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 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.

css.php