Being able to learn new skills and improve on existing skills was one of the most important parts of this internship, and it is one of the main goals that the Friday Institute had when creating this internship. Out of all the skills I learned, I would have to say that the research and evaluation skills I learned have been the most helpful. My favorite project I would perform would be literature reviews for certain topics related to educational research, and I would then perform analyses of them. These gave me research and evaluation skills that will prove to be useful to me later in my career. After I graduate, I hope to either go to graduate school and/or pursue a career in policy analysis, so being able to have good research and evaluation skills will be important in those two fields if I want to be able to succeed. Other skills that this internship has taught me have been qualitative analysis, survey building, data cleaning and more. Likewise, there are other skills like teamwork and communication that I was able to improve on. We have bi-weekly meetings, and in these meetings, we are able to speak about how we are doing, what we are working on, and anything we have learned. It helps foster communication with fellow interns, which is important given that this internship was virtual. Also from the bi-weekly meetings were professional development opportunities. We would have guest speakers who would provide us professional development lessons on topics such as leadership, research, equity and more. In one of the meetings, we received a lesson on how to utilize the NC State library resources. This was very useful for the project I was doing, but it was also helpful outside of my work here. I was able to apply these methods I learned to the work I did in my classes.

Beyond the skills and professional development strategies I learned in my time as an intern, I believe that one of the most overlooked aspects was how much I learned about educational research and what exactly the Friday Institute was setting out to solve. When I applied to this position I had always been interested in the educational field, but I felt my knowledge of it was pretty low despite my interest. Through the different projects and tasks I performed as an intern I had a new and better understanding of what educational research was. One of the most influential projects that shaped my understanding was the literature reviews. I performed three literature reviews in total. The first literature review was about STEM programs in rural schools and communities, the second literature review was centered around equity evaluation in STEM education, and the last literature review was about STEM identity. In these literature reviews there is a common theme about STEM education and the inequalities in who receives them, which is something that I did not realize was such a pertinent problem in the education system. During literature reviews, I had to summarize and analyze different academic articles related to these topics, and in doing so, I learned specific problems, where they stemmed from and how exactly they can be improved. Depending on the route I go towards in my future career, this can be very useful information. But also as an average person, I believe these are important topics to know and be informed about. 

I would recommend this internship to other students. The Friday Institute is under the College of Education, and when I first applied to the intern position I did not think I would be accepted for that sole reason. But then I learned that this internship is for all who are interested in the field of education, research or educational research. The reason I applied for this internship was because I was specifically interested in educational policy. Being a political science major, policy is a substantial part of politics, and educational policy is no different. My time here has given me a great learning experience in how policy can be crafted and implemented. As long as you are interested in what the Friday Institute is setting out to achieve and are willing to allow yourself to learn, then this internship is right for anyone.