This summer, has been very diverse for me. I have grown as a person through my internship and expanded my social network. Over the course of this summer, I have learned many different things about my local area. From the ponds project to merging Excel documents, I have expanded my knowledge immensely. The main project that I worked on this summer was the recharge ponds. Each day one of the interns had to check the flumes leading to the ponds and make sure that they were running at the right cfs. If they were at different levels than what they were supposed to be at, we had to adjust the water to run at the right level. Along with this, we had to check the level of the ponds and record this data. This year we had to install 2 flumes for new ponds that were being installed. As an intern, I had no idea what I was doing at first, but with the other interns and many phone calls to our boss, we eventually figured it out. Another project that I was a part of was checking wells. When checking the wells, many different levels of the water in the wells had to be recorded. The main challenge I faced in this internship was learning how to figure out many things on my own. After completing my internship, I feel more confident in my ability to figure things out on my own.
My three goals were to be better about communicating with my boss about current projects, get better about second guessing myself every time I work on something, and to meet everyone in the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District Office. I definitely achieved my communication goal and communicate almost daily with my boss. After this summer, I can say that I am more confident in my abilities and no longer second guess myself every time I work on something. Lastly, I achieved my third goal of meeting everyone in the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District Office. Everyone at the office is super friendly and always helpful.
The first photo below is of the flume and stilling pond at Hanagan pond. At this pond, we check the levels of the pond along with cleaning out the stilling area before the flume. The second picture is of a well. At the well, we check the levels of the water in the well and record the data.
