I can’t believe this is my final Blog…this summer has opened my eyes to so many different fields of work and community service. I have so many memorable times during this internship. My first job was with Swisher Electric. I was a little nervous because their job requires them to work on extremely high voltage equipment. The guys there took me under their wing and taught me as much as they could while I was there. I learned how to pull and replace meters and they even let me run the compactor when setting up new poles. Another highlight this summer was working for the Happy Toy Maker. This business builds very large ranch toys such as fence, trucks, trailers, round pens and loading shoots. I was able use my welding skills while working out there. I was amazed at the amount of toys he makes and ships all over America. I learned how to run a plasma cutter that creates the cut-outs that are then welded together. My biggest challenge was working for LTS trucking. I completed a lot of skills that I did not know how to do before. But my next week going there, I jumped right in and completed my tasks.
My goals for this internship were to improve my leadership, have better communication skills, and expand my professional network by becoming on a first name basis with the many people I worked with this summer. I feel I improved my leadership skills when working for the Swisher Extension Service. I discovered that it takes a lot of work to get ready for the county celebration. I was given tasks such as keeping the thank you data up to date on Facebook, running many errands, and setting up the arena for the rodeo. I feel my communication skills greatly improved through Swisher Electric and LTS trucking. I had to speak up when I did not understand the task or when I wanted to learn why we were doing this. Communication is very important at these businesses because both have high risk situations. My last goal was to make professional network connections with those I was working with. I feel I made these connections when I worked with Bodey, who explained his internship and with Mike Martin, who explained to me how the whole operation works from the office to the field. His knowledge was greatly appreciated and discovered that they used engineers, which is the career I am looking at.
I truly enjoyed my summer and hopefully get to intern again next year.
