Week 3- LCHS

Interns' Corner

As I began week 3 on Wednesday, I finally managed to complete the first box. I managed to put the disorganized documents back to their appropriate dates while recording their contents. I also managed to start the second box, completing the years 1830 and 1831. However, the next year and folder detailing 1832 have proven itself to be the largest folder so far. On Friday, Amanda taught me a new format when it comes to recording the documents. The new format is essentially “last name, first name- subject”. If I was unable to decipher the name of someone then all I had to do was this “_______- subject”. That way if I am unable to fully transcribe the contents of a document then a future reader may be able to do so. Despite this new format, I was unable to finish 1832. It must have been a very busy year for Maxwell as a good number of the documents were either to him or from him. I remembered that in the previous years Bowman mostly received letters and Maxwell probably kept them for safekeeping. Until I remembered it had been three years after Bowman had died, which means that Maxwell was now in charge. This meant he was now more involved in the writing now rather than just answering on behalf of Bowman. One letter I noticed was from someone named Thomas Williamson, and regards Maxwell as a friend. Although, I have not been able to find much information regarding Williamson besides working with Maxwell, it was nice to see a link to Bowmans’ personal and professional life. There was also a letter from Laurence and Martha Good (I am unaware regarding if the two were either married or siblings) that appointed Maxwell as a lawful attorney of petitions. I thought it was interesting to see a document that discussed Maxwell’s progression as a lawyer despite my unfamiliarities with the profession.

Spring Week 2 Internship

Interns' Corner

This week was very relaxed. I attended the weekly staff meeting and handed in the minutes on time. I  was requested to be at a meeting on Wednesday to discuss a new project on going through the Social media comments for the main VA Facebook page and Twitter accounts, but the meeting was cancelled last minute and needs to be rescheduled.

I am compiling data still for my main project that is going through last years weekly reports and completing averages for the data within them. I was told to hold off on the project until we schedule a phone meeting and I get the rest of the reports. The deadline is still unknown.

I also completed a social media post exercise to see if I could create posts for the page under their guidelines. I created four different posts on different topics and submitted on time. I haven’t heard anything back as of yet, but everyone on the team was required to submit and they were looking mostly for team members so they would look at mine last.

 

High hopes to get everything settled for the next projects.

Week 2

Interns' Corner

As I began my second week on January 29th, I made a promise to myself to complete the first box by the end of the week. On Wednesday, I managed to complete the second folder and managed to get some work done for the third folder going through the years 1820, 1821, and 1822. On Friday, I worked through most of folder three and went through the years 1823-1826. Towards the end of the day, Amanda brought up a new rule for me to follow whenever I finish for the day: I am to save a copy of what I have written in total to a flash drive so that the Historical Society has a second copy of my note-taking. However, I noticed some papers from 1822 and 1826 were not separated from their groups. In order to not lose track of these documents, I placed them in a folder that I simply titled as “Disorganized”. On Saturday, I managed to complete the third folder and the first box. The last three years that I had to move were 1827-1829. Unfortunately, the disorganized documents will have to be completed hopefully by Wednesday. That said I made a promise to complete the three folders by the end of the week, so it is not a total loss in my opinion.

One of the interesting themes revolving around Maxwell was that a lot of the documents he had were financial in context. There were some land deeds, articles of agreements, documents that involved debts from people, ledgers, and bills that I had managed to decipher as much as I could. If I were to make an assumption about what kind of law Maxwell practiced, it would be financial. He was also probably in charge of the finances involving his possible mentor and/or partner, Ebenezer Bowman. Most of the documents are directed towards Bowman, who, I read, was a lawyer at the time and was older than Maxwell, considering the former participated in the Battle of Bunker Hill. So it’s possible Maxwell dealt heavily with Bowman’s finances or those of their firm. To conclude, I managed to finish the three folders of box 1 and have theorized the career of Volney Maxwell.

Week 1

Interns' Corner,

During the first week of my internship at the Luzerne County Historical Society, I quickly understood what was expected and what my assignment would be. My assignment is to review old documents that belonged to a man named Volney Maxwell. Maxwell was a lawyer and one of the earliest members of the historical society in the 1800s. On Wednesday, and the first day of the internship, I was not fully introduced to the materials I needed to use. Amanda Fontenova, the curator, wasn’t in the office. Instead, I worked with another employee named Mark Riccetti. That day I decided to look up some information regarding Mr. Maxwell. What I learned was that he gave two lectures in 1858, which were published in the society archives. There was also the fact that society’s headquarters used to be his widow’s home. On Friday, I began to work with Amanda. She told me that I needed to look through the upstairs archives and go through folders inside these boxes that contained all documents Maxwell kept over the years. As I sifted through old documents, I did my best to decipher the old fashioned penmanship and type a brief description of what each was about. Most of them were letters from his legal partners like Ebenezer Bowman, who I learned was a veteran who participated in the Battle of Bunker Hill. There were even some letters from two people who were a part of the Continental Congress: Samuel Meredith and Tench Coxe. Meredith was a prominent merchant at the time who later became George Washington’s Secretary of the Treasury, and Coxe was an economist. I ran into some financial statements and land deeds as well. On Friday, I managed to complete the first folder which ranged from 1804-1809. The next day, I began to work on the second folder of the first box. By the time I had left, I only had two remaining years left, 1818 and 1819. During my first week, I learned the ropes of what I am expected to do as well as testing my reading and deciphering skills (paleography), since the writing style of the period made it difficult to figure out the documents.

Week 1 Spring- VA

Interns' Corner, ,

Ashleigh RoseImmediately after I got back from the staff retreat in D.C, I was pushed right back into my daily routine of school. The VHA digital media team decided to cancel the staff meeting and they gave me time to reflect on what I liked about the trip and what could be changed.

But I still did some work that week: I submitted my PowerPoint on how to improve the internship program, I answered two staff members’ email requests, and attended an Equitas training seminar.

This last week, I attended the staff meeting and turned in the meeting minutes. We briefly discussed the trip and everyone’s time off, and who would cover for whom. I was selected to review the social media comments for Facebook and Twitter, which is super exciting.

I was also chosen to review and formulate a spreadsheet of weekly reports for all of 2019’s social media.  I will collect data and produce a report with averages and what worked and what didn’t. I will officially start that in the next few days.

Also I am super excited for a possible upcoming project which would be going to the Wilkes Barre VA Medical Center and taking photos and videos. I did a one hour training session on video editing on the retreat and Matthew thought that he could work this out.

Also in the future I will be attending a seminar on Social Studio, which is another social media data resource.

This internship has been nothing but an amazing experience, and I look forward to future projects.

Winter Break Internship

Interns' Corner

Ashleigh RoseOver the course of winter break I stayed busy, working hard on a few projects. I was also able to attend the staff retreat conference for a week in Washington DC.

On my first project, I had to view over 100 VAMC’s Facebook pages and collect data, checking on whether their posts were getting engagements, how often they were posting, and other data like that. On the second project I had to collect similar data and work with averages for the month of November. I had to compile my data in several spreadsheets and input them into a PowerPoint. After some analysis, I created recommendations on how to better engage through social media, and created a posting schedule for the VAMC’s posts for Facebook and Twitter. I was then able to present my findings and my pitch at a meeting in DC. My third project was to verify five communication points for all the VAMCs; I had to call over 140 locations and view their individual websites to do this project.

My trip to DC was a wonderful experience. I was able to sit in on many presentations and several meetings. I went in for the normal 8am-5pm shift and even had team excursions after work. I am so thankful for Blake, Monica, and Jeff’s hard work to get me there. I learned so many things and was invited to webinars, trainings, and another online internship!

I am finishing up my third project and will be attending the Health content meeting for the upcoming semester. I will also be creating a PowerPoint on how to better communicate with interns and how to expand the program.

I am very grateful for everything this week, and will never forget this experience.

Week 15 Internship

Interns' Corner

Ashleigh RoseThis week has been a long and stressful week, between my check up project with the VA and my school finals, but everything worked out in the end and I got everything completed and submitted on time.

This week’s staff meeting was moved so I was unable to attend but spent several days working on my Digital media checkup project.

I am still waiting to book the hotel; I need one more person to reach out to me when everything is official and set to go. I am super excited to go to the conference in January and I appreciate David’s constant work to help me be able to attend.

I also volunteered for another digital media project like the check up but slightly different. So, I look forward to doing that over Christmas break. It has several requirements that I meet so I can actually do it.

 

Week 14 Internship

Interns' Corner

Ashleigh RoseThis week has been super busy for me between the internship and class work, but some how it is all coming along.

I was able to attend the meeting and get the minutes sent out on time. This week’s meeting discussed a new organization strategy other than Trello and Benefit plans they could get through their job.

I also started working on the digital check up project and got the due date for that, which will be next week. It matches up with Finals nicely. All I am doing is going to all of the Facebook pages , which there is one for each facility, and collecting data for one month and scoring each aspect. After I collect the data, I input and submit the spread sheet to Blake.

I submitted my vendorization form last week, but should be hearing back with in the next few days about booking my hotel room for the January DC conference. They scheduled the Town Hall meeting during the days I will be there, so I get to meet everyone. During this trip, I will also work out a new meeting/huddle to attend for next semester.

 

I am working hard on the projects given to me and I cannot wait until the conference. I appreciate that everyone is so easy to work with /for and the help I am getting to make the trip possible.

Week 13

Interns' Corner

Ashleigh RoseThis week was a short week for everyone, myself being on Thanksgiving break, and my VA supervisor took the week off for the same reasons. I wasn’t able to attend the weekly meeting so I didn’t have the chance to do the minutes. I sent over the final evaluation forms to be filled out, and also sent over my vendorization form so I can attend the meetings in January.

I am very excited to be given the opportunity to go and I appreciate David working hard to get everything in order to make that possible.

Blake sent out the instructions for the project I signed up for and I will be starting this week on getting it done as soon as possible. Blake also sent out a new project, but I had to refuse because my skill set would not have been an Asset to that particular project.

I am excited to see what comes next.

 

Internship Week 12

Interns' Corner

Ashleigh RoseThis week has been an exciting and busy week for my internship. I started the week with a group meeting for a project I signed up for with Blake and other volunteers. I was able to select the Facebook aspect of the project and will handle data research and input into their system to help them understand current posting habits on all of the facility pages.

Then I was able to attend the staff meeting and submit the minutes for on time. Here we went through a new way of filing information on their stored drive. We also talked about travel plans and I was made aware that I was able to attend the trip in January. I worked closely with David and Suzanna who worked with Monica, in order to make it possible for me to attend and pay for the hotel room that I will stay at. I appreciate their help through the process and look forward to the trip.

I also had another project due on Wednesday to Blake. He needed the interns to do research on when the best time is to post on social media pages. It was fascinating to learn that there is better times for certain companies to post certain topics at certain times to boost the viewing levels. We had to find data and summarize and submit to Blake so he can review and learn as well.

 

This week has been fun and informative in may aspects, whether it was organization ideas or about the research we did. I am looking forward to the Facebook project with Blake and to see how the statistics I gather will compare to their other social media pages.

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