Coursework Connections

As I sat in my apartment on May 27^th 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 résumé, 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 didn’t get into. The combination of these two classes made my experience at GRT that much better.

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 Vail’s office to make sure there wasn’t 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 weren’t 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 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 don’t 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 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!”