BUS 222 Final Internship Reflection

Context: As part of the BUS 222 Summer Internship course I took during summer 2019, I was asked to compose a reflection at the end of my internship looking back on my experiences and assessing which of my four learning objectives were met. While I had prior experience in writing reflections for classes at Agnes Scott College, before completing this assignment I had never formally reflected on a job or internship experience. Writing this reflection enabled me to critically consider my own performance in the workplace by measuring my achievements against a handful of preset benchmarks, thus laying the foundation for developing strong job performance self-analysis skills which will serve me well in future employment positions. I have included this reflection below.

As my summer internship with World of Speed Motorsports Museum draws to a close, I believe it would be prudent to take the opportunity to re-visit each of the four learning objectives I identified for this course towards the beginning of the summer. I established these learning objectives with the goal of isolating and articulating specific skills I could focus on developing or acquiring over the course of my internship, skills that I believe would be useful both in my internship workplace as well as in future employment opportunities down the line.

The first of my learning objectives was to create a curriculum plan for elementary school children in grades three through five containing a week’s worth of lessons and classroom activities relating to STEM, automotive technology, and vehicular physics. I met this learning objective! Under the guidance of my supervisor Katie Williams, and in collaboration with my coworkers Ben and Nashmy, I planned, designed, and typed up the curriculum for two weeks of camp- our “Girls Rule!” STEM and female empowerment focused camp for elementary school girls, as well as our Technology camp for third through fifth grade. The curriculum for each camp contained activities centered around science, technology, engineering, automotive physics, and vehicular design. In “Girls Rule!” camp, I planned activities for my students such as deconstructing and rebuilding small engines, engineering paper airplanes, growing crystals using principles of basic chemistry, designing aerodynamic Pinewood Derby cars, and building simple circuits. In Technology camp, my students worked on video game design and coding, electrical circuits, digital design and 3D printing of weight-balanced and bouyant boats, and engineering of “battle bots” using Lego Mindstorm robotics sets. In creating the curriculum for these camps, I learned valuable lessons regarding time management, classroom management, and itemizing lists of supplies needed for various projects.

My second learning objective was to develop my professional communication skills through email, phone, and in-person interactions with guest speakers, off-site vendors, and volunteers on behalf of my organization. I met this learning objective as well- over email I organized a guest speaker appearance for our Girls Rule camp from local race car driver Vicki Shepherd, as well as additional staffing help throughout the Girls Rule camp from museum volunteer Tammy-Sue, and a visit from the “Alien Bob” team at Oregon Tech Institute. (“Alien Bob” is an educational tool/game for children, developed by a robotics club at Oregon Tech- it is essentially an outer-space/extraterrestrial themed game of “Operation,” where students use tweezers to carefully remove various space debris from a six foot tall alien figurine.) I also communicated over the phone with Pat’s Acres, the off-site vendor we use for go-karting in our racing camps, and I spoke in person with employee representatives of Woodburn Dragstrip when we brought our campers there for an off-site field trip to watch quarter mile drag races. At the last minute, one of our planned guest speakers for Girls Rule, race car driver Cindi Lux, was unavailable and unfortunately had to cancel her visit due to a family emergency. In order to fill that hole in our schedule, I organized a substitute visit/talk to be given by the mother of one of our longtime returning campers, who works in the tech industry and enjoys amateur autocross racing in her free time. Through all of these interactions, I prioritized professionalism, courtesy, kindness, and a cooperative, flexible attitude, so as to best represent my organization, and I noticed that communicating on behalf of the museum became slightly easier each time that I was given an opportunity to do so. In the future, now that I have this bank of experience in professional communication on behalf of a company, I expect that I will feel less apprehensive about representing the people I work for over phone or email.

My third learning objective this summer was to familiarize myself with the simple and child-friendly 3D digital design program Tinkercad, to the point where I could lead my summer camp students through a Tinkercad design exercise with confidence. I met this goal as well- yesterday, I conducted a Tinkercad design exercise with my Technology camp students, where I helped them design watertight “boats” to be 3D printed, with the end goal of having a competition to see which team’s boat could hold the most pennies without sinking. Prior to beginning the activity, I created accounts for each team using Tinkercad’s “teacher/educator” option, and then once they were all logged in, I gave a demonstration of how to use each of Tinkercad’s built in design tools. I have never personally used Tinkercad, however I watched my coworker Rob lead students in this same activity earlier this summer. After viewing my demonstration, my campers seemed comfortable operating Tinkercad unassisted, and each team of students was successfully able to design a boat. After a brief training from my coworker Ben on how to operate our 3D printers, I managed to print all six boats with no trouble. By overseeing this exercise, I have developed competency in two additional pieces of software, gained experience in leading a “demonstration” for an audience of how to navigate a program, and familiarized myself with principles of three dimensional digital design, all of which could easily be useful in a career geared towards engineering.

My fourth and final learning objective was to work one-on-one with special needs students in our summer camps in order to improve my understanding and awareness of the ways which students with ADHD, autism, and sensory processing disorders learn differently. As someone with diagnosed ADHD myself, and as someone with multiple autistic family members, I am committed to learning how to best accommodate the unique needs of individuals with developmental disorders or learning disabilities, and how to best help advocate for them in the classroom. With the help of my supervisor Lewis, I spoke with two teachers at Victory Academy, a nearby school for students with autism, in order to learn techniques to help make students with sensory needs more comfortable in the classroom. Additionally, over the course of the summer, I worked one on one with several special needs students in order to help them navigate frustration or sensory overstimulation in the classroom, and in the process I learned that offering a chance to “step outside for a moment” is an incredible first line of defense against campers having meltdowns or bad classroom experiences- I have learned to pay close attention to which, if any, of my students appear frustrated or overwhelmed, and I have learned to intervene before they hit the meltdown point by simply offering them a chance to leave the stressful environment, collect themselves, and recenter their minds. One specific project the museum took on this summer in order to be more welcoming to all guests was to design a backpack of sensory supplies such as earmuffs, fidget toys, and weighted vests for students with different sensory needs to check out from the front desk and use during their museum visit. After meeting with Victory Academy, my supervisor Lewis made a list of supplies to purchase, and World of Speed successfully created two “sensory backpacks” which are now available for checkout at the museum’s front desk.