Linda's Learning Adventure

As I said in my last post, I’ll start beginning each post with my shadowing experience and end it with the class experience. So let’s begin!

When I shadowed Jessica, she reminded me on what the lateness and no-show policies were. If there should be a lateness or a no-show, I should write an email to TLT SINC Site coordinator. What I like most about Jessica’s mentoring style is that she does a lot of hands-on activities. In this case, she had me practice writing a no-show email and showing me what components were missing from the email. She also quizzes me on staff members and telephone numbers to make sure I know the information. Lastly, she ended the shadowing hours by having me practice answering the phone.

When I shadowed Jess in Teaching Learning Labs, he showed me ITSM tickets that support line creates. He also went over printing quota, virtual SINC Site, quota, etc. When I shadowed Steven in Central Reading Room, he went over the various ways to change your Solar password and the different applications of Solar. Then he went over NetID. He also mentioned various ways in which you can change the password. In addition, he explained what happens when a student graduates. Lastly, he went over the various Google applications, including Google Drive, Google Docs, ad Google Spreadsheet.

That week, Pam led the internship class. Her mission was to heighten our customer service skills. She split the class into groups of three and played a short video about an unprofessional employee in front of the classroom. Our task was to point out all the wrongdoings of that employee ( I counted 18 in the end). This employee was unbelievable!  He did not wash his hands, stuck gum to the lockers, slept at work, and the list goes on. Our groups eventually compared our findings and had about the same twenty observations. It turns out there were twenty eight wrongdoings in the video! Before we left Pam gave each of us individually wrapped pens (her favorite pens to add at that).

This week, Tara came in to class to teach us about ePortfolios. I’ve had some experience with ePortfolio, mainly because my freshman writing class required me to do so. Tara started off by asking if we had any professional digital footprints. One person had a start up company, others set up a personal website. Then it dawned on me that the only digital footprint I had was my social media websites! Though it may be a hassle to remember to write journals every week, I think this assignment benefits us interns in the long run. Most people, like me, probably only have Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages pop up when their name is searched on google. I could take this opportunity to advance my digital footprint earlier in life and impress my potential future employers. Returning to the class, Tara showed us how to set up a new ePortfolio. She reminded us to keep our information private, disable comments, and set privacy settings to our preferences (i.e. allow public viewing).

This week I’ll try something different. Instead of having each journal entry starting off with the class and expanding to my shadowing hours, I’ll reflect on my week starting Sunday and ending Saturday. So stay tuned to see what my shadowing hours were like for the week of 2/14!

Class on February 5th was cancelled because we had a snow day. But that didn’t stop us interns from the first week of shadowing. On Monday, February 8th, I shadowed Jessica. Jessica was very helpful and started the shadowing experience with a review of what senior consultants do. Then, she went on to talk about the differences in working as a student technologist and a site manager. She gave me important numbers to memorize as well as emails,usernames, and passwords. On Wednesday, February 10th, I shadowed Jeff. Jeff showed me around the support line and introduced me to Velaro. He briefly mentioned Roth Regatta and how it was such a bonding experience with the interns. Then I shadowed Steven. Central Reading Room was quite quiet at night, so there was not that much action. So far, shadowing has been a great experience. It allowed me to finally talk to some senior cons that I never even met before. Hopefully they can teach me more next week.

Truthfully, I didn’t know what to expect from this internship class. I didn’t know what we were going to do, if I had friends in this course, or if I was even at the right room. I was just sitting in the hallway, 30 minutes early for class, hoping I would see someone I knew.

Turns out, I knew half the class, but that also means the other half of the class were strangers to me, except their occasional appearance on SB Connect.

Rose began leading the class by going over the basics of the class, such as rubrics, responsibilities, and a general overview of the schedule. The usual syllabus week procedure. What caught me off guard was the TED talk video about labels. The video resonated with me because people give other people labels everyday, including yourself. You may not be able to stop people from giving you labels, but you can choose how you get labeled. At the end of the video, Rose asked us to post a discussion board thread on three labels that either I or others have given me. I sat there thinking about all the good labels and bad labels that have been passed down and modified throughout my life and what I would write about. This exercise got me thinking about the labels I want to change and create, especially by the end of the internship program.

So this assignment helped me set a goal for myself. It got me thinking about what type of person I wanted to be. Rose asked us why we wanted to be a senior con before we left. My personal take away is professionalism and leadership but there is one more label I should achieve at the end of this internship. I don’t know what it is yet, but it will surely dawn on me as the weeks go by.

(Maybe it will be improving on writing journals.)