My professional identity is how I present myself in the workforce / in a business style environment. What makes up my professional identity is how I present myself, how I am looked upon by others, my attitude/personality towards the work I am given, and my level of education. Professionalism operates very well at my internship site as everything I have listed is always to portrayed at the internship site. I must make myself look professional by wearing business casual attire when I come into work. I must set a good example to show that I can provide value to the internship and prove I am capable to the work given. It is also important to keep a positive attitude towards all of these things to also receive positive feedback by my coworkers and supervisors

My professional identity has grown a good amount since starting this internship. For example, I learned how to present myself professionally by dressing well and improving my body language when speaking or interacting with coworkers/supervisors. Having good body language while speaking with those around you is an important thing to have because a small change in body language can make you stand out and make you seem like you actually want to be there. My professional identity connects to my future goals by just being able to teach me how to prepare for future careers. I aim to become a CPA after graduation and working at a CPA firm while simultaneously working on my professional identity tremendously helps improve it to be well prepared for when I am to work as a CPA. Everything that is done here is expected of me to be able to handle when I become a CPA.

Since taking on this internship I have grown a lot as an individual and as well as in an educational standpoint. Juggling school work, and my internship has not been easy but it has definitely taught me things like time management skills, and patience. 

In this internship ive also learned and got a bigger idea of what to expect when I begin working entry level positions in the accounting field. Whether it be working in quickbooks with different clients, filing tax returns for clients, managing a clients expenses and revenue, etc. It has been a huge learning experience and it has much better prepared me for what to expect when becoming a CPA. 

The way my academics connected to my internship was mostly by the classes I am taking currently, such as Financial Accounting. In this class I have seen many correlations to my internship working as an Accounting Intern. While filing and preparing returns things such as determining a clients assets, depreciation of assets, filing forms like 1099's and w2's, etc. It has helped me better understand how things really work in the real world and how they are calculated by it being demonstrated in class.

From working at my internship I found myself applying skills i've learned from there into my academics and not vice versa which was odd at first but i'm glad it worked out that way because it allowed me to perform better in school. Being able to understand how real life situations are implemented from working out the problems in class created a big impact on my connection between the two.