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.

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 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 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.

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