Internship Week 6

Interns' Corner
Ashleigh Rose

During this week of my internship, I attended the weekly staff meeting as scheduled and produced the meeting minutes within the 24 hour deadline. I tracked my process through the group’s Trello board as instructed.

During the meeting they discussed Employee surveys for their previous year that ended Sept. 30th. They use these surveys to see what the supervisors are doing right and wrong and to see what in the office can be improved to lessen stress.

Also, they use the surveys to decide what their goals for this year will be. They have different goals for specific tasks, such as leadership, media, etc. The team works together to compile a list of goals and they narrow the list down to just 10 goals.

The team has various huddle meetings to breakdown goals and projects and they typically last an hour and meet once a week. They just created a huddle for all the team members related to students, intern or volunteer work so they can brainstorm projects and not take up time in the weekly meeting.

The weekly meeting always ends in a round robin where everyone says what they are working on or important dates coming up. They include the interns in this, so this is where I reached out to my supervisors and told them about the midterm assessment.

This week went by quick and I continue to look forward to the next weeks.

Internship Week 5

Interns' Corner
Ashleigh Rose

During this week of my internship, I was able to email back and forth with a few people in regards to upcoming projects. We scheduled a video chat for all the students and staff to get to know voices with faces. Also, I started to put my assignment on Trello and move it through the steps as necessary.

During the weekly staff meeting, I was able to take the minutes and submit them within the 24 hour window. This meeting was interesting because the team started a new year at the start of October instead of January. They are also forming a huddle meeting specifically for students and staff members to provide a better learning experience for the students and brainstorm more projects.

I reached out for more assignments and there is not any available at the moment for me, but are available for other types of interns so I am going to reach out again to see if I can aid in any projects they have.

The office has been very busy and stressful for the team so my team of interns is just attending the various meetings for now, but will soon be doing more.

I continue to look forward to the upcoming weeks.

Internship Week 4

Interns' Corner
Ashleigh Rose

This week of my Internship was a bit more individual work than the previous weeks. It was my own responsibility to know what I was doing and to get what I needed to get it done.

My weekly meeting felt short even though it went over time, but I planned ahead and made sure my professor knew I would be late just in case. I had to reach out to get the agenda and submitted the minutes on time to my lead.

I have noticed that most of the items that we discuss get taken care of at other meetings so I miss the actual break down of action items. Its unfortunate that I am in class during these meetings.

I believe new projects are going out next week so I plan on picking one up that fits into my schedule. I look forward to next week.

Internship Week 3

Interns' Corner,

This week in my internship I officially took the notes for the Digital Staff meeting. I was unsure on how it was going to work because I was on the phone with 13 people and I am uncomfortable with voices to names still. I was afraid I was going to miss something important or be asked a question I did not know the answer to.

Ashleigh Rose

Before the meeting took place, I personally reached out to David to see if we can do a roll call so I can hear the name to the voice again. He was more than happy to request this at the beginning of the meeting. He also sent me the agenda for the meeting along with an outline. I was very appreciative for his help and I feel more comfortable reaching out to him in the future.

The meeting went smoothly and I was able to follow along. I typed the minutes up and sent them to David to be checked over and resubmitted. He was impressed that I was able to put names to the voices and only had me do one name change correction.

We also discussed more projects that include research and a written explanation on the benefits and negatives of one mega social media page or several mini pages. So I look forward to being involved in more projects.

Lastly, I was given a culture lead that I can reach out to at anytime if I have any questions or concerns about how the VA or the digital media team operates. I am going to introduce myself with in the upcoming week. I would have this week but the staff had a very important meeting presentation and they needed all hands on deck.

So far I am continuing to enjoy this internship and I appreciate how nice and welcoming everyone is thus far.

NFB Internship – Summer

Interns' Corner, ,

Hi all!! It has been a while since I last posted anything. Since last fall, I have busy with classes and …surprise, another internship. Last spring, I was offered an internship at the National Federation of the Blind in Baltimore, MD. For six weeks, I lived and worked at the National Federation of the Blind, getting to know that amazing institution and the amazing people that work there. As you are probably wondering, the NFB is an association for blind people run by blind people and the majority of their workers are blind. The uniqueness of this opportunity was that I not only worked in the archives but also got to learn what it is like to be blind and how people cope with blindness. The core philosophy of the NFB philosophy is that blindness cannot stop you from achieving your dreams. With practice and determination, blind people can do anything they want. During this experience, I also learned how to interact with blind people and learn that people can achieve anything despite their disability.

As for the level of work I did, throughout the six weeks, I redid their magazine archives and updated their current magazine rack, part-took in research on archiving specialized tactile maps, and also continued on a their photograph project which is a project that is taking many years to complete. The reason why it is taking years to complete is due to the fact there are over 15,000 photos in the collections and each of them need to be individually catalogued and archived. This painstaking process will most likely continue for years to come due to the nature of the work. During the time I was there, I was able to travel to some amazing historical sites and other places around the Inner Harbor area of Baltimore. Thanks for reading! Below are some pictures of my time in Baltimore.

Internship Week Two

Interns' Corner, , ,
Ashleigh Rose

Week two of my internship was a wonderful experience, to say the least. This week I spent my time having one on one meetings with the Digital Media team.

I was able to learn so much about everyone individually and learn about the overall team and what they do. I learned that on average they post twice an hour over several different social media platforms, containing useful information, videos, and news updates throughout the day.

My first meeting was with Suzanna, who is the director of the team. After talking briefly I had a better understanding on how meetings are handled and what is the best way to manage time when working with others in different states. I was more than happy to hear her say that she would put me on some of her projects throughout the year.

I was also officially assigned my first ongoing task which is their weekly staff meeting. I will be typing the minutes and handing them in within 24 hours.

My team Leader David will pass out assignments via email as they arise and we interns are in charge of posting them and tracking until completion.

I was also invited to a Facebook-like communication system called Slack Lighthouse where I could be in contact with the other interns and 12 team members throughout the day to ask any questions or post about my assignments.

I learned that I could reach out to literally anyone on the team for help or to ask any questions. The team produces their best work because they mesh together in a perfect harmony. I reached out to Blake, another team leader, to get more information on details about assignments and was told I could ask for more at any time if I wanted or could handle it.

Over all week two was successful and I can not wait for the next meeting!

Internship Week One

Interns' Corner, ,
Ashleigh Rose

This semester I will be interning with the VA on their VHA digital media team as an administrative support specialist. I will be responsible for writing meeting minutes for staff meetings, keeping detailed logs of project performance/milestones, and sharing information via the group trello board.

During the first week of my internship, I was able to accomplish all of my given tasks and even picked out my continuous task for throughout the upcoming year. The prime source of communication was email but now we are given our assignments on Trello on top of our weekly assignment. For this week, I was able to reach out to all the members of the digital media team and schedule mobile meetings with them for the upcoming week. I was also successful in completing two Trello introductory assignments on time which consisted of two paragraphs about what I would like to accomplish and how it aligns with my education and career goals and some contact information.

I was able to attend the mobile digital meeting on Tuesday for an hour and was able to introduce myself to everyone and learn how the meetings are typically formatted and how they go through their meetings. I was assigned to attend this meeting every week and to officially take the minutes and submit them by the next day.

So far, this internship required me to be alert to all communication via email and promptly reply as soon as possible. I have to check Trello for updates and changes often, looking at other responses and looking at new assignments. Compared to the classroom I feel like this week was about average with the first week of school where it was not much to do but the communication between everyone was non stop and everyday. I will be working with staff team members and other student interns on specific projects like a group project. Overall the first week went smoothly and I look forward to upcoming assignments, consistent Tuesday Meetings, and my meet and greet meetings.

AHM Internship – Week 14

Anthracite Photographers, Interns' Corner

Hello All! Last Saturday was a complete success. We had about sixty people come to the grand opening which far surpassed how many I thought were going to attend. This exhibit really does reach deep into the history of Northeastern Pennsylvania and I am so proud to be part of the team who created it. It is hard to believe that this is my final post for the semester. I cannot believe how time has flied since I started posting 14 weeks ago.

Now that the openings are finished and the work is done, I cannot help to feel a little bit sad as I am unsure of what to do next. This experience has been awe-inspiring and I have been able to do so much more work than what normally would have been assigned.

On my last day of my internship, I was able to go with the curator to Eckley Miners Village located in Weatherly, PA. This site is part of Anthracite Complex, which is made of four historical institutions, including Anthracite Heritage Museum. It was quite the trip as Eckley holds a significant amount of historical importance as the site traces the daily lives of miners. Most of the houses are original from the heyday of mining in Northeastern Pennsylvania. I hope that I can tie the museum field with legislative policy in the future as I have a strong interest in both. I hope everyone has a happy holidays and who knows, I may be posting again in the future.

AHM Internship – Week 13

Anthracite Photographers, Interns' Corner

Well this week was the week! The last days were spent in preparation with last minute details such as making sure each picture and case had label and that all of our tools were cleaned up so that way the space did not look messy. One of the things that I really enjoyed this week was that I made the layout to the photo contest photographs on my own. Once I made a mock up of what they should look like on the wall I then started to place them on the wall. Once it was finished, I loved the way it looked.

Then, later on at night was our grand opening for VIP Members. I would have to say that it was a success. I was hoping for about thirty people to show up but we ended up having fifty people! That was a huge success and even better, everyone there enjoyed the exhibit. That was the main concern of everyone as I learned in the past exhibits AHM has produced, there were always a few complaints. Now it is time to look to Saturday as that is the official public opening and since we did not do an RSVP to that event, we have no clue as to how many people will be coming.

AHM Internship – Week 12

Anthracite Photographers, Interns' Corner

So this week was a short week as Thanksgiving is only two weeks away. Everything in the hall, besides the photo contest photographs, is set for our opening which is only 1 week away!! I cannot believe how time has flied since I was first put on this project in May. To see everything finally coming together is very exciting! This week, I hung the final portraits of girls working in the silk mills along with their labels before making a checklist of what we had and did not have in the exhibit. I attempted to mount some of the photo contest photographs but ran out of adhesive so that process is now a little behind. I then proceeded to make catalog each photograph and start a first draft of labels. Since this was a short week and I was on my own due to the holiday, I had to get a little creative on some aspects of the mounting because I could only do so much with little adhesive. However, I am happy to report that I did much better than last time, as I learned to utilize the edges which make cutting easier.

css.php