I think one of the things that went well with my project was how well my mentor and I were able to work together on it. He would call out the names, and I would copy them down, and take pictures. Our work load diminished quickly due to this. One thing we could of done differently is uploading the pictures of plants in the order they were in. My mentor would often just have me take pictures of the plants closest to us at the time, and while that helped with us not having to walk around as much, it didn't help with keeping order of plants that we had already finished. Something that stands out to me is how plants that look like they have nothing to do with each other could be in the same family. Plants that I see everyday were now being connected in ways I didn't notice before.
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I hope that my internship will further help me with future jobs I might try to attain in the future. In fact I was already scouted out by a customer that visited our nursery last week who was interested in me working for his company's future nursery. If my mentor would like me to continue working with him, he hasn't mentioned it. I'd like to at least visit every now and then. Maybe buying a few plants for them if they so happen to peak my interest. If my mentor ever expresses an interest in having me continue to work for him then I might consider it, but his shop is a little far from where I live. We will see what happens once my internship ends, but for now I am just going to try to enjoy my last week there.
My internship has changed the way I think about college when it comes to what courses I might take. I didn't really think much of it before, but after my internship I might want to pursue some sort of botany. While I'm not sure if it will be my major, it is still something I would like to look into. My internship hasn't really changed my perspective on where I want to go to college. I think once I have a better gasp on what I want to do with my life is when I'll be able to make more educated guesses for the right college choice.
I am thankful for many things my internship brought me. One of them is the knowledge I have gained on many plants. I now enjoy walking by many different species of succulents being able to name a majority of them. It has also given me the knowledge to better care for my own plants. Another thing I am thankful for is the people I have met. Such as my coworker Eden who treated me so kindly since the very beginning, or my manager Curtis who would crack the occasional joke with me, and my mentor Carl who has taught me as much as he can in this month I've spent with him. I have learned to appreciate the everyday worker for all the hard work they do, and I've learned to appreciate customers who like striking up a conversation with you. I've also learned the little moments you share with your coworkers, or boss, that make you feel truly welcome.
While I respect all of my co-workers someone who has qualities I want to see in myself is my mentor Carl. When I first met him he told me that he would rather sell someone a plant he knew was going to survive in their location rather than sell them a plants he knew would die just to make a sale. I knew from that point onward that Carl was a very honest man, and a respectful businessman. I would like to take that same quality, and integrate it into my own life. During my time as an intern I learned that although high school is important it isn't everything, and that life changes drastically once you graduate. Internship might influence my life by helping me decide what career I want later in life. I'm still not sure hat I want to do when I am older, and I hoped my internship would help me narrow it down. Although I'm still not sure, this experience has surely helped.
My presentation is a little wordy at times, but that is mostly for myself. I plan to read the presentation, and I will summarize/ add in sections I feel need it, orally. Since I am not sure what kind of questions will be asked, I will be thinking of a way to address them as I go. I do not think that the questions I receive will be too hard to answer due to my internship not being too complex. I have a new found appreciation for every day workers, because they work just as hard, if not harder, at their jobs, and usually get paid a lot less. My co-workers still manage to come to work everyday though, and that is something I admire. Besides helping with my project I helped a lot with everyday work such as re-potting, unloading new shipments, weeding, and helping customers. My presentation is missing the pictures for the evidence part of my POL, but I will add them as soon as I get them from my mentor. (Edit: I now have the finished product of my presentation uploaded, sorry for the wait.)
Communication is a important skill to have in any workplace, but I felt that it's extremely important at my internship. I work with cactus. Some of which are quite large, and some that are extremely sharp. If proper communication doesn't happen while handling cactus a lot of injuries can occur. My internship has taught me the skill of communication with the wish to not be impaled. Besides that I have learned that communication is important in all aspects of work. It determines whether or not the job you were given is correctly done, and if you make your boss happy or not. Communication is an important aspect in any work place.
We are now past the first half of internship, and I couldn't be happier working here. My project wasn't too hard to determine, because my mentor has expressed concern about his website since my first day. The project is just updating his plant list/inventory on his site. I'm not going to be able to get it all done, because of time shortage, but my mentor appreciates any help I bring. Plus I am teaching him how to do handle the rest when I am gone. He was having some tech troubles, and I got the chance to show him some easier ways to work on the website. Besides some of the tech troubles I had mentioned earlier there wasn't really many issues I had. It was all quite simple, but helpful nonetheless. My work week is very different from my school week. Most of my time at work is taken up by doing manual labor such as re-potting, unloading, or cleaning the area up. While my school week is of course mostly class time. When I am working I have to talk to customers while at school I just usually talk to teachers, or other students. Internship will affect my life by letting me see whether I want to continue a career in plants when I am older or not. When I get back to school I can use the communication skills I've picked up from my internship for things like speaking in front of class, or presentations. My internship has taught me what an actual work experience is like, and what to expect later in life. My internship has also taught me a lot of information about plants that I will put to use for the remainder of the time that I grow plants.
For this post I decided to go with option A. Some limitations I want to overcome are communicating with the customers. I was nervous at first dealing with them, and I'm sure that it showed with my work. Since some time has passed I've become more comfortable talking to customers, and handling their needs. This is a skill that would be useful to bring back to school for the use of presentations, or other things like that. I have always felt sort of awkward when it came to situations like that, so I am glad I am able to practice getting over that awkwardness at my internship. One of the Echeveria plants we are selling in the shade house.
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Aubrey ScottA lover of plants Archives
February 2017
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