An Internship in a Time of COVID: An Internship Success Story
By Ginger Kloska, Process Improvement Intern
May 11, 2021
Photo of Ginger Kloska
For many, 2020 has been full of changes, both good and bad. Yet, life still goes on. At the beginning of my internship, back in January 2020, I was fully in-office with five other amazing interns guiding me along the way. Additionally, I was finishing my junior year in person at the University of Colorado Denver going for a bachelor’s in Human Resources Management. Now, at the end of my internship, I am still learning from my two newest colleagues, but in a fully remote atmosphere and I have a new major: Business Management and Information Systems, which I am fully learning online. Just like most people, I didn’t expect to achieve so much growth in one year.
New Beginnings
I started my internship with one goal in mind: learning. I had never worked in an office environment before, so this new opportunity terrified yet excited me. My dad, Jeff Kloska, who has worked as an Engineer at the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) for over 20 years, told me there was nothing to be afraid of and that these people were truly some of the best people to work with and learn from. Right away, his advice was proven right. My supervisors Gary Vansuch and Michelle Malloy were the most supportive and patient people I had ever met. Along with them, our office Administrative Assistant, Roxane Olvera, and the rest of the interns quickly brought me up to speed and I immediately felt comfortable and excited to see where this internship would go.
January 2020 Pre-Covid
Saying “Yes” to Everything
After going fully remote, our office did not stop continuously improving CDOT. This meant still creating content, engaging with the rest of CDOT and other agencies, and helping others with this new significant change. However, as I mentioned previously, life still continued. The previous interns finished their internships and got full-time jobs, and that left some big shoes to fill, especially in the web development and design portion of our work. Through interviewing a former CDOT intern, I was advised to always say ‘yes’ to every opportunity that came my way in order to make the most out of my internship experience. Shortly after this interview, Gary and Michelle came up to me and asked if I would like to fill in for our web development and design position for the time being. Of course, I had to follow my new found advice and say yes! At first, I was able to navigate through our website and publish the content accordingly. Then, suddenly one weekend, Gary emailed me and told me our entire website was blank. Having very little experience in web development and no experience in coding, I still volunteered to try and solve the issue.
In order to find out more, I taught myself how to code HTML and CSS coding. Oddly enough, I found that I loved it! I was able to get our site back up and running within a week and I have been improving it ever since. After finding my new passion, Gary and Michelle started to task me with more web development and design tasks. I was able to create and maintain 6 different websites, 4 logos, and lead the transfer from our main site to a Google Site.
Also, throughout my internship, I was able to learn and improve multiple skills that I will use for the rest of my career. I helped produce 6 webinars/teleconferences for our two different communities of practice: Transportation Lean Forum and Public Sector Change Practitioners, get a Change Practitioner Certification through Prosci, and present at the Colorado Lean Network.
Ginger's workspace at home
The Impact
This internship really helped me answer my questions about where I wanted to go in my career and what suited me best. I changed my major to Business Management and Information Systems and I am excited to see where this new path will take me. I would highly recommend this internship to anyone looking to learn more about public service and process improvement as well as more about their own personal career goals and ambitions.