Internship Reflection
For my internship I decided to take my internship with the school, the subject was grant writing. Sacramento New Technology High School devotes itself to the education of its students, to fulfill this goal, the organization needs money. I was the only grant writer for the school at the time, and I was a department of one. My main goal was to get money for the Physical Education department, but if any other departments asked for a grant letter I would oblige them.
My goal as an intern were to write somewhere in the area of five grant applications, nothing more, nothing less. To this end I achieved this goal, but did not get a single accepted letter. I started as a grant writer who wrote grants and ended as a grant writer who wrote grants, as were my goals throughout the project. I would have made a bigger impact if I had gotten a grant to pass through, but that did not happen. My view of the professional environment is unchanged by this experience.
My internship related to teaching in many ways, my only co-worker was my boss, and he was a teacher. He provided insight into the workings of the school. The things I learned play into the six learning outcomes, mostly because of the location in which I took my internship. If business is a project, agency is the glue that holds it together. In this world you either go or you are left behind, and the goers use agency to get ahead. A better emphasis on time management skills may be needed for the six learning outcomes, as I feel that is very important, but taught rarely. As for educational benefits, I feel that I gained a lot of insight from the workings of bureaucracy, and that is wonderful insight to have before having to deal with a bureaucracy in the workplace.
The internship took place at the school, so all the technology was things I had used before. So there was nothing to add, and no technological experience was gained. I used internet browsers to gain information, and Microsoft Word to write the grants. Every once in a blue moon there was a grant that used an editable pdf, and in that case we would use Adobe Acrobat to do editing.
The internship was not challenging intellectually, it was more challenging spiritually. There were many moments where I wanted to give up but didn’t, because I was all they had. I had to take my own initiative because mine was the only one; the weight was squarely on my shoulders. As for recommending this to another student, I am mixed. On one hand I feel that my time as a grant writer was extremely stressful, and disproportionately unrewarding. However, someone might be a better writer, and have more luck with the system. If anybody wants to take up the mantle of the school grant writer, they should keep in mind one thing. I entered the internship with grant writing as a career possibility, and left with that possibility scratched off my list.
For my internship I decided to take my internship with the school, the subject was grant writing. Sacramento New Technology High School devotes itself to the education of its students, to fulfill this goal, the organization needs money. I was the only grant writer for the school at the time, and I was a department of one. My main goal was to get money for the Physical Education department, but if any other departments asked for a grant letter I would oblige them.
My goal as an intern were to write somewhere in the area of five grant applications, nothing more, nothing less. To this end I achieved this goal, but did not get a single accepted letter. I started as a grant writer who wrote grants and ended as a grant writer who wrote grants, as were my goals throughout the project. I would have made a bigger impact if I had gotten a grant to pass through, but that did not happen. My view of the professional environment is unchanged by this experience.
My internship related to teaching in many ways, my only co-worker was my boss, and he was a teacher. He provided insight into the workings of the school. The things I learned play into the six learning outcomes, mostly because of the location in which I took my internship. If business is a project, agency is the glue that holds it together. In this world you either go or you are left behind, and the goers use agency to get ahead. A better emphasis on time management skills may be needed for the six learning outcomes, as I feel that is very important, but taught rarely. As for educational benefits, I feel that I gained a lot of insight from the workings of bureaucracy, and that is wonderful insight to have before having to deal with a bureaucracy in the workplace.
The internship took place at the school, so all the technology was things I had used before. So there was nothing to add, and no technological experience was gained. I used internet browsers to gain information, and Microsoft Word to write the grants. Every once in a blue moon there was a grant that used an editable pdf, and in that case we would use Adobe Acrobat to do editing.
The internship was not challenging intellectually, it was more challenging spiritually. There were many moments where I wanted to give up but didn’t, because I was all they had. I had to take my own initiative because mine was the only one; the weight was squarely on my shoulders. As for recommending this to another student, I am mixed. On one hand I feel that my time as a grant writer was extremely stressful, and disproportionately unrewarding. However, someone might be a better writer, and have more luck with the system. If anybody wants to take up the mantle of the school grant writer, they should keep in mind one thing. I entered the internship with grant writing as a career possibility, and left with that possibility scratched off my list.