my algebra oriented brain and my neatness.

Because of the discoveries, I was able to truly reflect on my personal qualities. I have never really took the time to examine my habits and traits. From this experience, I learned more about my competitive spirit and my ambition to succeed. I am grateful I had this class to relax and look at things carefully. Instead of rushing through everything, I was able to slow down and just think. Our world in general never really stops to ponder their personal values. If people took the effort to look themselves in the mirror, our world could actually be a better place.

This summer, I definitely gained  technical skills. In regards to computer skills, I learned about many resources in this class. One was how to make a google site. I have used the website creator called Weebly, but this was a step up. Secondly, I learned about Waybook. I think it is a fun website to go back to in ten years. Imagine reading all those reflections on where you’ll be in the future. Thirdly, I learned about blogging. I have blogged before, but never in such a collaborative manner. Lastly but most importantly, I was able to create a Linkedin profile. I am amazed at the opportunities that could be presented to you just from one website. My mom uses it all the time to recruit employees. At my internship, I also was able to blog, but I learned how to create a radio story. This included skills in hosting a conference call, editing audio on Audacity, creating voiceovers, and using social media to publicize EarthScope. All these skills will help me in the future.

At EarthScope, I gained people skills. The ten work readiness skills that were pointed out at the beginning to notice about our selves were honesty, dedication, diligence, respect, communication, professionalism, literacy, willingness to learn, collaboration, and serving others. These were many traits to focus on, but the one I wanted to work on the most was communication. Communication has always been one of my weaknesses, and I wanted to improve this skill this summer. From the beginning, I emailed my supervisor, Catriona MacGregor Glazebrook, many times. I notified her about everything with some time to respond. I also communicated with Professor Duran about the work that needed to be completed for the class. As far as honesty, diligence, respect, literacy, willingness to learn, collaboration, and service to others, those have all been my strengths throughout my life. Because this was my first experience with an internship, I had to learn to dress professionally and write professionally especially when interviewing renowned scientists like Dr. Christian Frankenberg. Lastly, I have always been dedicated, but it was hard this summer to complete work with all my activities going on. I had to build the strength to buckle down and complete the work given. My people skills were certainly reinforced this summer.

I am very grateful for the opportunity I was given this summer to participate in EarthScope. Not many kids can say they were able to collaborate in a professional environment before they graduated high school. Because of this experience, I was able to get an idea of the career I would like to enter in the future. For example, I learned that I probably will not want to get involved in a career in journalism or broadcasting, but a job in science seems very exhilarating. Also, I am thankful for my amazing mentors at EarthScope like Catriona and Brian Pelletier. I am thrilled to share with my science teachers at school about EarthScope. We are so lucky to live in the Bay Area with so much wildlife and natural beauty. Learning about it in EarthScope was certainly worthwhile. As for the class, I am grateful to have people around me willing to prepare me for the career world and help me plan a budget for my future life. I feel more security knowing I have a plan. This internship and class have been very impactful in my life. I have gained many new skills and will continue to use these skills throughout my life. This summer was an experience I will never forget.