I'm going with option B this time. The experiences that I will be bringing back to school will be ones of productivity and work management. Just shy of 3 weeks now I've been managing my own work routine, and so far it has been very productive. Another experience is independence. I don't have someone checking on me every 15 minutes or so to see how I'm doing ; I am responsible for making things happen, which is an important trait for completing any assigned work. Being productive and independent are traits that are valued in any workplace, and doing so on a timely schedule.
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So for this blog post we are supposed to write about our current largest challenge that we face at our internships. Hate to disappoint, but I am not facing any difficulties at the moment. The only difficult thing would really just be getting the spreadsheet I've been working on finished completely, but I'm almost done. The writing assignment that I've been given, which is writing a renewal request letter for a grant, isn't that difficult either. I only need a few more days and I'll have it done as well. The Opera on the other hand, they have had a cash catastrophe that didn't look too not to long ago. I haven't inquired about this in depth, but what I do know is that the Opera almost shut down due to a lack of funding, and that they were very lucky to make it through. Hopefully that letter I'm writing will help prevent that from happening again.
I've read and commented on blogs from Tim Matista, Aubrey Scott-Eversole, and Daniel Marquez, and so far I've seen this in common with them: they all are interning at locations that will give them experience in the careers that they will choose(most likely related to the internship site.) They look like they are enjoying themselves too (somewhat at least.) However, my own interning experience is not similar to those three; I haven't been having a pleasurable time in the work that I've done up till today,(finally got a wrting assignment) and I haven't learned any other skills aside from gathering information on grant givers. Hopefully I will learn more in the next 2 weeks than I have in the past.
These are all the pictures that I took from this week. Monday, very tired(almost no sleep.) Tuesday, waiting for my sandwich. (pic below) Wednesday, searching through tax pdf forms of grant givers, and birthday cake for a co-worker(pic below) Thursday(I think), selfie with my mentor Friday, with the wonky elevator(it sometimes goes to random floors if you push the floor button you're going to, I ended up just taking the stairs.) Said stairs(marble carved, if I'm not mistaken.)
I'm going with option A on this one.
How do I see myself growing/changing during the course of this internship...hm. Well, I do see workplaces in general with a bit more respect now. I've seen the results of hard work and the purpose of it, which prior to this internship I had no experience of. It's given me a new perspective on working, now that I'm the one doing it and not just hearing about it or seeing it, and I can work knowing that it's for a clear reason, not a vague goal off in the distance.(coughamericaneducationsystemcoughgoingtocollegecough) I also think that other schools should do this kind of interning too, because it will give students a preparatory taste of what the working world is actually like outside of a classroom. The culture of the workplace is very relaxed as far as professionalism goes: no one is overbearing or particularly pushy around the office, and the occasional all-office laugh is herad whenever a joke goes around. Socializing has found its way into everyone's work too. If you need to drop by to give someone an update on something, a little friendly chat usually follows. Everyone usually works in their own cubicle, but they are very much collaborative with work that needs attention and constant communication(fund research, for example.) All in all, it's pleasant to work here.
I still haven't determined what my intern project will be yet, as my mentor is still thinking over what job he wants to put me on. He's mentioned things along the lines of grant proposals or a summary of the annual report, but there's no definitives yet. I will brainstorm any ideas I think of later with him, but for now I'm still doing spreadsheets.
The work I do right now is very tedious and intern-level, but it has a certain level of weight to it. As you saw in my previous post, I'm inputting criteria into an Excel spreadsheet from various organizations, and that input will dictate who would be willing to help fund the Opera. While it seems dull now, this information will be needed later to fundraise, keep the Opera functioning, and keep my co-workers in a job. The people in the community benefit by being able to see a well-funded opera; it is a quality performance that had the resources to be a quality performance.
The person that I interviewed was interviewed on the same day as my mentor and I were, so I will tell about him. His name is Justin(a co-mentor, as I will be working under him mostly), he's a college graduate in music theory and civil service, and he works as a grant researcher for the San Diego Opera. Initially he wanted to pursue music as a career, but found that the effort given to the amount of income wasn't workable. So he finished out his bachelors for music and took courses in civil services, and ultimately ended up working for the Opera. His job is to research organizations that would be willing to donate to the Opera and contact them with donor requests.
(Justin on the left) There wasn't much that really blew me away during the first we, except for how fast the days were going by. The whole week I was steaming away at the task I was assigned: putting together and filling out an excel spreadsheet for potential grant donors. I have to find out various criteria for the donors and put in the entries based on what I find. Criteria like: what is their asset size? What is the range of their grants? How much do they give on average? Are they likely to give to SD Opera? It's very tedious, but not very difficult, and incredibly time intensive too; I'll walk in at 9:30, sit down at my desk, and before I know it its 11:39. So the most surprising thing is really how fast the time flies.
(Spreadsheet below) |
Joshua McCuinI'm student at HTHI, I love |