Entry #10 (Final Reflection)

Final Reflection: This internship experience is one that I am so thankful for. I learned soft skills and hard skills. Some soft skills it taught me was time management with my projects and how to work on those at an efficient pace to get things done on time, while still being my best work. I also learned how to lead and participate in meetings, as we had them once a week formally, and everyday informally. I took notes, contributed ideas, and communicated progress to important people and coworkers to share my input on issues or show my projects. I also learned how to answer the phone of a company effectively and deal with walk-in guests as I worked the front desk a few times. In these situations I had to fulfill requests on the spot, and guide these guests in the places they need to go. I was also the first face people saw when they walked into the church office, so it was important to be pleasant and respectful to keep the company's good image. I also learned how to work in a collaborative work space, in an office where the doors were always open. This meant it was super easy to ask my supervisors for help or just a quick question, and I really valued this during my internship. I also did some real world stuff that I didn't realize companies faced. I had to organize and cleanup the church's database system that had over 14,000 records. It was a tough task to handle but they needed someone to do it, so I taught myself quickly to fulfill the company's needs. It really helped them make things run smoother and faster and I'm so glad I could do that for them. The system their database was on was called ACS and it was pretty old, so I could get the functions down easily. I also used WordPress to do website redesigning, and I didn't realize that a large number of companies actually use WordPress for their websites, so I think learning how to use it was beneficial. It was easy to navigate, and was generally drag and drop features that we could add our own information to. I also helped out around the office doing all kinds of tasks such as ordering things they needed, delivering middle school kits to students' houses, and running errands to get supplies. I think this was such great work experience that I have learned numerous lessons from. I think I also grew as a person and my work habits are so much better. I definitely am grateful that AOIT gave me this opportunity, and I want to do this again in the future. 

Entry #9

Reflection: Some of the frustrations I felt were having trouble with WordPress. The whole process was fairly easy to pick up, but me and my coworkers were frustrated at the loading time WordPress had between screens. All of our blog posting and page creating took longer than it should have because we were waiting around for the page to load for half a minute every time. I think if this hadn't been a problem things could've gotten done a lot faster. But, this is out of our control so we adapted and did our best despite that. This problem also allowed us to multi-task and do other things at the same time. That helped us try to kill two birds with one stone and stay productive for the day. I also faced frustrations when the database had missing information that led us to have to contact people to find out these pieces of missing info. We solved these problems by staying organized on a spreadsheet with color coded cells in the places we needed to look further into. It was a good organizational strategy that helped us be accurate in all the database work. I didn't face any other frustrations, and things were smooth!

Entry #8

Date: 7/29/19
Activities: Last day, VBS organization and execution
Technical Information: None
Reflection: Beside technical skills, I have learned a lot about myself and what I want in my career. I have always wanted to be a teacher, but I knew that there are other occupations and tasks that I can see myself doing for a career. I have done DECA through high school, placed, and really excelled in that environment. Because of this, I could see myself working in a real-world business setting and doing really well doing that using my skills. This internship has let me actually put that idea to life in a business. I faced problems that businesses face on the daily, things they do frequently, strategies, etc. More specifically I learned that I can do really well in a flexible, open work environment. The relaxed feel that the church office had was comforting and it felt very natural and easy to carry out my day-to-day tasks. I have learned also that I do not work the best when given detail work-in the sense that I take my time on every thing, even if it's rather small. This hurt me when I realized I had a deadline to meet, and was spending too much time doing the little things that weren't on the final product. But, I have done better as I've gained experience in working efficiently and effectively.

Day-By-Day:
On Monday, it was my last day and also the start of VBS (Vacation Bible School). VBS is a big deal at the church, and there is a very large number of kids who participate in it. The kids followed along to some songs and easy games, and it was fun helping out in any way I can, even if it wasn't so technical. Then after the kids left around lunch I headed back to the office and gave my thank you notes and gifts to my supervisors. It was sad to see this internship come to an end! I also explained where I left off on my projects so they had a smooth transition when I left.