Internship Update and Scholarships

Today I finally finished my controlled vocabulary project (see previous post). It definitely took a bit of time, and I know I spent well over ten hours on it over the past week and a half. But I feel that it was good experience and excellent practice of skills I haven't had much opportunity to exercise in real-world situations yet. So what's next on the task list? More work with Google Analytics (a tool I'm glad to have discovered through this internship--I may consider using it for the website of the library I work in), creating a guide on posting Assets on the staff intranet site (Assets are a custom content-type on MCFL's Drupal platform), and reviewing and updating a staff Drupal guide. The Drupal guide is pretty extensive, and even my site supervisor thinks that it may be an ongoing project that carries over to future interns because the guide is so large. These three tasks will be more than enough to keep me busy until my next on-site day next week. I'm very much looking forward to it because I will be shadowing a couple of people and attending the Webmasters Team meeting. I anticipate a day full of experiencing new things and learning from the MCFL staff--fun stuff!

I've also been applying to scholarships, some offered by the school I attend and some offered by my program's department. I know a thing or two about scholarships because I collect and distribute scholarship information in the library where I work and the campus it's located on. I haven't really applied for many scholarships until now because my employer offers a tuition reimbursement program that I've been taking advantage of in conjunction with student loans. However, I will only be taking one class (three units) during my last semester, which will not qualify me for financial aid. For those who are not aware, you must be attending school at least half-time (6 semester units for undergraduates, 4 semester units for graduates) in order to receive federal student aid. Without the student loans, I will have to pay for my last semester out-of-pocket until I get the tuition costs reimbursed after the semester is over. Financial aid is not a glamorous issue, but it sure can have big effects on one's ability to attend school. By the time all my applications are in, I will have applied for over fifteen scholarships. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I will get something.

This weekend, I will be celebrating Swedish Easter with my family. I'll do my best to remember to take pictures so I can post about all the good food!