2/7/15
Yesterday’s internship class began with an in-depth presentation on the career center by Urszula Zalewski, the assistant director of experiential programs. Ms. Zalewski explained the role of the campus career center as a bridge to connect qualified Stony Brook students to potential employers both off campus and within the university. She also offered important tips on how to succeed in the EXT internship program, placing great emphasis on creating a professional image. These tips include asking for clarification whenever I am unsure of my superior’s expectations, avoiding cell phone use while working, and doing my best to make communication clear and to the point both on the telephone and in emails. I am sure that this advice can be applied whether working in TLT or even in the professional engineering industry.
Next, Senior Consultants Jasmine and Jennifer reviewed the usage of Digication to create our own ePortfolios. They had a late start, so the workshop had to be somewhat rushed within half an hour. But, luckily every intern already had some experience with Digication from our WRT 102 classes and was easily able to follow along with Jasmine’s tutorial. I personally did not explore this tool very much while taking WRT 102 because I was just asked to post links to my essays. Therefore, the benefits of this workshop extended beyond a simple review and actually allowed me to learn about a surprisingly large number of the platform’s unfamiliar features. As far as the internship program is concerned, we will be using the ePortfolio as a way to sell ourselves to our peers and outside companies. This will supplement my continuously updating resume by presenting an even better idea of my talents, creativity, and strengths and hopefully set me apart from other candidates in the eyes of my future employer.
Although this technically was not part of the internship experience, I feel that my closing shift at Main Library later that day is also worth mentioning in this week’s journal. This is because I was sharing this shift with Jasmine, one of my Help Desk mentor to-be starting next week. I met Jasmine only once before last semester and earlier today as mentioned, so I didn’t have a complete idea of what to expect. I suppose that limited weekly interactions with the regular consultants is one of the downsides to being part of Help Desk. Anyway, I regrettably admit that the first hour or so of my shift was pretty awkward because we were just sitting next to each other at the front desk silently with zero interaction. But, between helping users and advising a friend interested in applying to TLT on steps to take, Jasmine and I eventually opened up to one another. She talked about her job at help desk and we shared our individual experiences as interns. As expected, Jasmine gave off positive vibes of professionalism and maturity even as we were struggling to arm the system alarm at the site closing. After reaching out to other consultants who have worked the closing shift before, we quickly figured out that the dangling chain needed to be pulled to properly shut the door closest to the front desk and eliminate the system fault. I found it interesting that neither Jasmine nor I regularly closed Main Library in the past, so the three hour shift became both a learning experience and a mentor-mentee introductory session for the two of us.
I’m happy that my mentor is someone that I so quickly gained respect for and look forward to officially shadowing Jasmine soon!