Internship Week 11

Interns' Corner,
Ashleigh Rose

This week at the VA and around the US, we celebrated Veteran’s Day. Not only am I interning with the VA, but most of my family are active military or retired veterans. Throughout my life, it was these family members that I would look up to and aspire to be, although I never had the desire to join the military.

Below are photos of some of my family members, not including My grandpa (Army) or my uncle Jimmy (Reserves). My Aunt Shelly met my Uncle Sid in the US Navy, and now their son will be joining within the next year. My brother wanted to make my grandparents proud so he joined the Army Reserves soon after high school. My dad too, wanted to follow suit of his parents and joined the Army after high school. He was stationed in Korea and in Germany before being medically released. My grandma served four years in the Air Force and my grandpa served in the Army and was an MP on base for a while, when released my grandma fell in love with photography and my grandpa became high ranking in a local police department. My Uncle Steve and Uncle Jimmy still serve in the Army reserves and get stationed overseas often. My Great grandpa served in WW2 and I actually never had the chance to meet him.

My cousin Timothy wanted to follow after his dad and joined the US Air Force, he is currently stationed in Italy. My uncle Bill, Air Force, just recently moved back from the US from Italy, but before he moved back he had to get home from Kandahar.

It was my uncle Bill who let me live on base with him in Italy for several months, to travel to Germany and France.

  • My Uncle Sid
  • My Aunt Shelly
  • My brother Jordan
  • My Dad Jeremy
  • My Brother Jordan
  • My Grandma Madeline
  • My Godfather Steve
  • My Grandma Madeline
  • My Cousin Timothy
  • My Uncle Bill

In support of Veterans Day the VA made several blog posts and various posts on social media, and in my meeting we went around to those who weren’t there last week and discussed their military ties.

This week I attended the meeting and got the notes published on time. I am still waiting to hear back if I have the okay to go to DC next semester. I was also selected to participate in a data entry project and a research project. I accepted both projects, one will be due next week and the other will be ongoing. I also was able to submit my family members photos and information to maybe be nominated for Veteran of the Day on the VA website! My uncle Bill was chosen but since he is still serving he was not eligible, I am submitting my Grandma, in honor of her passing, next.

Internship Week 10

Interns' Corner
Ashleigh Rose

This week the meeting went on without any issues, we discussed more of the weekly report (which was cancelled last week), as well as leadership charts, Veterans Day, and travel plans, along with the usual round robin discussion.

The weekly report was discussed briefly; they were all included on a list, and they each voted for what they thought the best ideas would better. Suzanna will pick the best and it will be discussed at a later day.

Travel plans were discussed for January 6th through 17th, I reached out to David about me being able to join in on the meetings for the first week. David thought that would be a good idea and will look into it for me. I am very appreciative that David is so nice; the atmosphere is very open and inclusive and I genuinely enjoy working on things for them.

For Veteran’s Day, We went around and spoke about all the veterans in our lives. They asked me to submit my family members to their “veteran of the day” social media campaign.

Suzanna handed out leadership charts, to make sure everyone knows their audience and knows the tiers of the organization. The charts are extremely helpful for everyone in the organization.

Internship Week 9

Interns' Corner
Ashleigh Rose

This week in my internship was different because my direct boss was still at a conference and many others were preparing for events. So the meeting was over about ten minutes early.

I was able to attend the meeting and take the minutes, I submitted them to both David and Blake who are both my lead contacts. I was unable to attend a video conference via skype that was planned because of class on Wednesday and I was actually sad because I was looking forward to seeing everyones actual faces, but I am sure there will be more opportunities for this in the future.

This week’s meeting was fun because there was an intern attending from Florida. She was visiting the office, and we got to hear what she does and her background. We went round robin for most of the meeting discussing who everyone was and what they do.

The two presentations on the weekly briefing and organization of shared drive were rescheduled to next week. But, we did discuss the VA’s plans for Veterans Day and the trip where everyone is going to DC in December. I wanted to see if I could possibly go, but they don’t know dates yet so I’ll wait and find out more at the next meeting.

Week 7 Internship

Interns' Corner
Ashleigh Rose

This week we discussed the purpose of the weekly staff meeting, which is to be an informational meeting that promotes cohesion across all team members, regardless of their primary duty.

We discussed some rules to a beneficial round robin and how to be respectful to others times during the round robin.

Also this week the interns participated in a survey with a 24 hour deadline on how the VHA can stream line and enhance communications between the team and the interns.

Also this week I handed in my midterm survey, which tells the school about my experience thus far in the year. I am enjoying my time with the VHA and I love everyone on the team. I have been successfully been able to attend meetings and submitted minutes while learning about the organization. I hope to be apart of more projects in the near future. I can see myself working on a team like this for my career.

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!

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