My Internship
My site puts together two reports, one of which is for the IU School of Medicine to let them know how they are doing, and where there is room for improvement. This data is obtained through surveys, which are then analyzed and made into spreadsheets, then reports and presentations. At the beginning, I was simply reading past reports to familiarize myself with formatting and completing the training necessary for the data being handled. Next, I reviewed the Main Report as well as the twelve smaller reports, marking errors and correcting them. I have also looked over the presentation regarding this data and corrected errors. I reformatted old tables to make room for 2021 data in the IUSM report, along with one of the other interns. I then looked over the data analysis for the newest numbers and cross-checked that with what has been put in the files thus far. I then updated the rest of those files with another intern. I just finished reviewing the Main Report and Department Specific Reports, and they were sent out at the end of February. Now I am updating tables in preparation for new 2022 data, and I recently finished making a welcome sheet for the next intern with tips and important deadlines.
LHSIeportfoliovid.mp4
Learning and Skills
I have always enjoyed research, and have been trained in data entry before, though not in this setting. This allowed me to use and further my skills with different software, as well as further my professional skills.
At the beginning, I was hoping to learn more about what goes into creating professional reports, papers, and presentations in this internship. Early on, my contributions were checking for errors in statistics or grammar, and continued to be for a while. Attention to detail and organization are incredibly transferrable skills that I will use in any job or internship I go into in the future.
I really enjoyed learning more about how to use Excel, because I had to use it in my statistics lab (for things such as z-scores, paired t-tests, ANOVA testing, regression, etc..) which made classwork easier and more streamlined, and I was able to help my classmates complete our labs faster as well. It also brought into context the things we learned about in the statistics lecture (population statistics, p-values, etc..). I also enjoyed learning more about the process that goes into generating such in-depth reports.
One of my favorite experiences thus far has been when my advisor was telling us how her meeting (to discuss our team with her supervisor) went. It brought into focus the quality and importance of the work we are doing with these reports, and gave me a deep sense of pride in my work.
Some skills and strengths have I developed through this experience would be greater attention to detail, time-management skills, and better team communication. A lot of the work I do is quality assurance, so the details really matter. We also have deadlines we need to meet, so time management is essential. As the newest intern, I often have to ask questions of senior interns, ask for tasks, or give updates, so we maintain a constant line of communication.
As an intern, I feel like I have been most successful with my quality assurance work. Inputting data is necessary, but as the newest intern I was more nervous about doing that incorrectly, whereas when I am checking over reports or excel sheets, a fresh perspective may actually be necessary to see a long-term problem. It feels great to catch a problem before the report goes out the door. One of the more challenging things has been updating excel spread sheets for new data. It was more repetitive than anything, and there were no real shortcuts. Myself and another intern did finish it, and I learned that when doing repetitive tasks, it is very important to check over your work.
My contributions at this site have affected the quality of the reports sent out the door for the better. I made sure the data was complete and accurate to the best of my abilities, and it shows in the final product. My work was important to the quality assurance aspect, as well as preparations for further reports.
The Workplace
My advisor has stressed the importance of accountability and responsibility in a professional. This means checking in with those who you ask to complete a task and making sure it is accomplished before moving on, and maintaining communication with team members to minimize confusion.
Personally, I would like to increase my collaboration skills and work on how I function in a team. This means keeping a more open line of communication with team members and asking questions of them before my advisor when appropriate.
This internship is definitely more Excel based than I expected, but it's a very welcome difference, as much lab work requires statistical interpretation of results. The other team members are also closer to my age than I would have expected, which is also welcome as it makes it easier to relate. There have been no real surprises in the day-to-day of this internship, as everything is communicated beforehand. It is a bit different than I originally expected, mostly by virtue of being completely remote, though this makes it easier for me in terms of transportation. In regards to engaging with people from different communities/cultures, I mostly just work with the other intern(s), and as it is remote, there is less non-work related communication than usual, though I will say that working with graduate students does qualify as "outside of normal" for an underclassman.
My advisor is great at engaging with her employees and makes meetings a pleasure. That is another thing I enjoy, we meet 1-2 times a week just to check in and make sure everything is going well, which is good because the majority of our work is collaborative. While I enjoy my internship, I would definitely seek out more individual level tasks and responsibilities in the future. I enjoy creating plans for tasks and executing them myself, as it feels very rewarding. At the moment, there is only one other worker besides myself and my advisor, and it is remote, so there has not been an overwhelming amount of community engagement in this internship. However, we are all going to be pitching in during education days soon, so that may change soon! My goals have not changed much, though I do plan on looking for a more lab-based internship now that I have a better idea of the bookwork behind it. I am fairly confident in my ability to assess work environments and my own preferences to make good choices in my career.
