11th Grade Internship
After having been a part of the lab for the past three weeks, I have become very used to the environment and what the day to day looks like. There are different things do everyday therefor the work is not monotonous, but this also means that you have to know how to do several things. The way one would measure success at the lab is by seeing how much work they accomplish in a day. Sometimes this means that the members will be doing several small tasks or working towards a bigger project of theirs. Measuring my success would be by looking at the amount of content that I learn each day. By learning more I can become more useful and work on projects that will be beneficial for my mentor. Having this mindset is very good because it allows you to be prepared to do work and absorb as much information as possible.
My internship has been meaningful to my education because it allowed me to see the kind of content that I need to understand in order to work at a lab. It also allowed for me to apply some of the things that I have learned in school to real-life scenarios. Through the work that I did I began to have a better understanding of the problems that we face. The goal of the lab is to find solutions that will help deal with those problems. By working on the coral tank that will be used for experiments, I will have played a part in the process of finding a solution to the problems that corals face. From my work I have been able to learn a lot about the individual parts that allow for a healthy marine tank. There is a lot that must happen, a lot of time and care must be provided, in order to develop a healthy community of organisms. By doing so it is possible to emulate the ocean’s natural processes and get a better understanding of marine life as a whole. During my time at the lab, I have become much more aware about how dedicated each individual must be to their field of study. It has a given me a greater appreciation for my own motivation, which will come in handy when I pursue a career in biology. Another development that has come out from my internship is that I have a better feel of what a work environment is like. It is similar to regular school yet it is slightly different and I know that I would be confident and comfortable doing the kind of work that my coworkers do.
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For my photos I decided to showcase some of the main components from the aquarium room that allow for the marine tank to work and the kind of equipment I’ve been working with. For each of these photos I will give small descriptions of what is in the picture and how they work/function. All of these are part of a greater system that has allowed my mentor and other members of the lab to be able to grow both hard and soft coral. These are some of the main components that can be found in the filtration system although there other steps that play a vital role in keeping the water quality at a healthy level.
Self-advocacy is an important trait to have because it allows for the person to be able to speak up for themselves and say what is on their mind. Within my internship I have advocated for myself when I answer questions that are posed to me by my mentor. Sometimes I am able to express my knowledge and sometimes I am incapable of responding because I don’t know the content. In situations such as those I use self-advocacy even more because I openly ask for support when I don’t know something. I am very comfortable asking questions or for help because I am aware that I will not know everything and I want to learn as much as possible. Along with this I try to express my interests as well so that my mentor will know what kind of work to give me. Throughout the course of my internship I have been doing my very best to carry around my notebook wherever I go and taking notes of all the important details that I might need to remember at a later date. Along with this I have become more accustomed to the members of the lab which helps me have more options on who to ask when I have questions. I am on time everyday to the internship worksite and am very consistent with keeping track of my schedule. Overall I feel that my performance is prime, although I would definitely love to keep on improving.
For my internship project, my main vocation is to focus on learning more about coral through aquarium work. Under the supervision of my mentor, I will be focusing on maintaining a marine tank by catering to its needs and learning more about it. In order to do this I will not only be doing hands-on work, but I will also be reading important texts and learning directly from my mentor in order to understand the different processes that are present in the aquarium. In regards to skills necessary in order to do this job well, I know that I need to become more knowledgeable on the content. From when I first began I had a very basic understanding and so I have been doing my best to learn a little bit about everything. This is really one of the biggest skills because by understanding the tank it becomes more apparent what you have to do. Along with knowing what to do, it will allow me to become more useful to my mentor. The goal being to not only have personal gain, but to also help my mentor in some kind of way. This is the main project that I will be working on, although I might do some other work that is more chemistry intensive. Regardless of the work/content, I see myself doing my very best to learn and apply what I learn. I would say that I am very confident because I know that I have support from my mentor and can easily ask for help from other lab members that are equally experienced. Outside of the workspace I have support from my teachers and fellow peers that are working in other fields of science. Most importantly I would say that I am very interested by the content I’m looking at and that is what will make this internship (project) successful.
During the course of this week, I talked to my mentor and interviewed him in order to learn more about his job and the lab as a whole. My mentor is Brandon Reyes and he is an aquarium manager and researcher here at the Rohwer and Wegley-Kelly Lab. The reason he chose to work here is that he had previously been involved with the lab and he liked how advanced the lab is. It is one of the top biology labs studying coral and since this is something he is very passionate about, it was natural for him to become involved. He was able to gain the position that he has today because he was able to demonstrate advanced skills in various fields of interest. He had experience working with various aquariums and he was knowledgeable in genomics/metagenomics. This is what inclined the lab owners to want to hire Brandon, and he soon became a part of the team. Some skills that he said were necessary for the job included: aquarium skill, molecular techniques, and knowledge about reef and microbiology.
He says that even though the job can be very time consuming and demanding/stressful, it is a very satisfying job. When I asked him about what it takes to be successful, he said that you need practice and strong willpower. Along with this you have to be very open-minded to learning new content and you have to be motivated throughout. Some advice that he gave for a workplace such as this one, is that you have to be very on top of things and that you should always do as your superiors say. Besides this, you must be self-guided and do your very best to know and learn as much as you can about the content. For my last question, I asked what skills or traits are most important. He responded that the traits that are most important to have are to be creative, ambitious, inquisitive, and open-minded to content. With this we concluded our interview and I was able to have a better understanding of the field and get to know my mentor a little better. After a week of going to my internship, although I have questions about the work and what some things are, I don’t have many regarding the actual internship. I feel very confident while there and I know that I am able to ask questions whenever in order to help me understand. One immediate connection that I can think of between school and the internship is that since I am working with a coral tank, I am in charge of testing water quality. I can connect this to a project that I had last year in chemistry, where I learned how to perform some of these tests and how important water quality is. One cool opportunity that I had this week was to be able to attend a conference where students and professors alike, were giving presentations about the work that they had been doing. This not only exposed me to new content but gave me a better understanding of what the goal is for most researchers. Usually, they are doing their best to work towards a greater goal and finding innovative ways to solve a problem that they face. Some skills that I will develop soon is that I will become much more conscious of time and I am striving to become a more active person in the lab. A part of the internship that has been very new to me is the commute every morning. Driving from Escondido to San Diego is quite a drive, luckily I am able to get rides from my parents which allows me to get there on time. Other than that though, it is a very great opportunity and I am able to learn all sorts of new content on a daily basis. On Monday, May 14th; I began my internship at the Rohwer and Wegley-Kelly Lab at SDSU. My first day was very good because I got to meet with my mentor and find out what kind of of content and work I would be looking at. What strikes me the most about the workplace is that the actual work can take place in just about any of their rooms. Sometimes work might be done in the office room, some work might take place in the aquarium or it might require some table work in the lab. Something that is very surprising about my colleagues is how independent they can all be, and how they come together to figure something out or just to discuss. This is part of what makes the work environment so interesting because all of the members are bringing something to the table. Through collaboration they are able to provide constructive criticism for each other and work towards a central goal.
For my first day I was mainly learning about the central concepts that I need to understand in order to keep up. I do believe that I might end up doing several jobs, although I’m not sure of what all of them are yet. I will say that I am very excited to get started on some work and become more involved within the lab. One thing that worries me is that I might be too unread and some of the content might just fly over my head. I worry that I might be not be as useful because I am not up to speed, but I am positive that I will do my very best to understand whatever content appears. My outlook for this internship is very positive and I can’t wait to see what I will be doing in the next few days. For my Career Day, I was able to visit the Rohwer and Wegley-Kelly lab at SDSU, where I will be interning in the following weeks. It was a great experience and I was able to meet the majority of the members at the lab along with a quick introduction to what they all study and their individual projects. A typical workday for them is doing work related to their project; that can range anywhere from working on the table to writing a report for their findings. The lab is very flexible and the members of the lab help each other out if they need the aid; along with this, they are very dynamic. The work that they do will require them to move around quite a bit, therefore the members of the lab won’t always be in the same place.
A workday is very similar to that of a student at the university, but the hours can be somewhat flexible depending on what work they are doing on their projects. Since the lab is open for the members the majority of the time, it is up the individual to choose at what time to arrive. Every member is expected to do a certain amount of work for their projects and that is something they must keep in mind when deciding what to do. The dress code seemed to be relatively lax, a more casual type of style. Since at school we wear collared shirts, that’s what I will normally dress like in order to look prepared while still looking casual. Overall my Career Day experience was very good and I am genuinely interested in the projects that they are working on. I hope that I am able to work on a project that will benefit them, and I am excited to learn a lot more. I do believe that this internship is a good fit for me and that it will hopefully help guide me for big college decisions that will be coming up soon. |