Enlightenment

Today is one of clarity. While I had known that I was accepted to the internship I applied to for this semester, and I knew lots of things about it--like who my supervisor is, my Student Learning Outcomes (very important and a required part of the internship), and generally what I would be doing--I had still lacked the real certainty of what I would be doing in a practical sense. My knowledge of the internship was a big cloud with no real definition as to my tasks.

Now, I have seen the light (metaphorically of course). I had my Orientation meeting where I was able to discuss a lot with my site supervisor. I had the opportunity to ask questions about the paperwork I need to fill out; my position as far as the county administration is concerned is that of volunteer, even though I have probably more access than the average library volunteer (and more interesting projects!), yet I am still required to fill out the usual paperwork required by any bureaucracy. And I have to keep a time card for the county--not something I had expected! I will be diving into Drupal headfirst--without a parachute, or a cushion to break my fall--and I already know I will be quickly outstripping the instruction provided by my Drupal class that I am simultaneously taking. Which is both a good thing and a bad thing. I will be introduced to a lot of functions and features on the admin side of Drupal that I will not get experience with in my class. But, that also means I may not have much crossover between my internship and my Drupal class.

I already have a nice little to-do list that includes actual assignments coupled with things to start thinking about and features to test to discover functionality problems. I also will be researching the ability to integrate specific file types into a Drupal interface. So a nice variety of practical experience. There was a lot of discussion about tasks/projects that will need to be addressed and accomplished in the future, so I also have a decent idea of where my internship will be going. We again talked about the opportunity for me to be on site for additional face-to-face experience, and I will be submitting various dates to my supervisor for days I would be available to go on-site. My goal is to be there two days a month. I'm already planning on attending the Webmaster's Team meeting in March as one of my two on-site days that month.

So all in all, a good (if belated) start to my internship. This weekend will find me diligently starting my to-do list. At least for a few hours!