Junior Achievement of San Diego
Internship
In January, I will be interning at Junior Achievement of San Diego. I recently interviewed my mentor and these are her responses to my questions:
- Name of Mentor: Mitzi Salgado
- Name of Organization: Junior Achievement San Diego
- What is the company's mission/purpose? To teach kids how to get a job, start a business, and how to manage money.
- What are your duties/responsibilities? Mitzi finds volunteers to represent Junior Achievement on JA days. JA days are when volunteers from a certain community visit a school to teach students about what Junior Achievement does and give a small lesson about how to manage money.
- How is the organization structured? Every staff member at JA has a different job. Some may work with BizTown, Finance Park, JA Days, special events for JA, bookkeeping for JA, but at the end of the day, every person at Junior Achievement needs to work together in order to keep the organization going.
- Why did you choose to work here? Mitzi loves working at Junior Achievement not only because she loves working with students, but the environment and friendly staff is also a big plus.
- What other personality traits, skills, or knowledge are important to work here? To be successful at JA, employees should be comfortable and willing to work with kids and teens. Employees at JA should be positive and easy to work with. The environment is great and the staff treat each other like one big family. Employees should also be able to speak at public events and represent Junior Achievement in a professional way. You also have to be a fan of chocolate!
1/5/16 Tomorrow is my first day of my internship and i am very excited to start. I will be in the office by 8:00am, but my mentor will be there by 9:00am. I am a little nervous for the work I will be doing because there are very small details to remember, but I am super excited to be working with my mentor because she is very hardworking and trusts me with everything. I can't wait to start. I will be posting everyday this month about what I am doing throughout the day, my daily goals, or things that I am looking forward to during my internship.
1/7/16 These past two days I have been working on Excel Sheets to compile data from previous and future JA events as well as BCRM. I also send emails, answer calls, and do any tasks Mitzi needs done. I need to learn more about BCRM before entering and saving the data, but hopefully I am getting the hang of it. Since I have known the other employees for a couple years, I did not have any "first impressions" this week, other than starting BCRM. I hope to become even closer with my coworkers and learn as much as possible from them throughout this month.
1/8/16 Today, I started out my day by following the to do list my mentor left for me. I made different excel sheets for the events coming up, in order to compile more data. I then printed the data out and filed it in sections using binders. When my mentor arrived, she checked the work I had done and gave me more information to use in those sheets. When she was in her meeting, i organized my side of the office so that our little area could accommodate us better. After the meeting, we answered phone calls, sent emails, filed more papers and called future and active volunteers to ask if they would like to volunteer for the spring. Overall, today was a very productive day.
1/9/16 Everyday, I go to my internship at 8:00am and leave at 4:30pm. I share a desk with my mentor and mainly work from her computer. Here are a few pictures of where I work:
This is the upstairs office where everyone works.
This is my desk.
This is BizTown. BizTown teaches the same curriculum as Finance Park, but for Elementary School students. Here, students pick a job and try to manage their time and money while keeping up with daily wants and needs.
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This is the lunch/break room.
This is Finance Park. High Schools come here to learn how to get a job, start and business, and manage money. Students have an online family to take care of with the money they make at their pretend daily job.
This is one of the places students can work at in BizTown.
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1/13/16 The project I will be doing for my Internship is the JA Day on January 29. JA Days are when volunteers from a certain community visit schools to teach students about the Junior Achievement curriculum. Volunteers are either chosen by a company, such as a bank, or sign up on their own. Since banks need a specific amount of community hours, this is a win win for both them and JA. The volunteers receive a kit full of information about their financial topic and any materials the class will need. Volunteers also receive a training from my mentor before their school date. For now, I am working on emailing volunteers/teachers, making spreadsheets filled with school data, volunteer information, or any other info needed for the day, and filing past JA day information sheets into BCRM. I am also helping other education managers, like Mitzi, with inventory of volunteer kits.
1/15/16 I am definitely enjoying my internship so far. All of the employees treat each other like family and it's nice to feel so welcome. When I go to school, it feels like the teachers are the boss and I am doing everything for them, but here, the employees treat me as if I am on the same level as them, and I do all of my work to please myself, not my boss. I also have a little more freedom with my work hours than school hours. I am able to go in around 8:00am-9:00am, but there is no exact time, and if I am late, there is no penalty. This internship will help me with school and finding a job when I am older because I am learning, not only work ethics, but computer skills that I may need later in life. Overall, it's been a great experience so far.
1/20/16
- Chloe Evans: She had a very relaxed tone to her entries,white made her blog even more interesting to read.
- Alvaro Gonzalez: His site was very clean cut and professional.
- Ashley Price: I liked how every entry was very descriptive. You can tell she spent a lot of time working on her entries.
1/22/16 At my internship, employees treat each other equally. Whether it's the CEO of the company or the maintenance man, no one is treated as if they are less important than the other. The whole atmosphere is great because everyone is treated like a family. Replicating this trait with students, as well as teachers, would make our school even more enjoyable and easier to be productive. Over the course of my internship, I've learned to double check my work and to have someone else check my work, before sending it in. I've learned how important it is to pay attention to the small details of my work in order for it to be perfect.
1/25/16
During my internship, I helped everyone in the office at least once. I worked with my mentor for most of the month, but on days that she was out of the office, I helped others. For Rebecca, the site manager, I organized and decorated the meeting room wall with employees' resolutions (I'll post a picture tomorrow), helped her prepare for a her Monday meeting, and arranged folders full of information for an annual board meeting. I helped Briana, education team, with organizing and taking inventory of kits that will later be used for JA days. I helped Valerie, Finance Park, with preparing for the Boy Scouts to come for JA Finance Park, and organizing her file cabinet. I will help Martha and Kristie, PR and Finance Park, when I go on KUSI News tomorrow morning to talk about how JA helps High School students with Finance Park. I have also been helping Tracy, event manager, with the annual Casino Night, which will be held on Friday, January 29th.
Throughout this month, I have learned a lot about JA, compiling data, organization habits, and leadership skills, but mostly, I have learned about myself. I have learned to be as professional as possible, while being calm and understanding, but still confident and diligent. I have learned to speak with more details and less "frill", to get straight to the point and to not take "no" for an answer, it's been difficult to speak on the phone with so many adults, because they often look down on me for being so young, but I have learned to act like I am sitting at the head of the table of a conference room at all times.
While working at JA, I have met several people who have graduated from the college I am planning on attending. I went to lunch with one of the girls, Tanya, and she will be giving me a tour of the campus and teaching a class that I will be able to sit in and watch, on February 10th. She has also given me another contact that has not only attended that college, but has been looking into the same career path that I am looking into.
As for my project, we have been compiling data and keeping in touch with volunteers for our upcoming JA day on the 29th. I am excited because I have never seen a JA day before and can't wait to see all of my hard work play out. Since I will be busy working with my mentor during the actual JA day, I will wait until advisory on Monday to do my presentation.
1/26/16 I have learned to appreciate how easy school is compared to a real workplace. I also now appreciate being around people my age because, after a while of being around adults, it gets a little boring. I miss seeing my friends and having a personal connection with the people around me.
There are employees at my office who are very calm when under a lot of stress. Would like to develop this skill more because it will be useful in any career. When we were ready to do the KUSI interview, the camera died suddenly. The PR lady, Kristy, stayed calm and helped everyone re-prepare what we needed to say, but in a much smaller scale. We had to shorten our topics in order to fit our time slot, but everything worked out great. I am very glad Kristy was able to use her skill of stay calm in a stressful situation.
As I said in my last post, I have met several different people at Junior Achievement who have graduated at the college that I am looking into. I am meeting with each of them to get a clearer picture of if I really want to go to this college. I am looking forward to my second tour on February, 10th.
Internship hasn't really affected the direction of my life. I have seen how this company works for three years and nothing has changed about my perspective. I had already known the employees and mission of the organization before starting my internship.
Other than phone calls with a couple of new people, I have not had communication with people other than employees. Since I have been a part of JA and other professional working environments already, i feel that my understanding has not changed.
1/28/16 Here is the link to my presentation.
https://www.emaze.com/@AFCFTZCC/alis-internship-presentation
There are employees at my office who are very calm when under a lot of stress. Would like to develop this skill more because it will be useful in any career. When we were ready to do the KUSI interview, the camera died suddenly. The PR lady, Kristy, stayed calm and helped everyone re-prepare what we needed to say, but in a much smaller scale. We had to shorten our topics in order to fit our time slot, but everything worked out great. I am very glad Kristy was able to use her skill of stay calm in a stressful situation.
As I said in my last post, I have met several different people at Junior Achievement who have graduated at the college that I am looking into. I am meeting with each of them to get a clearer picture of if I really want to go to this college. I am looking forward to my second tour on February, 10th.
Internship hasn't really affected the direction of my life. I have seen how this company works for three years and nothing has changed about my perspective. I had already known the employees and mission of the organization before starting my internship.
Other than phone calls with a couple of new people, I have not had communication with people other than employees. Since I have been a part of JA and other professional working environments already, i feel that my understanding has not changed.
1/28/16 Here is the link to my presentation.
https://www.emaze.com/@AFCFTZCC/alis-internship-presentation