GREAT RIVER LEARNING (TECHNOLOGIES) SUMMER INTERNSHIP

By: Alex Rodriguez

Introduction Motivation Interview Process Work Environment Job Site Information Initial Resume Job Description Log of Activities Learning Plans Drafts and Reflections Objectives #1-6 Coursework Connections Complete Journal Informational Interview Evaluation Final Resume Conclusion Contacts/networking

Page 2 Pages 3-7 Pages 8-10 Pages 11-13 Page 14 Pages 15-16 Pages 17-18 Pages 19-21 Pages 22-38 Pages 39-56 Page 57-62 Pages 63-79 Pages 80-81 Pages 82-84 Pages 85-86 Pages 87-92 Page 93

Introduction
I am the Assistant Web Project Editor. My job is to create web projects from information given to us by the Authors. The information given to us by the Authors will be used by them at their selective Universities for a fall, spring or summer course. My job also consists of me helping other interns as well as other co1

workers with anything they need help in. We, as Assistant Web Project Editors, have a due date for each project which is typically either a week or 2 weeks and depending on how big the project is, a month. Coming into the Publishing Industry I did not know what to expect. I was a little nervous going into it because it was something I had no information about but I was ready to take on the challenge. The first week I spent getting trained by two other interns that worked at GRT for a year, I also spent the first two days reading three books and those three books actually benefited me. I learned a lot from those three books and to be honest, it showed me what to expect working at GRT as well as it showed me how GRT wanted me to act in the workplace. Another thing I had to do was to consider about how I would present the information I would gain in my internship to the school. I thought about it and I decided that I would try to explain everything I did in detail as well as answer any questions that anyone might have about my time with GRT. One my first day, I was not faced by my lack of knowledge about the industry I was going to be a part of, I attacked it just how I attacked going to Loras College and just how I attacked baseball when I first began at the age of 10. I was self-assured that I would do a great job with GRT and that my supervisor would be very proud of me.

Motivation
My motivation for applying for this internship was very simple. I decided to apply for this internship because I thought it was appropriate for me to get one. I've heard plenty of times in almost all of my classes that getting an internship while in college is very essential for college graduates when applying for a job. Also, I heard from a few of my teammates who have worked there before that it is a great experience as far as showing us what "real world" is going to be like but it has also given me a great experience with technology. I did not know I was capable of doing the projects I am doing now with such little knowledge of the servers we use but the training provided to me by GRT was very helpful and I learned it very quick. Another big reason I applied for this internship is because quite frankly I needed a job for the summer here in Dubuque and this internship sounded very interesting to me so I thought to myself, "Why not?" and applied. My supervisor actually got back to me quite fast and we actually got in touch a few times, the first time was when she asked me for my resume and the second time was when we needed to set up a time for an interview. Im not going to lie, when I first received an email from my supervisor, Billee Jo Hefel, I thought that I was talking to a guy and when I arrived at GRT for my interview I was in shock when I saw her walking down the stairs smiling at me. A long with those couple of reasons, I have some more reasons as to what motivated me to get an internship. One of the other reasons why I decided to take on an internship this summer was to decide if this is the right path for me. Although this internship is for the Publishing Industry and is not my area of expertise, it will still give me a good sense about how working in a corporate
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atmosphere is like. This internship will allow me to gain valuable insight into the corporate word and help me decide whether or not the industry is the right choice for me. Its always good to know if what youre getting yourself into is indeed the best possibility for yourself, and in my opinion this internship can help me do that. The last reason of motivation was that I was told by a few of my Professors at Loras that the experience I would gain at an internship will provide a valuable opportunity to share my skills with a potential employer long before the hiring process for an entry-level job occurs. What I mean by this is that it is sort of like opening a door at the company for yourself, if youve impressed them; youll probably be on the list of top candidates for the job right after you are done with school. Also, Professor Ron Collins told us in our Human Resources class that students who graduate and have some kind of internship experience are more likely to get a job right after school than those who dont have an internship. Here are a few emails exchanged between Billee Jo and myself. Here, I got a sense of what professional email look like and it shows you why I was confused as to what Billee Jos gender was.

Interview Process
As far as this internship goes, I hope to learn what it feels like to be out in the "real world". I want to gain first-hand experience on the different things that make a "real world" job so special. I want to gain experience on how supervisors, managers, and co-workers interact with one another and what makes a positive work environment a positive work environment. It is also good to see how people work in different situations; from pressure situations to situations where you have a long time to complete a project. I also would like to gain knowledge on the Publishing Industry itself and as well as what makes GRT such a well-known Publishing company with many Authors and Professors. With the experience and knowledge that I would gain at GRT, I look forward to using that acquired information when I go back to school for my last year in college as well as keep it in mind once I enter the real world. My impression going into the interview/hiring process was that maybe I was not qualified for the job. I did not know what to expect, I mean, I have had 3 mock interviews here at Loras College and I knew I was going to prepared but I think a mock interview is way different than a real interview. I did not know what kind of questions they were going to ask me so I think I might have over prepared for the interview but you can never over prepare for something. I was feeling nervous because it was my first actual real interview and I was also anxious to get it over with. The 10 minute wait did not help my nervousness at all but I took a deep breather and knew that I had nothing to lose. During the interview Billee Jo asked me some personal questions to get to know me then she proceeded to ask me the real questions. She was impressed with my resume and acknowledged the fact that I am not afraid to get my hands dirty (referring to my work experience being a
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maintenance worker at Freedman Seating Company). She was also impressed with the project that I helped set up for the children of families in need in my neighborhood alongside the 12th Ward Alderman. I explained to her that I help set up a three day event for children of families in need get school supplies before the school year started. We also brought in kiosk with different vendors; they offered drinks, food, face paint and the school supplies. A long with that, we brought in some amusement rides for the children as well as a few musicians and DJs. We had local after school clubs come in and offer free membership to the children of the families that were there. We also got a chance to bring in Mayor Richard Daley and had him give a speech to all of the families in attendance. But the Mayor wasnt the only one to give a speech; I was picked by the Alderman to give a speech in Spanish and English in front of all of those families on the values of family, school and staying out of trouble. I was given a standing ovation and Mayor Daley complimented me on my speech and my design/logo for the project. Yes, thats right, I designed the logo for the first ever Latinos for Education Foundation project. Felt great helping out those families and by telling Billee Jo this story she was glad to have me interested in coming in and working at GRT. The interviewer, Billee Jo, left me with the impression that I over think things and that once I take a breather I am perfectly fine. Also, once she said that I had the job I took a sigh of relieve and had a big smile on my face. It just goes to show you that with a little confidence and the proper training from those mock interviews, I was able to impress her enough that she offered me the job on the spot. After the interview, I was definitely more interested in the position because she took the time to show me what my position does for the company. She also showed me a few projects that they were working on and I was very impressed
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with them, from the technology used to the quality of the product. The one thing that stuck with me was when Billee Jo said that the thing she liked the most about me was that I was ready for the interview. She said I came well-prepared, I came in to the interview knowing some information about the company that I gathered from their website, made eye contact, I was self-assured and most importantly I came prepared with questions to ask Billee Jo. By going through this interview process, I learned that everything happens for a reason and good things come to those who wait. I also learned that I am very good interviewer and that when I act like I know how to act I can get the job accomplished.

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Work Environment
GRT had by far the best work environment Ive ever been a part of. Everyone was real friendly and they made you feel like you were wanted. They also made great food during food days! They were not afraid to share food and always made sure we had some of their food. GRTs work environment is definitely made for me; I was able to talk bad back and forth about the Cubs and White Sox with John Vail, the Assistant Vice President. As far as who I interacted with, I typically interacted with the other interns since we had to make projects together sometimes and we usually help each other out on projects that we are working on individually as well. Other people I interacted with were a couple of the managers as well as the other co-workers that assigned us the projects. The office is filled with cubicles in the middle and supervisors/managers offices on the outside of the cubicles. Our area is divided from GRT to Kendall Hunt Higher Education Department to Kendall Hunt K-12 Department. When I first started at GRT, my cubicle was located in the GRT area in between Jessica and Tracey. But after a month, GRT hired two full-time employees and I was informed that I was going to be moved by the other interns and the only bad thing about that was that there cubicles are located in the Kendall Hunt side of the 3rd Floor. Although we sat in the Kendall Hunt side, it wasnt that bad, we actually got to meet a few of the Kendall Hunt managers as well as Kendall Hunt employees. Even though we were not located in the GRT side of the floor that did not stop us from interacting with the other GRT employees. We all had a great time and still managed to finish our work on time.

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A few of the GRT employees would come over to our cubicles and chat with us. Whether it was asking how we liked working at GRT or just asking us about our weekend, they always made us feel like we were a part of their family. This was definitely a different experience for me since my previous work experience has been teaching kids about the fundamentals of baseball and working maintenance at a seating company. Working with children was definitely hectic and working at a factory was by far my worst experience with work environment but it definitely taught me the most. The work environment at Freedman Seating Company was by far the worst. The workers working in the actual factory where not the nicest of people, they made my life miserable since I was part of the maintenance department and did anything to get us fired. But we were able to keep our mind straight and make the most of our time at the company. As far as having my own space, I had my own cubicle as well as my own phone and extension. Here, you can see how much my co-workers loved me. Since my last day was August 7th and my 21st birthday was August 9th, they decorated my cubicle. It was a great sight when I walked in and something I wont forget.

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As far as there being a formal introduction, yes, there was. My supervisor took me around our office and introduced me to every single person in there and made sure I interacted with them by making small conversation with each one of them. She also showed me where the conference rooms where at as well as the lunchroom. She then proceeded to take me to John Vails office to make sure there wasnt going to be a problem between us. John is a Cubs fan and I am a White Sox fan; just a little humor to get my nerves down on the first day at GRT. John, Billee Jo and I had a nice conversation about my past, where I was from and why I chose Loras. This minor conversation showed me just what type of people work at GRT.

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Job Site Information

Great River Technologies 4050 Westmark Drive Dubuque, IA 52002 Phone: (800) 344-9043 Fax: (563) 589-1275 contactus@greatrivertech.net

Hours Monday Friday 8:00 a.m. 5:00 p.m. CST

Web Support (800) 344-9051 websupport@greatrivertech.net

If you want more information, our job site information can be found at www.greatrivertech.net

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Initial Resume
Alex Rodriguez
2326 W. 23rd Place, Chicago, IL 60608 1450 Alta Vista Street Box# 1251, Dubuque, IA 52001 alex.rodriguez@loras.edu 1-773-320-6374

Education
Loras College - Dubuque, IA BA Major: Business Management Major / Minor: Math Anticipated Graduation Date: May 2014 Lake View High School - Chicago, IL High School Diploma Received: June 2010

Work Experience
Carl Tebons Summer Baseball Academy Baseball Camp Director

February 2011 present (4 weeks program per Summer)

Designed, coordinated and delivered specific teaching sessions during camp Responsible for 14 children/players Provided coaching, feedback, and evaluation of players Kept children engaged and involved through mentoring and presentations

Freedman Seating Company Maintenance Worker 4545 W Augusta Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60651 (Seasonal Employment)

June, 2006 August, 2006 June, 2007 August, 2007 June, 2008 Sept, 2008

Troubleshoot machines in a timely and effective manner Assisted in painting companys roof and 165,000+ square foot building Facilitation of introduction to new employees about the company and facilities

Activities/Skills/Volunteerism
Loras College Baseball Team - 3 years Bilingual: English and Spanish Volunteered in the 12th Ward Latinos for Education Foundation Project in Chicago, IL o Designed the logo for the project o Provided school supplies and club opportunities for children of at risk families in the area Member of the Loras College Baseball Mentor Program at Prescott Elementary School o Weekly commitment o Assist child with homework, computer tasks, and general play time

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*References available upon request

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Work Responsibilities
I was involved in quite a few projects my first two weeks. I was involved in big project for Michigan State University for a wine class called Wine and other Hospitality Beverages. I also helped other interns with a quick project; they just needed me to fix some material for them since they were leaving (The project was for a summer class at Sonoma State). I also worked on "Introductory Physics 102" for Wathiq Abdul Razzaq as well as a project for a summer course at New Mexico State titled "Concepts in Physics - 212". Then on Thursday, June 6th, I worked on a project for a Psychology class at the University of South Alabama.

A typical day in the office is as follows: I arrive at the office between 7:40 AM and 7:50 AM. I then sign in to my computer and sign in to ADP, which is how GRT keeps track of our hours and lunch breaks. I clock in as soon as I get there and then I check my email. If I do not have any emails I go to Assembla, which is where our projects are posted, and check for new projects. The best part about Assembla is that there are always projects so I always have something to do. After I choose a project, I read into it to see what needs to be done and then I work on it until I go to lunch. I usually go on my lunch break at 11:30 and take a half hour lunch. Every time I leave for lunch I have to clock out of ADP and when I get back from lunch I have to clock back in. After all of that is taken care of, I continue working on the project I was working on or I go ask other interns if they need help with anything. Usually they do need help but when they don't, I go back to Assembla and assign myself another project and work on it until my day is done which is usually at 2:30 PM or if it's a Friday then my day finishes at 1:30 PM. Some days when there is not that much to do, I usually go to my colleagues and ask them if they need help with anything. Usually, they do but sometimes they
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dont so thats when we try to find an old project, that we either sent for review or fixed, and mess around with it. A few times you can find some mistakes that need to be made but most of the time you find yourself reading it all over again without finding any corrections or sometimes you notice that the text or an image looks better somewhere else so you move it. But in my opinion, my most important work responsibility was to represent GRT the best I could. Whether it is in the office or outside of the office, I tried my best to represent GRT just how I would represent Loras College or even the Loras College Baseball team.

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Log of Activities/ Hours

Week of May 28th Tuesday - Thursday - 8 AM to 2:30 PM Friday - 8 AM to 4 PM Total Hours - 26 Hours Week of June 3rd Monday - Thursday - 8 AM to 2:30 PM Friday - 8 AM to 1:30 PM Total Hours - 29 Hours Week of June 10th Monday - Thursday - 8 AM to 2:30 PM Friday - 8 AM to 1:30 PM Total Hours - 29 Hours Week of June 17th Monday - Thursday - 8 AM to 2:30 PM Friday - 8 AM to 1:30 PM Total Hours - 29 Hours Week of June 24th Monday - Thursday - 8 AM to 2:30 PM Friday - 8 AM to 1:30 PM Total Hours - 29 Hours
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Week of July 1st Monday - Thursday - 8 AM to 2:30 PM Friday - 8 AM to 1:30 PM Total Hours - 29 Hours Week of July 8th Monday - Thursday - 8 AM to 2:30 PM Friday - 8 AM to 1:30 PM Total Hours - 29 Hours Week of July 15th Monday - Thursday - 8 AM to 2:30 PM Friday - 8 AM to 1:30 PM Total Hours - 29 Hours Week of July 22nd Monday - Thursday - 8 AM to 2:30 PM Friday - 8 AM to 3:30 PM Total Hours - 31 Hours Week of July 29th Monday - Thursday - 8 AM to 2:30 PM Friday - 8 AM to 1:30 PM Total Hours - 29 Hours

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Week of August 5th Monday - 6:50 AM - 4:30 PM Tuesday - Wednesday - 8:30 AM - 5:30 PM Total Hours - 27 Hours

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Learning Plan 1st Draft

Objective #1 - Recognition for my great work ethic and for being a good, respectful co-worker The reason I chose this objective is because in my opinion, the hardest thing to keep up and the most important thing employers look at after hiring you is your work ethic. I feel like once you make it clear that you have an extraordinary work ethic, co-workers will gain a lot of respect for you as well it looks good when your boss sees you working hard every day. Work ethic, in my opinion, will get you a great reputation and therefore it will assist you when you are out there looking for future employment or maybe a promotion. Having said that, being a good, respectful co-worker goes along way. For example, at GRT it is mainly women working there, I would say about 95% of the employees at GRT are women and having to work with women I have to be one my best behavior as well as be respectful. Whenever any of the women around me need any help with anything I am there to assist them, if they sneeze I will be there to say God bless you and nothing is more important than smiling and having a nice conversation with them. They love to chit-chat and get to know you. When looking at someone to see if they are a good, respectful co-worker, it is the little things that matter and if you do them constantly. My experience with this objective has been great! I have had a couple of people come up to me and say that they like the way I work as well as the quality of my work. That right there is the reaction I want to get from people, I want to be known as a person who worked hard at everything they did and did a pretty good job at it too. I had another scenario were one of my co-workers needed help with a project and because she had seen/heard how my work looks and how hard I work at it she asked me if I could help her out and I said Of course I would. In one of the most recent projects I worked on, which was for a class titled Environmental Science and Sustainable Solutions 2nd Edition at Washington State University, my supervisor was very impressed at how fast I did the work as well as how good the quality of the job was. That definitely put a smile on my face.
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Another instance in were this objective showed was when a couple of my co-workers sneezed right after one another and I said bless you to both of them. This kept happening throughout the day and as I was about to leave they were both talking by the coffee table and stopped me to tell me that I was a very polite young man. It is stuff like that that makes my day. My hard work and dedication contributed to me achieving my first objective. I am always dedicated to what I do and I am self-motivated so the job will most definitely get done. Also, the politeness my parents taught me has helped me out the first two weeks at GRT. I accomplished my objective by applying the same attitude and hard work I use in school to my internship and it has helped me out a lot. I am definitely glad I chose this objective because it is one that I always strive for whether I am working maintenance, construction, baseball camp, out on the baseball field or at an office, I always strive for great work ethic and if you keep doing what you have to do when you have to do it then other people will indeed notice your work ethic. Politeness is another thing I always do. No matter where I am at I am always polite because that is how my parents raised me, that is how I want to be treated and when you show politeness to someone that could possibly make their day better if they are having a bad day. Being polite to someone you dont know will definitely leave a great first impression of you on them. I believe this objective will assist me in the future because in my opinion, the two things in this objective cannot be taught in one day. It takes practice and not everyone has them. We have all worked with someone or some people that have the worst work ethic in the world, they are not selfmotivated and are just purely lazy; people like that do not succeed in life. We have also worked with some people or someone that is the rudest person you have ever met. They have no manners and are not polite at all. People like that can ruin a work environment and can possibly ruin your day if you see them not doing anything while you are working your butt off yet they are still getting paid the same as you. I myself had a couple instances in were a couple of interns told me to take it easy and take my time with the work but that is just not the way I am so I told them thanks but I think I just finish it off now and get more work for later and tomorrow morning. Having a great
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work ethic and being polite can be in your reputation and employers love that. They love to hire an employee that people like working with as well as an employee that gets the job done fast yet it is great quality work. Objective #2- Gain the experience necessary for me to excel at other future employments The reason why I chose this objective is because I would like to gain experience from GRT, as this is my first office job, and really see how working in an office all day can be. I really believe that by paying attention to the small details of an everyday at an office can be essential to me as I will see how everything affects everything. I also would like to see how coworkers interact with one another as well as how managers and supervisors interact with their workers. Basically, I want to see how different being in an office is than being out doing manual work in a factory which is what I have been used to my whole life. I also would like to gain a lot of experience and inside knowledge on how to run a company from this internship because my dream job is to open up an indoor baseball facility in Chicago and one in Puerto Rico. I know these are two completely different things but I just want to see from different perspectives on what to expect and how to do things right. My experience with this objective has been pretty good. I have learned some stuff but not as quite as I would like and that could be due to the fact that I have only been working at GRT for 10 days. I think that with the more I spend at GRT, the more I will learn and gain more experience. So far I have learned that the managers and supervisors do indeed interact with their employees. I also learned that the way you start a morning is usually the way you will end the day. By that, I mean that if you spill coffee all over your shirt on your way to work and then things go south after that as soon as you get to work then you are probably going to end up having a bad day. I have also learned that the people in the workplace make the type of work environment you work in. At GRT, for example, there are a lot of gossip circles and chit-chat groups that go on throughout the day. The best part is that the gossip is not bad gossip from within GRT; it is actually gossip about
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stuff that happens at home or to one of their friends. It is actually pretty awesome when I see co-workers interacting like that, sharing their lives with people they see every day for 8 hours a day. Like I said before, I have not accomplished this objective completely yet because Ive only been there for 10 days but the information/experience/knowledge I have gathered thus far have been great. It is actually more than what I expected it. I did not expect the co-workers there to be as friendly as they are and as helpful as they are. It is definitely something I am not used to seeing nowadays. I look to accomplish this objective by keeping a close look at what goes around the company and how people act or are affected by different situations in the work place. In a sense, I am doing a study on the workplace so that when I do end up opening up my baseball facilities I will know how to treat my employees and how to keep the work environment positive. I will also accomplish this objective by staying alert at all times and not allowing anything distract me from getting my work done as well as seeing how people act in regards to the work that I do. I am definitely glad that I chose this objective because it is one that will take time to accomplish yet it will be very influential to me as well as informative. An objective like this is one that takes time and takes a good eye or a sense of what is going on around you. You have to be on the lookout and listen/see how people are acting, how people on certain days or when there are a lot of projects to do. I think this objective will allow me to run my business smoothly as well as keeping my employees and customers happy. I want to make sure that my employees want to come back to work or in the case of the customer, come back and use our facility. This will also help me when I look for future employment after college if GRT doesnt offer me a job. If the place I am applying to gives me a walkthrough of the place, I will know what to look for and determine if this employment and its environment is suitable for me. It will also assist me in that I will be able to share my experience with my friends and family and maybe after listening to me talk about my experience then they will know what to look for or how to make a work environment a positive one to work at.
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Objective #3- To work my hardest in trying to provide our customers with great service and great interactive learning objects The reason I chose this objective is because it is actually one of the missions/values of GRT. GRT thrives on providing their customers with great quality work and making sure that their customers are satisfied with the work. If the customer doesnt like something or wants something to be added then GRT will do whatever it takes to make the customer happy. Another reason why I chose this is because I like providing great quality work to people. For example, this right here is a rough draft but I have so much to say that it looks like a final draft and I am also being specific which not a lot of people do. Things like that are what I am good at. I like adding cool features to a webpage at work so that the author sees it and says wow, those workers at GRT really do a great job. I also like to show people that I am a quick learner and that I can go the extra mile. I dont just do what people tell me or ask me to do; I go one step further and make sure they are impressed with my work. My experience with this objective has been great thus far. I have received a few compliments from co-workers as well as a compliment from my supervisor. I am really proud of the job I have done at GRT so far. Although I have only been there for 10 days I feel as if I have made an impact in the projects that we interns have done and in the couple of projects some coworkers asked me to help them with. Also, a couple of the interns were really impressed with how fast a caught on to the tools we use and how much I have learn in such little time working there. According to them, I have learned things in 10 days that it took them, months to learn; I know they can be saying that since they are talking to me personally but if that is true then I am extremely proud of that. I will have to say that thus far I have accomplished this objective since my work has been really good and very organized. I dont want to jinx myself but I have not been told I have done a bad job with a project (knock on wood). I mean I have made mistakes but I have caught them and fixed them before sending the project off to the author and I am also quick to ask
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questions if I dont understand something. By doing that, I am making sure I understand everything in order for the author to get my best work and continue to do business with us. I will accomplish this when my supervisor starts assigning me projects for me to do individually. Right now I am working with another intern and we usually double team the work because that is what they want us to do. But recently I got assigned a project that I could work on by myself and I completed it. This is the project that the supervisor saw and was very impressed so hopefully this is the start of something very exciting at this internship. I will also accomplish this by using the same techniques I use in the classroom as well as the hard work my parents taught me. My mom would always tell me if you are going to do something, do it right and that is what I want to do everything I am assigned a project at work. I am glad that I chose this objective because it is something that looks good when you show people what you did and it brings in more customers to the company. By providing the best quality work to the authors I will be able to relate it to my own business once I open that up. I want the baseball players that come in to have the best experience they have ever had at a baseball facility and I want to provide them with nice, clean, great quality facility. In a sense, everything relates to one another which is why I know this internship is perfect for me. I believe this objective will allow me to show off my work to future employment if they ask why I am a good candidate for the available position. I can show them my work and talk to them about how I got it done as well as the little things that go into finishing a project such as time management which is something I have learned throughout my academic career. This will also allow me to tell my future boss of the stuff I am capable of doing as well as what I can do when there is pressure on me. There are a lot of things that I can say about my completed projects that will definitely impress employers. Sample work is available online on my blog at ar461163.blogspot.com

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If links ask for a password, feel free to ask me for the password as well as username so that you will be able to see my work.

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Learning Plan 2nd Draft

1. Identify two job/career goals or skills this internship will help you develop. a. Recognition for my great work ethic and for being a good, respectful co-worker b. Gain the experience necessary for me to excel at other future employments Means: what would you use to reach your objectives? a. In order for me to demonstrate that I have great work ethic, I have to plan accordingly. What I mean by this is that I most utilize all the skills that I have acquired in school as well as the skills that I have acquired from previous job experiences. Along with these skills I also have to apply my newly acquired skills and knowledge in order to design quality projects for our customers. I must also prepare for anything that my job throws at me, from having to do a big project to not having enough information to do a project to just having a bad day. The way I handle these situations will determine how successful I will be at my internship and I must say, so far I have handled everything well. b. Not only will these situations help me out for getting ready for the real world but the way I act at my job affects those around me.

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 When revising a project by another intern I try not to critique too hard and make sure that they dont get the sense that I am being rude when I really am not. I hope to compile a lot of information from this internship whether it is from another intern, one of my co-workers or my supervisor; I will take any helpful information and make sure I use it wisely.

Assessment: the tools you would use to determine if goals where met a. In order to see if I met my goals I would most likely have to compare my work to the work of the other interns. Another way to determine if I met my goals would be to discuss with my supervisor to see what she thinks of the work I have done for GRT and I can also ask my co-workers to see what they think of me as a coworker or even ask them what they think about the job I have done. Another idea that came to mind when thinking of how I would determine if my goals where met and the idea of me explaining what I do on a day to day basis to a few of the people that are reading in this in hope that they actually see face to face the hard work that I have put into this internship as well as how much I have learned. I can also provide sample work or even set up a webpage from scratch in front of those reading this in order for them to see and give them a chance to analyze and perhaps critique my work. b. Another idea I had was maybe creating a quick survey which would allow my co-workers and supervisor to rate me on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being either strongly agree option or above average option.

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 I will also prepare a portfolio for the CEL so that they can see what I have done throughout my internship as well as give them hard copy of my thoughts and what I do on a day to day basis. Also, I can even have a few of my co-workers write up a quick paragraph on what they think are my strengths, weaknesses and things the liked about me. 2. Identify two of the following capacities that this internship will challenge you in. Communication skills ( written, verbal, interacting one-on-one or in speaking to a larger group) Analytic and problem solving-skills Values and decision-making capacities Understanding diversity Community and global perspective a. Communication skills (written, verbal, interacting one-on-one or in speaking to a larger group) b. Analytic and problem solving-skills Means: what would you use to reach your objectives? a. I plan on interacting one-on-one with my co-workers, other interns and supervisor. I also plan on giving my input during conference meetings so that my supervisor and the other supervisors can see that I like to demonstrate interest in the company I want to utilize the time spent during those meetings to prepare my communication skills especially, my verbal skills for future job employments Also, at the conference meetings I could use that time to analyze and compare how each person at that meeting behaves, talks and carries themselves
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b. I could continue to create the quality of the work I am currently doing I could also continue to use the help provided to me and by that I mean asking questions to other interns and my supervisor when I dont understand something. I will continue to prepare and design the projects with the confidence that has helped me create the previous projects. I am also very quick to critique myself, so if I see that I did something wrong I am quick to write it down on a post it note. Problem-solving skills have been taught to me throughout my life and I always utilize those problem-solving skills whenever a problem shows itself. When a problem presents itself and I know of the pros and cons of the problem I am quick to select the appropriate action to fix/complete that problem. Assessment: the tools you would use to determine if goals where met a. I could go up to one of my co-workers or one of the interns or even my supervisor and ask them what they think about my communication skills We can design or create some scenarios in where I can demonstrate the communication skills I have acquired and also improved while working for GRT I would even be willing to discuss the different skills I have acquired one on one with anyone that wants to get a sense of what I have learned. b. I have been keeping track of problems that I have faced and have conquered so that I can demonstrate my problem-solving skills I plan to compile a couple of the projects that have given me trouble so that you can see how I have dealt with them as well as itll give you a hard copy of a project I finished even after being presented a problem
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 I can also compute how many projects give me problems and compare them to those that dont With that information we would be able to analyze and compare the quality of the projects and any other aspect that you think is worth comparing 3. Identify two experiences associated with the internship that you want to take advantage of and reflect upon what you hope to learn. a. Networking b. What it feels like to work for a publishing company

Means: a. I plan on interacting with my supervisor after I am done with my internship as well as keep in touch with the VP and other big people of the company After I am done with this internship I hope to create relationships with them and utilize the relationships to get a future employment out of it I hope that by me working hard and going ahead and beyond on assignments that I am able to demonstrate to them the type of worker I am; which will hopefully land me some good references for a future employment b. GRT is a publishing company and I did not expect to work for a publishing company but this internship has provided me with great points of view I hope to learn more about working for a publishing company so that I can be able to relate to the stuff I learned at GRT to the stuff I will be dealing with when I have my own business Hopefully this internship can demonstrate to me the essentials of running a business that has a lot of clients demanding a lot from you
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 Also, hopefully it can prepare me for situations in where customers need my assistance or situations in where I need to make decisions on the spot Assessment: A&B Networking will allow me to expand my horizons I will keep track of my network connections at GRT using the social media site called, LinkedIn In LinkedIn I can check how many connections I have as well as what those connections are up to and even if there are any jobs available If these objectives are met, I will have a new job and I would be able to utilize the skills I learned at GRT for my new job Also, I would be able to compare the difference between a publishing company and whatever new job I have I could also be able to compile a few word documents on the similarities and differences between the two jobs I will continue to keep in touch with my friends back at GRT either via phone, email or social media and continue to keep my employment options open

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Learning Plan Final Draft

1.

Identify two job/career goals or skills this internship will help you develop.

A. Recognition for my great work ethic and for being a good, respectful coworker B. Gain the experience necessary for me to excel at other future employments Means: what would you use to reach your objectives? A Plan accordingly. Utilize all the skills that I have acquired in school as well as the skills that I have acquired from previous job experiences. Apply my newly acquired skills and knowledge in order to design quality projects for our customers. Prepare for anything that my job throws at me, from having to do a big project to not having enough information to do a project to just having a bad day. Observe the way I handle tough situations Prepare me for the real world and I have also learned that the way I act affects those around me. Assure myself that when revising a project by another intern I'll try not to critique too hard and make sure that they dont get the sense that I am being rude when I really am not. Plan on compiling a lot of information from this internship whether it is from another intern, one of my co-workers or my supervisor. Absorb any helpful information and make sure I use it wisely. Assessment: the tools you would use to determine if goals where met A Compare my work to the work of the other interns. Discuss with my supervisor to see what she thinks of the work I have done for GRT and I can also ask my co-workers to see what they think of me as a coworker or even ask them what they think about the job I have done. Explaining what I do on a day to day basis to a few of the people that are reading in this in hope that they actually see face to face the hard work that I have put into this internship as well as how much I have learned. Provide sample work
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 Create a quick survey which would allow my co-workers and supervisor to rate me on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being either strongly agree option or above average option. I will also prepare a portfolio for the CEL so that they can see what I have done throughout my internship as well as give them hard copy of my thoughts and what I do on a day to day basis. Have a few of my co-workers write up a quick paragraph on what they think are my strengths, weaknesses and things the liked about me. 2. Identify two of the following capacities that this internship will challenge you in. Communication skills (written, verbal, interacting one-on-one or in speaking to a larger group) Analytic and problem solving-skills Values and decision-making capacities Understanding diversity Community and global perspective A. Communication skills (written, verbal, interacting one-on-one or in speaking to a larger group) B. Analytic and problem solving-skills Means: what would you use to reach your objectives? A Interact one-on-one with my co-workers, other interns and the supervisor. Participate in conference meetings so that my supervisor and the other supervisors can see that I like to demonstrate interest in the company Observe professional staffs communication skills in the conference meetings, especially, noting where I need to improve my verbal skills Analyze and compare how each person at that meeting behaves, talks and carries themselves B I could continue to create the quality of the work I am currently doing I could also continue to use the help provided to me and by that I mean asking questions to other interns and my supervisor when I dont understand something. I will continue to prepare and design the projects with the confidence that has helped me create the previous projects. I am also very quick to critique myself, so if I see that I did something wrong I am quick to write it down on a post it note.
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 Problem-solving skills have been taught to me throughout my life and I always utilize those problem-solving skills whenever a problem shows itself. When a problem presents itself and I know of the pros and cons of the problem I am quick to select the appropriate action to fix/complete that problem.

Assessment: the tools you would use to determine if goals where met A Request observations on my communications skills from my supervisor and co-workers Create scenarios/role play where I can demonstrate the communication skills I have acquired and also improved while working for GRT, asking for feedback from supervisor Review and discuss the different skills I have acquired one on one with anyone B I have been keeping track of problems that I have faced and have conquered so that I can demonstrate my problem-solving skills I plan to compile a couple of the projects that have given me trouble so that you can see how I have dealt with them as well as itll give you a hard copy of a project I finished even after being presented a problem I can also compute how many projects give me problems and compare them to those that dont With that information we would be able to analyze and compare the quality of the projects and any other aspect that you think is worth comparing 3. Identify two experiences associated with the internship that you want to take advantage of and reflect upon what you hope to learn. A. Networking B. What it feels like to work for a publishing company Means: A. I plan on interacting with my supervisor after I am done with my internship as well as keep in touch with the VP and other big people of the company
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 After I am done with this internship I hope to create relationships with them and utilize the relationships to get a future employment out of it I hope that by me working hard and going ahead and beyond on assignments that I am able to demonstrate to them the type of worker I am; which will hopefully land me some good references for a future employment B.

GRT is a publishing company and I did not expect to work for a publishing company but this internship has provided me with great points of view I hope to learn more about working for a publishing company so that I can be able to relate to the stuff I learned at GRT to the stuff I will be dealing with when I have my own business Hopefully this internship can demonstrate to me the essentials of running a business that has a lot of clients demanding a lot from you Also, hopefully it can prepare me for situations in where customers need my assistance or situations in where I need to make decisions on the spot

Assessment: A&B Networking will allow me to expand my horizons I will keep track of my network connections at GRT using the social media site called, LinkedIn In LinkedIn I can check how many connections I have as well as what those connections are up to and even if there are any jobs available If these objectives are met, I will have a new job and I would be able to utilize the skills I learned at GRT for my new job Also, I would be able to compare the difference between a publishing company and whatever new job I have I could also be able to compile a few word documents on the similarities and differences between the two jobs I will continue to keep in touch with my friends back at GRT either via phone, email or social media and continue to keep my employment options open
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Objective #1
My first objective going into this internship was for me to gain recognition for my great work ethic and for being a good, respectful co-worker. I chose this to be my first objective because what do employers want to see more than an employee who is a hard-worker and is also a respectful co-worker. An employee who is a hard-worker will save the money a lot of money as well as bring them in more money since he will likely stay with the company longer since hard-work never goes unnoticed. Also, an employee who is respectful will save the company trouble since it will decrease the number sexual harassment claims and it will make your work environment that much better. I am a hard-worker. I like to get the job done fast but I always make sure that the job is done correctly and that it is done in great quality. I knew I would get recognized for my hard-work because I never take a day off; I always come into work wanting to work, I come wanting to get the job done and I think thats what separates me from everyone else. With GRT being a small company, it is very easy for people to notice your work and how hard you work at things. GRT has different departments within itself but we all act like an assembly line and help each other get the job done. There have been a couple of scenarios were Ben Cottrell, one of the interns that has been there for a year, needed some work to be completed right away. Ben, instead of asking someone else to do it, came personally to me and asked me if I could help him because he needed it right away. Things like that are things that I thrive on and make me feel like I am doing the job correctly. Another way I was able to show my hard-work was when our supervisor, Billee Jo, assigned a tricky project in which she wanted the person that accepted it to work with Amrit, who actually graduated from Loras and is the Web Applications
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Developer. I took on this task and I was able to work with Amrit and learn more about HTML coding as well as different things I could do with EZS3 which is a media service for independent producers who have their own Amazon S3 account and want to spend more time deploying their video & audio and less time programming. This was one of the key applications that I used once I was assigned my own projects. I believe that I met my first objective and I believe I met this objective when Amrit told Billee Jo that I had solved a problem regarding HTML coding and videos that he couldnt figure out. Billee Jo was very impressed that she began assigning me my own projects and she also let my colleagues know that if they had any projects that dealt with video files or other media files that they should send those projects right to me. This can be shown when I talked about it in my journal for the week of July 22nd. ...My supervisor has even started giving me my own projects as well as ordering the technician to put some new software on my computer, Raptivity and Math Type. She has also told everyone at GRL if they have any projects dealing with videos or if they have videos that need to be converted into a particular format that they can assign it to me Thanks to my hard work I was chosen by Loras College admissions to be their poster child for this years internship experience.

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http://pgcc.grtep.com/index.cfm/usaspokenenglish/page/videos More sample Work can be seen under the Sample Work tab in my blogspot. All of my sample work is extremely representative of my objectives as well as the amount of time and dedication I put into these projects.

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Objective #2
My second objective was to gain the experience necessary for me to excel at other future employment. I chose this objective because I think this will be a tremendous skill to acquire. The way I see it, you can never learn too much information, you can always learn a little about anything any day in order to increase your value as you apply for other positions. Although this was an internship at a publishing company, I still learned a lot of information that will be helpful for me in the future. I learned how to behave at an office environment; I learned how to better behave myself around women especially women in a professional setting and I also learned how different people handle different situations, myself included.

I have a good feeling that I accomplished this objective because I now feel like I can attack any job that I may encounter in the future. Having to deal with deadlines, unsure authors and professors as well as working in the busiest time of year for a publishing company I am very confident that I can do any job thrown at me. This internship has given me a new motivation to continue doing well at school and taking advantage of opportunities presented to me. Seeing how much I grew from the start of the internship to the end of it, is something I take pride in. I started out reading books and doing copy edits which are corrections the authors have made to their work; by the end of the internship I was working on my own projects and I had colleagues who have been there for 4 plus years come to me for help on certain things. Journal from week of June 3rd On my first week at the job I met everyone and became a fun co-worker to be around. My first 2 days I spent time reading 3 books that all interns at GRT
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have to read. The books were books that had very important information on how GRT carries itself and how GRT wants its workers to carry themselves as well as represent the company. On the third day I attended a GRT conference meeting in were we went over the amount of projects we had done during that month and compared them to previous numbers as well as expectations made early in the month. I also learned how to use all the servers which I learned in 2 days and I was also trained by the other interns on how to use Webcom 2 (which is our main server). My first two weeks at GRT, the Web Project Editing team and I worked on some interesting projects. We worked on a project for a summer course at Michigan State titled "Wine and other Hospitality Beverages" and a project for a summer course at Sonoma State titled "Big Ideas in Cosmology". We also worked on a summer course titled "Introductory Physics 102" and this project was for the author Wathiq Abdul Razzaq and we worked on these projects all week during my first week. This week, we worked on a summer course at New Mexico State titled "Concepts in Physics - 212", a summer course at the University of South Alabama titled "Psychology", a summer course at Washington State University titled "Environmental Science and Sustainability Solutions". All of these projects are very time consuming but with great time management and once you learn the servers it will go very quickly As you can see, I learned the material real quick and was able to contribute to GRT right away. My quick learning skills and hard-work allowed me to accomplish this and Billee Jo was quite impressed with how fast I learned the material. According to Ben, I am the second best intern at GRT behind him. He said that I learned the servers and material quickly. He also stated that another reason that he thought I was the second best intern was because he enjoys working with me because I am quick with my work and I provide great quality work. All of my hard work and dedication has allowed me to gain many skills and experience that I will use once I graduate from college and begin my career in the real world.

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Objective #3
My third objective that I looked to accomplish was to improve my communication skills (written, verbal, interacting one-on-one or in speaking to a larger group). The reason why I chose this objective is because although I have good communication skills, you can never really master them since there are different people out there that communicate in different ways. My goal for this objective was to gain as much expertise as possible in order to improve my communication skills for this upcoming school year and hopefully for my career after college.

I was a bit nervous my first couple of weeks at GRT, I usually kept to myself and stayed in my cubicle while I did my work. But as time passed by came accustomed to the atmosphere at GRT and to how people acted, I began making small talk with the people around me and by the 3rd or 4th week I found myself walking over to my colleagues cubicles and saying jokes or talking about how this years baseball season hasnt been that great to the city of Chicago. By the time I had a month with the company people were stopping me in the hall way asking me how my day was going. A few even invited me to go to the bars with them but unfortunately since I was not 21 at the time I could not go with them. I have kept in touch with a few of my colleagues and we plan on hanging out the weekend after school starts.

When I was having my final evaluation meeting with Billee Jo and Faye Finnegan I mentioned how I didnt know if I had accomplished my objective of improving my communication skills and Billee Jo commented on it saying that she
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does not think I need to work on my communication skills at all. She said that she was impressed with my communication skills and how well I got a long with my colleagues and how my colleagues liked working with me. Faye then commented and said that communication skills isnt something that you can master in 150 credit hours, it takes years of experience to get really good at it and that is exactly what I would like to do. A quick statement that Billee Jo made really stood out to me and it was when she stated that my emails were very professional for me just being an intern and a senior in college. That comment will definitely stay with me for a while, knowing that although it might just be an email, she still notices that little things.

Although I dont have sample work to show this, Faye wrote down some notes during our meeting with Billee Jo. If I remember correctly, she wrote down a few notes while we were talking about communication skills.
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Objective #4
The fourth objective that I chose was to improve my analytical and problem solving-skills. I think these are two great skills to have and not only will they help me in my future position(s) but it will also help me when I start my first semester of senior year. Having strong analytical skills means that you are able to view and look into a situation from a very logical, methodical perspective. Not everyone carries such characteristic. It is a good quality to have but only to a certain extend. People that possess very high analytical skills usually lack personal skills and tend to be more technical and math oriented which is something I do not want to do. I want be analytical but not to the extend were I lack personal skills.

Problem solving skills, on the other hand, actually go hand-in-hand with analytical skills. After analyzing a certain issue, you will be able to find a good solution, rather fast or within timely manner. By having good problem solving skills you can help the company save money as well as better yourself and improve your value once you end up looking at career opportunities.

In my opinion, I was able to enhance both of these skills and I am proud of myself for doing so. I was able to do so by continuing to work on the projects that were assigned to me as well as making sure I made the most out of the material that was given to me. I was able to make quick decisions when they needed to be made and I was able to think things through and come up with the best option. Whether it was while working on Raptivities or working on web pages, problems found a way to find me but I slayed the dragon and it all worked out at the end.

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Journal from the week of June 10th There was a situation in which I was assigned a project in were I had to create a chapter for a webpage and the chapter had sub-links as well as babylinks. It was a big project but I was ready to take on it. Well to get to the point, the text the author wanted me to put on the webpage for the chapter included pictures and the way they were set up on the word document is that the words where on the left and pictures were on the right. Well I tried doing that but every time I did, the picture will be messed up and it would be on the opposite side so I went to one of the interns that have been there for 3 years to ask them for help. He didn't know much about my situation but he was very helpful and I kind of got it but the way it looked on our server, it did not look like that on the webpage. The text was everywhere and that pictures where everywhere. So, what I did was I made a table with 1 column and 1 row and I placed the text on one box and the picture on the other. I showed the intern that tried to help me and he was impressed with the work I did. I finished the project and sent it in to the person that assigned it to me and she was impressed at how fast I got it done as well as how nice it looked. She actually sent me an email showing her appreciation for the job I had done There was another situation in were my supervisor sent out a project and I was the first one to notice it so I picked it up. She said it was urgent so I assumed that it was a very important project. The project was basically to set up the grade book for two summer courses that someone had forgot to do. The professor was angry with GRT so my supervisor tried to get it done as soon as possible. I did not know what I was doing so I asked the same intern that helped me last time where the project was and when he showed me it clicked to me and I suddenly knew what to do because I remembered doing a similar thing earlier in the week. I got the grade books done in 19 minutes each so a total of 38 minutes. My supervisor saw that they were done and what proceeded next made me feel good about myself and the job I had done. I'll let you take a look at it and see what she said Journal from the week of June 17th This past week was great for me in regards to work, the projects I helped design and the projects I was assigned. I took a big step in my internship when my supervisor assigned me with my own personal project that I had to start from scratch. The project is for a class about learning English and so far it has gone
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great. I have spent 23 hours working on the project and it is still not done. But the fun wasn't done yet, since my supervisor saw a glimpse of the project I was working on, she liked it so much she gave me another project to do. That project is for a Spanish class which is awesome because Spanish is my first language. I am excited to start that project as well as finish both projects. In my opinion, these projects could be the start of something new Journal from the week of July 22nd A challenge I was presented with was getting assigned two long projects. One of the projects was for an Italian author at Santa Rosa Junior College by the name of Frongia and the other project is for a professor at Prince George's Community College by the name of Elaine Kass. I just actually finished doing over 100 mini eLearning content projects for Frongia using a program called Raptivity. It's pretty easy stuff once you get used to it but it will definitely keep you busy. My goal for this specific project was to make sure I did quality work and took my time making sure I spelled every word correctly since it was all in Italian. The other project I had involved me doing 2 web pages, one for her U.S.A Spoken English class and the other for her Speaking American English class. For this project, I started from scratch and created both web pages. I had to also crop audio from the CD that she provided us. I had to make sure I placed them in the right spot and I also had to make sure I added the videos to the web pages. It actually turned out great and I made the most of the material that was given to me. I believe that the only thing I would do differently is ask the author for better material as the PDF files that were given to me were not that great and it was kind of hard to make out the words and images. I also would have probably maybe taken a little longer creating the web pages but I think I did a great job with them. You can be the judge of them as well but just and FYI this is not the complete version as the author needs to approve the web pages
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Here are the links to the project mentioned above http://pgcc.grtep.com/index.cfm/speakingamericanenglish/page/home http://pgcc.grtep.com/index.cfm/usaspokenenglish/page/kasshome

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Objective #5
My fifth objective that I chose was networking. In networking its not what you know, but who you know. Who you know can mean the difference in whether or not you end up reaching your future dreams and goals. There are so many reasons why networking is important, personally and professionally. Whether you want to stand out from the crowd during your job search, raise the ranks at your current company or just have a good support network to be there for you when you need it.

Networking helped me land this internship and if I decide to stick with it after college, it could become my first job straight out of college. Networking doesnt have to be business related necessarily; it can be maybe you have a group of friends that you like to go to when you are facing tough times. No matter where you are in life, you cant get around the fact that networking is crucial to your success and personal well-being.

Information interviewing is a piece of the networking process. In an information interview you have the opportunity to explore your field of interest through a structured, longer conversation with someone already working in that field. I actually had a chance to do an informational interview with Amrit Khadka, the Web Application Developer. The interview can be seen under the Informational Interview tab or by simply clicking the following link, I.I. Networking is a vital part in todays world and thanks to networking I was chosen by admissions to us my internship as an example of students doing some interesting and engaging things outside the classroom. In the following images,
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you can see the conversation Chris Comstock and I had on Facebook.

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My networking has improved tremendously and I plan on using that to my advantage. Billee Jo, John Vail, and Amrit, just to name a few, are behind me one hundred percent and have encouraged me to continue my success in school as well as encouraging me to come back to GRT to continue working there. Hopefully I can turn to them once I begin getting job offers so that they can perhaps write me letter of recommendations. I also boosted my networking by working with Faye Finnegan as well as Chris Comstock.

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Objective #6
My sixth and final objective was to gain knowledge of what it feels like to work for a publishing company. The reason why I wanted to make this one of my objectives was so that I will be able to relate to something once I end up getting my first job out of school. I would like to have something other than my high school working experience at a factory working maintenance to compare my first job to. Although they might be in different industries I would still like something professional to compare it to.

In a publishing company the publisher typically controls the advertising and other marketing tasks, but may mandate various aspects of the process to professional publisher marketing agencies. In many businesses, editing, copy editing, layout, design and additional features of the production process are done by suppliers. Having worked at GRT, I also noticed that the busiest time of the year for a publishing company is between July and August. So in other words, the busiest time of year is during the summer because the beginning of school is right around the corner. That is one of the reasons why Billee Jo appreciated my help; she enjoyed having me there during the busiest time of year and enjoyed my quality work during the busiest time of year.

Even though I have not gained that much knowledge about the publishing industry, I still know some things and the things I know are perfect if I have to explain what it feels like to work at a publishing company.

Working at a publishing company I noticed that in order to run a successful business you have to have all parts working together and working together well.
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You cannot run a company without having people get along with each other. At GRT, everyone gets along with everyone and like I mentioned before, at GRT we work kind of in an assembly line. You have the designers, the web application managers, the interns, the sales people, the vice president, the manager, and then you have web support. All of these positions need to be in sync or else your company wont work out and that is what is so great about GRT. If you ask someone for help they will help you, you ask someone a question and they will answer it; those are just the type of people that work at GRT.

Having worked there I will tell you this, if every company in the publishing business runs their business like GRT runs their business then they are in for many years of success. GRT is the prime example of a positive work environment that leads to success. GRT is also a great example of vertical and horizontal growth, Billee Jo started out as an intern and here she is the Web Development Manager of GRT. Sheena Reed used to work on projects with the design team but now she is the Author Relations Coordinator at GRT.

Like I stated before, I do not know much about the publishing industry but what I have learned at GRT has been more than what I knew in the beginning of the internship. Having spent time with some great people at GRT I would definitely recommend my friends to take an internship at a publishing company. I can now put in my rsum that I worked at a publishing company which will definitely expand my horizons. Once they see that GRT deals with technology as well that will be another great boost to my value in the real world job market once I graduate. This was a great experience for me and I wish I wouldve done it earlier in my career because who knows how much I would know and how much I

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wouldve learned if I had done this internship from my sophomore year until this year.

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Coursework Connections
As I sat in my apartment on May 27th thinking about how my first day at my internship would go, I began to think about what classes that I had taken in the past will help me get through this internship. I sat down and thought hard about it and I eventually ended up checking IQ because there are so many classes to choose from that I had no idea which one to choose. I kept a list of my classes next to my computer at work and whenever something came up I would try to connect that situation with one of the classes on my list. The first classes that I would say contributed a huge part to my success at GRT are my Public Speaking class with Professor Goodman freshman year and my Business Speaking and Writing Class sophomore year with Professor Neuhaus. In these classes, I learned how to conduct myself in front of a crowd as well as gave me confidence to speak in front of business professionals. They also taught me how to maintain my poise, coolness and judgment in times of stress and although I was not giving a presentation, I used the tricks we learned when I had a project or an author that was stressing me out. Last but not least, Public Speaking taught me how to convince people with your eyes and convey your message with your body language during your speech delivery and during my interview I feel like I did a great job of that. Billee Jo said I looked confident and she also stated that I knew how to sell myself to people; meaning I know how to leave a good mark on people. Business Speaking and Writing taught me how to set up my rsum, how to set up a cover letter and how to dress for a corporate/office job. Business Speaking and Writing went into the small details that Public Speaking didnt get into. The combination of these two classes made my experience at GRT that much better.
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In the following excerpt from my Work Environment section, you can see how I used Public Speaking and Business Speaking and Writing to introduce myself to my colleagues. My supervisor took me around our office and introduced me to every single person in there and made sure I interacted with them by making small conversation with each one of them. She also showed me where the conference rooms where at as well as the lunchroom. She then proceeded to take me to John Vails office to make sure there wasnt going to be a problem between us. John is a Cubs fan and I am a White Sox fan; just a little humor to get my nerves down on the first day at GRT. John, Billee Jo and I had a nice conversation about my past, where I was from and why I chose Loras. This minor conversation showed me just what type of people work at GRT The next class that had an impact on me while I worked at GRT was my CIT 110 class. Although this was just an introductory class, I took the time to read the textbook and learn a few shortcuts regarding html coding which would be extremely essential for me at GRT. One of the things that I learned from the class were the shortcuts that Excel offered as well as little, quick shortcuts that every computer offers and all of these shortcuts were extremely helpful for me while I tried to finish projects. The other thing it taught me was how to mess around with media files, whether they were videos or music or even picture, I knew what to do with them and how to fix them if some werent working correctly because of CIT 110. Journal from Week of June 10th Well to get to the point, the text the author wanted me to put on the webpage for the chapter included pictures and the way they were set up on the word document is that the words where on the left and pictures were on the right. Well I tried doing that but every time I did, the picture will be messed up and it
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would be on the opposite side so I went to one of the interns that have been there for 3 years to ask them for help. He didn't know much about my situation but he was very helpful and I kind of got it but the way it looked on our server, it did not look like that on the webpage. The text was everywhere and that pictures where everywhere. So, what I did was I made a table with 1 column and 1 row and I placed the text on one box and the picture on the other. I showed the intern that tried to help me and he was impressed with the work I did. I finished the project and sent it in to the person that assigned it to me and she was impressed at how fast I got it done as well as how nice it looked. She actually sent me an email showing her appreciation for the job I had done

Journal from Week of July 22nd This past week I just found out that my supervisor has asked the technician to add Math Type to my computer as well as one of the other interns. Math Type is a software application created by Design Science that allows the creation of mathematical notation for inclusion in desktop and web applications. This will make it easier for us when we are assigned projects that deal with Mathematical equations or other types of equations. I am very excited to have this installed on my computer because this will make my job a lot easier as well as it will allow me to finish projects a little faster ...My supervisor has even started giving me my own projects as well as ordering the technician to put some new software on my computer, Raptivity and Math Type. She has also told everyone at GRL if they have any projects dealing with videos or if they have videos that need to be converted into a particular format that they can assign it to me Another class that comes to mind is my Introductory Psychology class that I took sophomore year with Dr. Hopper. This class allowed me to see what people like and how people react when they get things they want, things they dont want or when they are surprised. It also taught me how the brain works when it gets the right amount of sleep as well as little tricks to improve your memory so that you can remember things better and when you deal with technology you need to have a
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pretty good memory because there are a lot of shortcuts and it is always changing. I had a few situations in were I worked fast and completed a couple of tasks within half an hour to an hour and the person that assigned them to me would be tremendously impressed by how fast I got the job done and how well of a job I had done. While at GRT, I did not have one person complain about my job, they always complimented me about the great job I had done. Now that I am going to start a new semester at Loras, I hope that I will be able to continue relating to GRT as I continue to take classes at Loras. Maybe this time around I will be learning something in a class that I learned at GRT. I am beyond excited to start this new semester and my last year at Loras and I hope that it can be as memorable as my time at GRT. In the first image you can see Sarah Kress, a Design Editor at GRT thanking me for the job I did on her project which dealt with making Assessment Updates. In the proceeding image you can see my supervisor, Billee Jo, sending me an email right after I finished working on making some grade book for a few courses for Professor Moon and the email reads These look great Thanks!

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Complete Journal
Friday, June 7, 2013 Week of June 3rd Part A: Activities/Tasks - On my first week at the job I met everyone and became a fun co-worker to be around. My first 2 days I spent time reading 3 books that all interns at GRT have to read. The books were books that had very important information on how GRT carries itself and how GRT wants its workers to carry themselves as well as represent the company. On the third day I attended a GRT conference meeting in were we went over the amount of projects we had done during that month and compared them to previous numbers as well as expectations made early in the month. I also learned how to use all the servers which I learned in 2 days and I was also trained by the other interns on how to use Webcom 2 (which is our main server). My first two weeks at GRT, the Web Project Editing team and I worked on some interesting projects. We worked on a project for a summer course at Michigan State titled "Wine and other Hospitality Beverages" and a project for a summer course at Sonoma State titled "Big Ideas in Cosmology". We also worked on a summer course titled "Introductory Physics 102" and this project was for the author Wathiq Abdul Razzaq and we worked on these projects all week during my first week. This week, we worked on a summer course at New Mexico State titled "Concepts in Physics - 212", a summer course at the University of South Alabama titled "Psychology", a summer course at Washington State University titled "Environmental Science and Sustainability Solutions". All of these projects are very time consuming but with great time management and once you learn the servers it will go very quickly. Part B: Reflections/ What I learned What are the key events and features of this experience?

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- The key events and features of my experience at Great River Technologies are pretty interesting. Some of the key events at GRT are the monthly meetings that we have as a team. At these meetings we go over what we have accomplished as a team, for example, we go over how many web projects we have completed and compare them to past numbers as well as predictions/projections for that month. Another key event is the food days that we have. I believe once a month we have a day in were everyone at GRT brings in food to share with all the workers. It is a good way to meet other workers, communicate with them and maybe even ask for a recipe.

- Some of the features at GRT are our special servers that we use to create the web projects. There are 9-10 servers and they all have different material from different Universities. We just actually got a new server called Webcom 2 and this is where we do all of our work from. It is a little tricky to use but it is a very nifty tool. It allows us to do the web projects quicker and it gives us access to tools that were not in Webcom 1. What assumptions am I making about the people involved in this experience, including myself?

- I am assuming that everyone working at GRT wants to be there because they want to not because they need to be there. I am also assuming the same thing about myself, I will get up every morning wanting to go to work and do the job that is needed for me to do with the best of my abilities.

What did I observe about my behavior and actions and those of others? - I observed that I am very good at keeping my composure when there is a difficult task at hand. I also noticed that I am a very quick learner and if I put my mind into it I can accomplish anything. Another thing I observed is that I can be very friendly when surrounded by other people that are friendly. That brings me to my next
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point; everyone at GRT is very friendly and are always trying to have a conversation with you. They also encourage me as well as everyone else to ask them questions if we have any or we need help with anything.

Situation/ Event #1

- On May 31st, John Vail who is the Assistant Vice President at GRT saw me working by one of the other interns cubicle, stopped and started talking to me about the Cubs vs. White Sox series. John is a Cubs fan and I am a White Sox fan so when the Cubs beat the White Sox in 3 straight games he let me have it. So I told him to live it up because the Cubs don't and won't have much to cheer about this season. This goes to show you the type of atmosphere that GRT has and how easily the supervisors and the big management people interact with their employees.

Situation/ Event #2

- On May 29th we had a food day at our company which is when employees bring in food to share with co-workers. Everyone brought food and I must say some of the food they brought was delicious. Everyone shared their food; people went up to other people to tell them they tried their food and that it was delicious. In one case, people came up to one of the employees asking for her recipe.

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Sunday, June 16, 2013 Week of June 10 What does this experience point out to me about my own attitudes, biases, or preferences?

In my opinion, so far in this internship I have seen that I have a winning attitude. What I mean by that is that I will get the job done no matter what. I don't get discouraged when I get big project assigned to me and I also don't lose concentration; if a project or a quick page needs to be done/created ASAP I will make sure it does get done. I feel like I don't have any biases so far. I pretty much like everything I have been assigned to do to this point but then again, that could only be since I have been there 3 weeks. Things could change but I would have to say that at the moment, I do not have any biases. Having said that, I do have a preference and that is that I like working on webpages a lot so whenever there is a project that involves making webpages, I make sure I jump right on it. I have also learned how to do a new project using a program called Raptivity. Raptivity is an eLearning interactivity building tool with a set of pre-built interaction models. Raptivity is used to create interactions which can be added to eLearning content, enabling interactive learning. I have really grown to liking these types of projects as it only took me less than one day to learn how to use Raptivity. Another preference that I have is that if I get assigned a big project, I will take on it by myself and with no ones help. I don't know why but that's just the way I like it. The way I see it, you are only going to get better at something if you keep doing it.

What am I learning about myself through this internship?

I am learning that I am pretty good at working with technology and that I can learn things pretty fast. I also noticed that maybe I should have done a double minor, mixing in Mathematics with CIT because I really get the hang of this and CIT is very interesting in my opinion. The things you can do
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nowadays with technology are mind blowing. Also, I have noticed that once you are around a group of people for a while you kind of start hanging out or talking to them in random places at work and also, I noticed that once I am comfortable with the people around me, I break out and I am myself around them. Usually, that is a fun, entertaining me that everyone loves. I have also learned that I should never really doubt myself and also if I have a question I should just go ahead and ask it instead of keeping it inside. Special Event/Situation #1

There was a situation in which I was assigned a project in were I had to create a chapter for a webpage and the chapter had sub-links as well as babylinks. It was a big project but I was ready to take on it. Well to get to the point, the text the author wanted me to put on the webpage for the chapter included pictures and the way they were set up on the word document is that the words where on the left and pictures were on the right. Well I tried doing that but every time I did, the picture will be messed up and it would be on the opposite side so I went to one of the interns that have been there for 3 years to ask them for help. He didn't know much about my situation but he was very helpful and I kind of got it but the way it looked on our server, it did not look like that on the webpage. The text was everywhere and that pictures where everywhere. So, what I did was I made a table with 1 column and 1 row and I placed the text on one box and the picture on the other. I showed the intern that tried to help me and he was impressed with the work I did. I finished the project and sent it in to the person that assigned it to me and she was impressed at how fast I got it done as well as how nice it looked. She actually sent me an email showing her appreciation for the job I had done.

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Special Event/Situation #2

There was another situation in were my supervisor sent out a project and I was the first one to notice it so I picked it up. She said it was urgent so I assumed that it was a very important project. The project was basically to set up the grade book for two summer courses that someone had forgot to do. The professor was angry with GRT so my supervisor tried to get it done as soon as possible. I did not know what I was doing so I asked the same intern
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that helped me last time where the project was and when he showed me it clicked to me and I suddenly knew what to do because I remembered doing a similar thing earlier in the week. I got the grade books done in 19 minutes each so a total of 38 minutes. My supervisor saw that they were done and what proceeded next made me feel good about myself and the job I had done. I'll let you take a look at it and see what she said.

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Sunday, June 23, 2013 Week of June 17

What emotions and thoughts does this experience trigger in me?

I would have to say that my experience so far at GRT has been great and it has brought me joy because I feel like I am doing something very helpful to other people. It also brings me happiness because for once everything has great so far and it shows me that my hard work has indeed paid off; this is just the first step of many more I plan to take in my professional career. Another emotion that this experience triggers is amusement, every time I get a project assigned to me I am amused at how much information and work goes into setting up online courses as well as how long it takes. I am proud to be a part of the GRT team, they have accomplished so much with the limited resources they have. The thoughts that come to mind are that maybe I should've continued to pursue a minor in C.I.T. In all reality, I really enjoy working with computers and technology in general. Another thought that comes to mind is that I am very grateful for this experience. Not a lot of people are able to experience an experience quite like mine and I am enjoying every second of it. Also, I sometimes sit at my desk and think about maybe staying in Dubuque after I graduate if GRT offers me a job which I believe is very possible.

What are you observing about your work environment? If you could, what are two things you would keep and two things you would change?

I am observing that our work environment is one of the best, if not the best, I've worked at. It is extremely calm, friendly and energetic. The people in it are amazing and they just make your day that much better. They talk to you whenever they walk past you; they smile at you, ask you how your day is going as well as tell you that if you need anything you can always ask them. I have also observed that no matter what day it is, everyone is always happy
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to be at work and if they are not, they do not let it show; everyone is all smiles. Two things I would keep from our current work environment would be the people in it as well as the little food parties we have. The food parties usually occur once or twice a month; they are just a great time, the food is great and it is a great time to interact with your co-workers. Two things I would change would probably have to be to make food day every week of the month because the food is amazing. The other thing would be to maybe rent a bigger office because currently they are in the Kendall Hunt building and GRT only has one corner of the whole building. This would give us independence as well as allow us, the interns/associates, be closer to the GRT group because right now we are in a little area on the Kendall Hunt side of the building.

Special Situation/ Event #1 This past week was great for me in regards to work, the projects I helped design and the projects I was assigned. I took a big step in my internship when my supervisor assigned me with my own personal project that I had to start from scratch. The project is for a class about learning English and so far it has gone great. I have spent 23 hours working on the project and it is still not done. But the fun wasn't done yet, since my supervisor saw a glimpse of the project I was working on, she liked it so much she gave me another project to do. That project is for a Spanish class which is awesome because Spanish is my first language. I am excited to start that project as well as finish both projects. In my opinion, these projects could be the start of something new. Special Situation/ Event #2 I only had one special situation/ event this week.

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Sunday, June 30, 2013 Week of June 24 How does this experience contradict or challenge my academic knowledge?

Some might think that this experience contradicts my academic knowledge because I am a Business Management Major with a Minor in Mathematics dealing with technology. But the way I see it is that I am helping myself for the future. I am learning about different aspects of a business and I am gaining first-hand experience on situations that occur in a business that I would not be able to learn in the classroom. In my opinion it is always good to have first-hand experience in a situation because it gives you a different perspective rather than talking about it in class. I am one of those people that has to see things in order to understand them and that's something I fell GRT is great at doing. They make sure they teach you something if you don't know how to do it and they take you step by step as well as make themselves available for questions if you have any. I will say this though, I have said it before and I'll say again, I am a little disappointed in the fact that I did not continue to pursue a Minor in C.I.T because I really do enjoy working with all that stuff. I have used tricks at GRT that I learned in my only C.I.T class at Loras and I was a little shocked that I remembered them to be honest. Having said that, this experience has shown me how managers deal with employees on the daily basis, the many processes of training and recruiting as well as making your work environment a positive one. Those are basically things a read about and was taught by Professor Ron Collins but I'd much rather see them in person to see how they play out in real life. I am excited to see what else this internship is going to teach me and what else I will be able to relate to material I learned/ have learned at Loras.

What, if anything, do I feel uncomfortable about in this situation?

To be honest, I do not feel uncomfortable about anything at the moment. I actually feel very comfortable and fortunate to be in the situation that I am currently in.

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Special Situation #1 Nothing really happened this week. I was quite busy with two long projects and a bunch of little ones but there is something very interesting that happened. Great River Technologies had all its managers, vice president and president meet and discuss the future of GRT and they came up with a great idea. GRT was tired of people asking them what they do with technology, people asking them about what technological services they provide as well as people going into the website and thinking that they are a technology based company. GRT decided to go from Great River Technologies to Great River Learning. They wanted something that would show what services they provide as well as they wanted to keep some of their name because that is how their customers can identify themselves. I thought this was awesome and the fact that they told us about this at our end of the Month conference meeting made it even better. They did not send out a mass email, they actually set aside some time during the conference meeting to tell us in person; something that I will not forget. I was working for GRT when they changed their name to Great River Learning aka GRL.

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Sunday, July 7, 2013 Week of July 1 What did I learn about myself?

I learned that I can put my mind to whatever I want. I also learned that I am very good at following instructions and getting tasks completed. I also learned that I am a very good co-worker as well as a team leader. People love working with me because I do not "play" around, I get the job done and I get it done the right way.

About others?

I have learned that not that many people are like me. A lot of people like to take things easy and take their sweet time doing a project. By that, I mean that they will take a project that should only take 30 minutes and they will stretch it out to make it a 5 hour project. But then you have the people that like working and like doing the job when it is needed. Those are the type of people that I like working with.

About the world around me?

I have noticed that not everything will go my way so I have to make an adjustment and make sure I am ready for whatever is thrown my way. I have also learned that a lot of people like to slack off during work, and I understand that you can't work all 8 hours in a publishing company but certain people gossip nonstop about nonsense and it is really annoying when it is going on right in front of your cubicle. Some people need to learn that there are certain times and places for gossip and every work hour is definitely not it.

Special Event/ Situation #1 Nothing special went on this week. It was a short week since we had July 4th off. Just worked on the same projects I was working on last week as well I am
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attempting to finish up my big project for a Spanish class in Prince George's Community College

Sunday, July 21, 2013 Week of July 15

This internship has been a phenomenal experience Networking has been incredible It's giving me a good idea about what the corporate business is like

Special Situation #1

I got the chance to meet the CEO of the company and it was a great experience. Although the meeting was only 10 minutes long I enjoyed meeting the CEO and exchanging thoughts with him. He was actually laid back and was a great guy. He gave me a quick biography on himself then he asked me why I chose Loras as well as how I liked working at GRL. It was a great experience that definitely made my week. I did not know that CEO's were that interested in their employees and paid attention to all of them. It is definitely something I took note of.

Special Situation #2

As I handed my midterm evaluation to my supervisor, she took the time to ask us about what Michael and I thought about GRL, how we liked it and also made an indirect connection in were I understood it as if we would like to continue working there after college. As she was reading each question in the midterm evaluation she read each one and thought about it and answered it. She also found a spelling mistake on the evaluation and she wanted you to know that she found it and then she proceeded to laugh. I would really have to say that I have never worked at a place quite like GRL and I would not mind working there after college.

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Sunday, July 28, 2013 Week of July 22 What gaps do I recognize in my knowledge and/or skills related to this experience?

I have noticed that although I have been at GRL (GRT) for almost 3 months I do not know much about the publication industry. I have learned that it is very hectic when school comes around and students as well as professors can get on your nerves. Making sure the professors/authors approve the web pages you make for them can be very stressful as well. Sometimes they make a big deal out of something real small like font style or font size or they sometimes make a big deal out of the video player that we chose for their videos. I have also noticed that I do indeed have the skills necessary to work in the publishing industry. I am patient, determined and I catch on real quick to tasks. I have learned that although the publishing company is definitely something that I had no idea about, I now know that I indeed have a future at a publishing company. My supervisor has even started giving me my own projects as well as ordering the technician to put some new software on my computer, Raptivity and Math Type. She has also told everyone at GRL if they have any projects dealing with videos or if they have videos that need to be converted into a particular format that they can assign it to me.

What is a challenge you have been presented with? How did you handle it? What, if anything, would you do differently if presented with the challenge again?

A challenge I was presented with was getting assigned two long projects. One of the projects was for an Italian author at Santa Rosa Junior College by the name of Frongia and the other project is for a professor at Prince George's Community College by the name of Elaine Kass. I just actually finished doing over 100 mini eLearning content projects for Frongia using a program called Raptivity. It's pretty easy stuff once you get used to it but it will definitely keep you busy. My goal for this specific project was to make sure I did quality work and took my time making sure I spelled every word correctly since it was all in Italian. The other project I had involved me doing 2 web pages, one for her U.S.A Spoken English class and the other for her Speaking American English class. For this project, I started from scratch
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and created both web pages. I had to also crop audio from the CD that she provided us. I had to make sure I placed them in the right spot and I also had to make sure I added the videos to the web pages. It actually turned out great and I made the most of the material that was given to me. I believe that the only thing I would do differently is ask the author for better material as the PDF files that were given to me were not that great and it was kind of hard to make out the words and images. I also would have probably maybe taken a little longer creating the web pages but I think I did a great job with them. You can be the judge of them as well but just and FYI this is not the complete version as the author needs to approve the web pages. Here are the links http://pgcc.grtep.com/index.cfm/speakingamericanenglish/page/home http://pgcc.grtep.com/index.cfm/usaspokenenglish/page/kasshome

(If they ask you for username and password, feel free to ask me for it) Special Event/Situation #1

This past week I just found out that my supervisor has asked the technician to add Math Type to my computer as well as one of the other interns. Math Type is a software application created by Design Science that allows the creation of mathematical notation for inclusion in desktop and web applications. This will make it easier for us when we are assigned projects that deal with Mathematical equations or other types of equations. I am very excited to have this installed on my computer because this will make my job a lot easier as well as it will allow me to finish projects a little faster.

Monday, August 5, 2013 Week of July 29

How would I describe this internship to an adult relative (e.g. aunt or uncle) using only three sentences?

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My internship basically deals with me getting assigned work from my coworkers at GRL, usually they are from my supervisor but sometimes they can be from other people as well. What I do is I set up web pages for authors who have sent material in to us. I make sure to read every material carefully and make sure the web pages are completed the way the author wants them to be; I do this by using a either Webcom 2, which is our main server, or Raptivity, which is an eLearning tool.

If I were describing it at an interview, what would I tell them?

My internship deals with me organizing, planning and carrying the task to provide the authors that work with us with quality work as well as make sure they get what they want. I am responsible for managing videos that authors send to us and make sure that they are in the proper movie player as well as size. Another key thing I do at my internship is work together with the other interns as well as other co-workers in order to make sure the authors get a great experience while working together with us here at GRL.

What are the differences between those descriptions?

I would have to say that the difference between these two descriptions is that the one of me describing it at an interview is more formal and details what I do at my internship. Were as my description to my adult relative is more about me telling them what I do in a broad sense and it is not that much detailed as the one I would use at an interview.

Special Event

I would have to say that with this week being my last week at GRL, I am truly blessed to have received an opportunity like this one in where I was able to expand my knowledge as well as I was able to expand my networking while working here.
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I have learned a lot thus far and I would not mind seeing myself at a place like this in the future. The people are great, the work environment is great, and even the food is great! I will definitely be talking about this experience for a very long time and I am excited to see how I can attach what I have learned here to school as well as in my everyday life. I am thankful for the opportunity I received and look forward to keeping in touch with a few of the people that work here at GRL.

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Informational Interview
Informational Interview with Amrit Khadka
What is your position at GRL (GRT)? I am a Web Application Developer How long have you worked here? Just over a year What are the major job responsibilities? Add new features on our proprietary software WebCOM 2.0. Maintain our Legacy software WebCOM and WebCOM 2.0. Help/train people to add multimedia on our products. What has been the best experience youve had while working here? My job is very rewarding because every new features I add or bugs I fix or help I provide are accomplishments for me. Since I like what I am doing and what I do adds value to the product most of my experience here has been great. How much has this job change your life? This is my first job after I graduated Loras College so the change has been tremendous. There are more responsibilities and you have to be extra careful because some mistakes can be very expensive. However, not having to worry about homework on Sundays is great. What kinds of courses are most valuable in order to gain skills necessary for success in this occupation? This is a technology company so Computer Programming courses and Web development courses are the most valuable. Id also like to note that liberal arts classes are helpful for success in this occupation because it broadens your thinking and helps you relate to other fields easily.

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Which skills are most important in order to be successful at GRL (GRT)? We focus on using web technology to deliver course contents- such as ebook, assessments, and interactive learning tools, to the students. This makes computer skill one of the most important skills. Organizational skills, Problem solving, adapting to the fast paced technological solutions and Detail driven skills are other important skills in order to be successful at GRT. What has been your career path from college to present? This is my first job right after college. Is there anything you regret not doing? We are a small company which is great but I cant interact with very many developers to exchange Ideas and learn from the interaction. What is your advice for this intern? He has been a great help at GRT. He is very good at taking initiatives and contributing by going above and beyond. That will really help him in his career. Do you think this intern has what it takes to have a career in this industry? Absolutely!

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Evaluation
Midterm Evaluation

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Here is my Final Evaluation.

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Final Resume
Alex Rodriguez
2326 W. 23rd Place, Chicago, IL 60608 1450 Alta Vista Street Box# 1251, Dubuque, IA 52001 alex.rodriguez@loras.edu 1-773-320-6374

Education
Loras College - Dubuque, IA BA Major: Business Management Major / Minor: Math Anticipated Graduation Date: May 2014 Lake View High School - Chicago, IL High School Diploma Received: June 2010

Work Experience
Great River Learning/Technologies Part Time Web Project Editor
Responsible for creating web pages and components Organized content Provided proper video format for authors web pages Converted media files to necessary format Responsible for reviewing copy edits and making necessary corrections

May 2013 August 2013 (Summer Internship)

Carl Tebons Summer Baseball Academy Baseball Camp Director

February 2011 present (4 weeks program per summer)

Designed, coordinated and delivered specific teaching sessions during camp Responsible for 14 children/players Provided coaching, feedback, and evaluation of players Kept children engaged and involved through mentoring and presentations

Freedman Seating Company Maintenance Worker 4545 W Augusta Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60651 (Seasonal Employment)

June, 2006 August, 2006 June, 2007 August, 2007 June, 2008 Sept, 2008

Troubleshoot machines in a timely and effective manner Assisted in painting companys roof and 165,000+ square foot building Facilitation of introduction to new employees about the company and facilities

Activities/Skills/Volunteerism
Loras College Baseball Team - 3 years Bilingual: English and Spanish

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Volunteered in the 12th Ward Latinos for Education Foundation Project in Chicago, IL o Designed the logo for the project o Provided school supplies and club opportunities for children of at risk families in the area Member of the Loras College Baseball Mentor Program at Prescott Elementary School o Weekly commitment o Assist child with homework, computer tasks, and general play time

*References available upon request

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Conclusion
My internship experience was very similar to the Loras mission statement. I have become a better reflective thinker, ethical decision maker and active learner because of this internship. Without knowing much about the Publishing Industry, I was able to succeed in the industry and also even received a few compliments and an open invitation to come back to work during the school year. The responsible contributor part of the mission statement was already present in me since I always try my best to represent any organization I am a part of, whether it is Loras College or the Loras College Baseball team. Although I was not in a classroom, I felt like I learned as much as I would in a classroom and it definitely helps when you have great people to teach you and exchange their knowledge with you. I have become a better student with a stronger vision of what I would like to do and I am definitely confident to continue studying at Loras so that I can gain even more knowledge and get closer to acquiring a job in the corporate world. In my opinion, gaining knowledge from an internship is better than learning in a classroom. I feel as if I am being watched in the classroom, I dont have the freedom to do the work at my own pace and its just information thrown at you nonstop. Well at the internship I took part in, there was a lot of information thrown at you but they threw it at you a little at a time and they allowed you to work at your own pace as long as you got the job done. Another reason why I think and prefer gaining knowledge at an internship is better than doing so in a classroom is that I am a visual learner. I have to see how to do something in order to understand it on the spot. I also have to work on it right away so that I can get the hang of it and figure it out on my own. In a classroom, you have to do things the professors way, well at an internship, if theres an easy way to do something you go ahead and use it.

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This internship prepared me well for the work world in my opinion. It has shown me how to act in a corporate environment, what to expect in this type of environment, and how to go about an everyday life in an environment like this. It has also taught me how to dress as well as how to motivate myself when I get tired of doing the same thing. Thanks to this internship I now know how to behave in conference meetings, how to behave when I am introducing myself to future colleagues and it has also showed me how to behave when talking to the Vice Presidents, Presidents, CEOs and COOs. Last but not least, it has taught me what I have to do in order to be successful in a corporate environment or any other job I receive. What I found to be most beneficial about this internship is the knowledge I gained from colleagues, my supervisor and from working with different authors/professors. I have a sense of what people like, how people like to be treated in certain situations, what people expect from you on an everyday basis and how to interact with your colleagues throughout the week. I had a couple of situations in were my colleagues placed something on Assembla (our site where our colleagues place projects for the interns) and I would have it done within 20 minutes and the reaction I would receive was priceless. The most enjoyable part of my internship was getting a chance to work with a couple of my teammates. During the internship I was able to get a lot closer to Ben Cottrell and Mike Pudlo, although we did play baseball together this internship allowed me to get to know them better outside of baseball and vice versa. As far as something school related, another part of the internship that can be considered most enjoyable could be the fact that I got acknowledged for my hard work and commitment to the company by my supervisor as well as other colleagues. During one of the conference meetings, Billee Jo announced to the team that if they needed any videos or media files that werent working that they should send them my way because I was now in charge of videos and media files. The most frustrating part about the internship is a tie between authors who dont know what they want and the gossip corner. I had a few scenarios in were I had to deal with a couple of authors that did not know what they wanted and were real picky once the work was completed. It was very frustrating because I had to
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make the changes using html coding and sometimes the changes they wanted would change everything else around it which made it real difficult for me to complete the task. There was another situation in were the author complained about certain material on the web page that I created but when I took a look at what they were complaining about, it was something that they had written in their manuscript and wanted us to place it on the web page. That made no sense to me and really angered me. The other part of the most frustrating part of the internship was the gossip corner. The gossip corner was what we, the interns, called a group of women from the Kendall Hunt team that all they did from 7:50 AM until 9:30 AM was talk about nonsense. Their topics were scrambled all over the place and did not make sense whatsoever. For example, their topics would go from soccer practice to blow drying hair to making their own garden to high school times to weather; it was by far the most obnoxious time of the week because they would do it every week from Monday to Wednesday and they would leave Thursday and Friday for working until 6 PM. The interns and I came up with a little game in were we tried to write down as many of the topics as we could and share them with each other during our lunch break. Although it was extremely frustrating, it definitely made our lunch break more enjoyable. My main contribution to GRT was a combination of my fast and great quality work as well as mastering messing around with videos and getting them the way my colleagues or the authors wanted them. I could tell by the expression in my colleagues faces that they were extremely pleased and impressed with my work. Sometimes people might think that getting the job done fast might not be the right way to do it but the thing with me is that I know I can get the job done no matter how long I take and by finishing fast, I am allowing time for the person who assigned me the project to review the project and send me back suggestions so that I can place it in the content. In fact, I believe that this internship was the perfect choice for me. I learned a lot of things that I would have not learned in the classroom. By being a Business Management major and Mathematics minor, I probably wont learn about the Publishing Industry. That right there is something that I feel is good to know because it is expanding my knowledge and once future employers see that I
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worked at a publishing company they will be curious and it will leave them wanting more. Also, this internship has opened my eyes into what other classes I would like to take once I start school again and after thinking about it, I have a few classes in mind. By working with html coding I am interested in taking more computer classes at Loras. I almost want to pursue a CIT minor at Loras alongside my Mathematics minor. Having said that, by seeing how much business is in the international side of things I am eighty percent convinced that I would like to pursue a Concentration in International Business as well. It is a tough choice since I have this upcoming semesters classes all figured out which means I would have to fit some classes into my Spring semester in 2014. We will see where this goes but I am very excited. This internship definitely excelled my expectations since I had no idea what to expect and what I was going learn regarding school but that changed in a heartbeat. I learned a lot while doing this internship and I am extremely grateful about it as well as blessed. I would definitely recommend this internship to my friends. I am actually in the process of talking to John Vail about getting one of my friends a job at GRT. Hopefully it works out. With the experience I had and the people I met, I would recommend any of my friends to take a job or do an internship at GRT. I think it is necessary for everyone to have an experience similar to the one I had and it will also help boost their value when they go and apply to different jobs. If my best friend was contemplating an internship I would look him in the face and smack him and tell him that he shouldnt even think twice about doing an internship. This internship has been one of my favorite experiences of my life and I will tell anyone that asks me about it how well I was treated at GRT. An internship is not something you will get a chance to do every once in a while so you have to take the opportunity when it is presented to you. An internship is a great thing to do before graduating from college and it is something that will make your job search that much easier; lets not forget about how much networking can be done at an internship.
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I was pleased with the overall results of my midterm and final evaluations that were completed by my supervisor. I expected all of the results I received since Billee Jo made it clear about how she was pleased with my work and she would let me know through emails. Sometimes she would even come to my cubicle and tell me in person. We would also go through our progression during our conference meetings and Billee Jo would let us know what we needed to do the upcoming month as well as what things she wanted us to keep doing. When it came time for the final evaluation Billee Jo was sad to do it. But that did not prevent her from filling it out. Billee Jo gave me all 1s and her reason was that I did a tremendous job working at GRT. She was beyond pleased with my work and even asked me if I would like to come back and work during the school year. That was a huge sign that I accomplished my objectives in the Learning Plan and I was shocked that I made such an impact on my supervisor. I was surprised at how much praise I received at GRT, whether it was from my supervisor or my colleagues. I was also surprised at the fact that I stated that I need to work on my communication skills a little more but Billee Jo said that I did not have to work on my communication skills at all since she thought they were phenomenal. She also stated that my communication skills improved throughout the internship and that she noticed me getting more comfortable with the people at GRT as well as Kendall Hunt. During the evaluation I felt confident and poised that I had done all I could to make my stay at GRT memorable. Once I started talking and answering Fayes questions I was extremely confident about myself and knew that I had indeed accomplished my goals. I kind of wish that Billee Jo would have brought up the possibility of me getting a future job at GRT after graduation but the fact of the matter is that she did bring up that she wanted me to come back and work during the fall and I am extremely thankful for that. Billee Jo said that she was beyond pleased with my job at GRT and that she would take me back in a heartbeat. Hearing my supervisor, who is the Web Development Manager at GRT, say those things was truly amazing and beyond humbling.
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As far as the comments Billee Jo left me, I was truly appreciative of them and it definitely goes to show how hard I worked while working for GRT. Billee Jos comments basically said that I was a great addition to the team and that I worked well with my colleagues as well as with her. Billee Jo definitely gave me a great experience by hiring me for the summer and providing me with some valuable knowledge that I will most definitely use once school starts and once I get my real first job out of school.

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Contacts/ Networking
Billee Jo Hefel John Vail Chad Chandlee Tim Shade Keith Kropp Dale Manemann Debbie Brandel Amrit Khadka Chad Maro Sarah Kress Sheena Reed Jade Sprecher Alyssa Sheston Tracy Wiley Jessica Bradford Colleen Havens Anne Stelken Kendra Klein Michelle Manemann Abby Nauman

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