My Time As An Intern

My time as an intern with the Friday Institute can be characterized by growth. In my short time with the Friday Institute, I believe I have not only learned technical skills that would be applicable to my future towards my career, but I also believe I have learned and refined many social skills.

I came into the Friday Institute as an intern looking to learn new skills and refine my existing skills, and I believe I did just that. Because I was assigned to a literature research task, I had to search journal articles. This is something I’m not new to, as I had experience with it in a previous internship. However, through helpful tips from the internship program manager, Dr. Callie Edwards, and an informational lecture from a guest speaker from the NC State University Libraries during the first week of the internship, I learned new methods of how to research that are definitely valuable and useful in my future, especially as a student at NC State.

The Friday Institute is a giant team with a diverse group of people—something that I have never been a part of. Even though I did not have contact with a large amount of the people within this institute, I still enjoyed being a part of it. My specific team was a group of five people, and even though this internship was online, I think there was a heavy emphasis on getting acquainted with fellow team members through weekly meetings via ice breakers. As someone who would consider themselves an introvert, I believe it was very helpful with learning about one another. 

Among other social skills and techniques I learned during weekly meetings, I learned how to be an inclusive leader during the sessions with Dr. Picart. He brought up topics such as microaggressions and micro affirmations, and I thought these were ideas that I could utilize if I were ever in a position of leadership in the future.

The Friday Institute provides a great learning experience in many ways and provides students a chance to improve themselves and learn new skills. In my experience, I learned many skills, both technical and social, and plan to implement them in the future.