This concludes a semester of great success and achievements from the new groups of senior consultants! The photo above basically sums up our friendship and what we have been through. We started out as 13 shy interns that do not know what we have gotten ourselves into. Through out the shadowing hours, class times, getting lost while heading to our starting point for our walking tours, building for Roth Regatta and our final presentations, we have learned a lot about each other and what we want to do as Senior Consultants.

This semester has been quite a challenge for  me because I had taken a lot more than I could handle. I am glad that I have had the support of Rose & Pam, my fellow Interns and the current senior consultants. This internship has taught me a lot about what Stony Brook University has to offer to students and faculty. It also taught me that there are many people who do not know what is being offered on campus to students who paid the technology fee (which is everyone who is an undergraduate student). I believe that as a Senior Consultant, it is our jobs to connect students with services. Like Chuck Powell said ” TLT is the Heart and Soul of DoIT [and] students [are] helping students”. TLT is focused on connecting all the students, faculty and staff with the technology offered. When students, faculty and staff are happy with the positive services provided by not only the consultants but by the technological services on campus to enhance education, it starts the “Cycle of Love”- Jen Adams

When I first started the internship, I did not expect it to be what I went through. I came in with a very naive outlook and I was practically a sponge. I absorbed all the information, got excited over every little thing and wanted to share everything about everything to the world around me. I saw a vision that everyone I knew will use these services, be as passionate as I would be and share it with their friends. Sadly, that was not the case. The hardest part of the internship was getting people to listen to you. Whether it was your peers, friends, or just random students, it was so hard to get their attention, let alone have the information presented be understood. I learned the hard way that no matter how much information I provided the user would still ask me the same question. It is quite frustrating and it would sometimes discourage me and leave me with a bitter taste however I never gave up. I learned that people want to hear what they want to hear and sometimes you have to tell them how it is and explain it to them as clearly as possible. I feel like questions like “Do you understand?” or “Do you want me to clarify that?” really help with making the conversation more personable because some people do not like to admit that they do not understand. I used that lesson through my shadowing hours at the Student Help Desk and at the Front desk in the Main Library SINC Site.

As the internship progress, I became comfortable with my mentors and what it will be like as a Student Help Desk Consultant and as a Site Manager. I learned a lot in the first couple of week of my shadowing hours and started to be the one in charge. I would come across so many different types of issues that were beyond my comprehension but I knew where to find an answer or at least some help. I thought it was strange that some where in the middle of the shadowing period, my mentors ran out of things to teach me. I was wondering if there was some guideline that they were suppose to follow (both help desk and site manager). I believe the Site manager had something to go upon but the help desk did not have anything to go upon (at least not that I know of). I think that’s something that needs to be worked on. Both types of senior consultants should have a list of guidelines of what to do. I thought of this  but maybe interns can co-instruct a workshop with either the site manager or the student help desk consultant. Just an idea that came up.

Overall the internship was great. However I believe that for the shadowing hours, there should be more direction. I believe the senior consultants should be trained to be a mentor (?). I have been mentoring for years and I am still learning more about being a great mentor. All my mentors have taught me a lot but at some point, I felt like I haven’t learned enough to write about especially on “slow days”.

TLT Spring 2014 Interns: After