Research Internship at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital

I did a research internship at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital for my STEP project at the Breuer Lab. The lab focuses on developing tissue engineered vascular graft (TEVG), and the project I have been working on is tissue engineering focused. During this project, I conducted research experiments under supervision, shadowed animal surgeries, and contributed to writing a scientific paper.

I have only had a few research experiences before so I am fairly new to the research field as an undergraduate student. This research experience opened me up to a new field of research study and I discovered my interest in Tissue Engineering field. My coworkers and my Principle Investigator have been really helpful and I have learned a great deal from them. Also, since the lab is based in a hospital, I got more exposure to the medical field, the animal surgeries especially interested me. It opened up a new career option for me and I am now thinking about perusing a MD-PhD degree.

I have learned many cutting-edge techniques during my time in the group, it has opened my eyes and I have gained more scientific knowledge. One thing I really loved is microscopic imaging. I really enjoy the process of finding objects under the microscope and making them into images. The tiny cells are amazingly beautiful under the microscope, they are like being endowed with human form. I processed the images and made them into art pieces for decoration. Every time I look at them, I have a curiosity and awe for science, which also makes me more certain of my interest and determination in scientific research.

I have developed good relationships with my coworkers, and my supervisor and mentor are always there to help me and support me. I have always been unsure about what I want to do after I graduate from college, and I hesitated to make a decision. My mentors always gave me constructive advice, which gave me a better understanding of my abilities and weaknesses, I got to know better about what I am good at and what are things that I should work on. Their affirmation of my research results also made me more determined to embark on the path of medicine and scientific research.There are also three other students working with me, I have learned a great deal from my peers as well. I am amazed at their learning and ability to get things done, and they always keep things organized. At the same time, they provided me with a lot of useful information, which was very helpful to me as an international student. Since I didn’t grow up in the US, despite having completed college here, I still don’t have enough knowledge of academics and other resources. During my time in the hospital, I have developed a deep friendship with them, and I am very pleased to see that we are thriving as a team.

This research internship is a valuable experience for me, not only because I have gained scientific knowledge from this, but it also helped me develop my network and discover my career paths. I am more certain about what I want to do in the future and I am grateful for all the help my mentors have provided. Lastly, I appreciate the help from STEP so that I had the opportunity to fulfill this project.

My HR Internship Transformational Experience

My human resources internship was a great learning experience where I was able to build the foundation for my professional development. In my role, I worked closely under the business unit’s HR department director, along with two other people, where I assisted in a wide range of human resources activities including recruitment, union negotiations, and development. The biggest project I completed was designing the first company succession planning model, where my boss allowed me to take the lead and develop from start to finish.

The biggest changes I experienced throughout this project were in my professional development. This role, alongside school and personal life, has been a huge balancing act for me and has enabled my to learn how to manage my time and multiple projects and things going on at the same time. I feel like this role really matured me and prepared me to start my career in this field.

The main factors that influenced my transformational experience were my boss, school, and the work environment. When I started my role, it was during a hectic time for the company as we were enforcing covid vaccination requirements which led to a large recruitment effort. I was able to begin work right away and there was never a boring day at work. This, alongside the first semester back to in person classes and while trying to enjoy my last fall semester in college, forced me to really manage my time efficiently and learn to prioritize what needs my attention, which are skills that can be translated into almost anything.

Having a good relationship with my boss and coworkers was the biggest influential factor in my transformational experience. My boss really trusted me and gave me a lot of independence in my work. She always asked for my input while guiding me through her thought process which helped me understand how to think like a HR professional. I always felt supported and encouraged by my coworkers as well.

This job was also the first where I was in a professional office environment. This definitely took some time to adjust and pick up on but I feel prepared and ready for my career after graduation. I was able to work both remotely and in the office during the week, which helped me balance school and other activities.

This transformation has allowed me to get a head start on my career in the human resources field and has laid the foundation for my professional goals. One of the most valuable skills I was able to practice throughout my internship is communication. Especially in HR, it is crucial to have clear and effective communication with others when dealing with work and personal information. This skill is something that is important for any situation and has helped me in my professional and personal life. Prior to this project, I had no experience in the HR field. This internship has allowed me to apply my educational studies to real HR problems, while under the guidance of an experienced mentor. This entire experience has been an incredible learning opportunity that has established a solid foundation in the field for me and motivates me to work even harder to work towards my future professional career goals.

STEP — Interning with FACT

  1. Please provide a brief description of your STEP Signature Project.

I had the privilege of remotely interning for FACT Construction Estimating, a firm that provides cost estimates for construction firms use to formulate their bids for residential, commercial, and industrial building projects. Not only was I involved in the estimating process from start to finish, I was given access to the underlying analysis, procedures and background work that allows an estimator to calculate the cost of a project by analyzing blue prints and other planning documents to accurately estimate the time and cost of the permitting process, the cost of materials, the number of man hours, broken down by trade, all the way through finishing work, punch lists and the final walk through of projects ranging from multi-million dollar residences to commercial projects running to the hundreds of millions of dollars.

 

  1. What about your understanding of yourself, your assumptions, or your view of the world changed/transformed while completing your STEP Signature Project?

I noticed a couple of interesting things while interning with FACT. I realized that, in general, I have a very limited and broad understanding of how most businesses and projects operate. I did not realize how many different people had to come together to build a building from the ground up and how much coordination and calculations had to done.

Additionally, I foolishly had not realized that people would be deceitful on purpose in their line of work to get ahead. It sounds silly but I always saw work as something you do honestly and take pride in. However, as an estimator, you must double check that somebody is not pulling a fast one on you and your client.

 

  1. What events, interactions, relationships, or activities during your STEP Signature Project led to the change/transformation that you discussed in #2, and how did those affect you?

I saw the complexity of the construction business firsthand. I saw it especially during the most interesting project I was privileged to be involved with, albeit only in the earliest stages, which was a new school being built by the New York City School Construction Authority. Even from the earliest stages, the project was incredibly complex, largely because of the involvement of the construction authority’s own project managers who populated an additional layer of oversight between the general contractor’s project manager and the shop stewards and superintendents for each of the many sub-contractors involved ranging from laborers to carpenters to electricians, plumbers, steam fitters and tin knockers. The members of each of these trades were employed by the individual sub-contracting companies but were, at the same time, member of their individual union locals.

The complexity made me more curious. Growing up most kids want to be an astronaut or an actress, I had never heard of the option of being a tin knocker until recently. Even in college, we hear about ‘majors’ which are somewhat vague. We aren’t taught all the different opportunities and lifestyles that are out there. As an engineer I like the details, I like to know how things work so interning in an industry that pulls in so many different professions was very rewarding.

As far as the honesty with work, going back the school project that I worked on, estimators for each of those sub-contractors had calculated the cost of their aspect of the project which they had in turn relied upon in calculating their bids to the general contractor that had retained FACT to serve as the estimator for the entire project. FACT, in turn, was responsible for evaluating those individual sub-contractors’ bids to ensure they were realistic and weren’t just low-ball estimates. The danger of which are that the bidders will use them to get the job and then make up the difference between their low bid and their actual costs by manipulating the costs associated with time and materials once they are too ensconced in the project to be replaced.

As much as low-ball estimates are conniving, it is also in a way smart; those who get away with it secure a deal and make more money. This opened my eyes to the reality of life that people sometimes act in their best interest and not in an honest manner. It made me remember to always double check what I am being told.

 

  1. Why is this change/transformation significant or valuable for your life?

I felt relief. I often question if I will be satisfied in my (any) line of work, and it has been discouraging to not have a desire for the few jobs that I know about. However, with this internship, I saw for myself that there are so many different jobs–in just one field– that it is hard to imagine I won’t find one that I like. I also realized that there is so much more than surface level knowledge of something; oftentimes it goes much deeper. I had previously written off construction as a civil engineer’s field which was very small minded. I may not be done exploring the different opportunities out there, but I did found out that I like construction and could very well see myself in this industry.

Art Exploration at the Wexner Center for the Arts

  1. Please provide a brief description of your STEP Signature Project. Write two or three sentences describing the main activities your STEP Signature Project entailed.

During the course of my internship with the Wexner Center for the Arts, I had various responsibilities as I was welcomed into the community that makes up the center. My formal duties included working directly with the Creative Content & PR Manager and carrying out press coverage, writing and editing blog posts, as well as collaborating with other interns in various departments including the Development and Design departments. In addition, I’ve participated in various professional and personal development sessions with the other interns and was truly immersed in the world of art museums and community building that the Wex takes part in. 

 

  1. What about your understanding of yourself, your assumptions, or your view of the world changed/transformed while completing your STEP Signature Project? Write one or two paragraphs to describe the change or transformation that took place.

During the course of my internship, one of the most important takeaways was what I learned about being part of a community and culture of work in which all members of the company cared deeply about the work. Being that museum and community work are often thankless jobs, I realized that many of the full-time co-workers that I interacted with on a twice-weekly basis were deeply invested in the work that they do inside and outside the workplace. Something I couldn’t help notice was how involved every employee was with the general art community within Columbus — their full-time work at the Wex was only one aspect of their many avenues of immersion within the art community at large, which to me was vastly admirable. The depth with which they engage with the community in their lives day-in and day-out was evidenced in their diligence in the work they performed. It was inspiring to the point that I want to build a community like that at future workplaces in my own way. Prior to this, I had little faith I’d find a company culture that I could be one-hundred percent invested in, but this has changed my mind and opened up my viewpoint to new opportunities

Another important takeaway I had during my internship lies in how I discovered my work style within certain settings. Thankfully, my advisor had been rather lenient on the hours with which I could work being that she too was someone that worked odd hours. I found that building systems and rituals for work each day allowed me to derive more value from the work I was completing. I could decide when and where I would work, and I was able to have flexibility in the projects I worked on. This level of flexibility taught me that this is something I value in my work environments on top of creative freedom. As I directed my work towards more creative avenues, I started to feel myself learning more about how I function as a creative in general and was able to output that learning into my work at the Wex. Overall, it has been something that has helped with self-discovery within my own personal work and how I can apply that to professional environments to strike the right balance.

 

  1. What events, interactions, relationships, or activities during your STEP SignatureProject led to the change/transformation that you discussed in #2, and how did those affect you? Write three or four paragraphs describing the key aspects of your experiences completing your STEP Signature Project that led to this change/transformation.

One of the first interactions that I found to be transformational was a rather small exchange. Early on, through my work, I found out that there would be a special screening of a film that I had been wanting to see at the Wexner Video and Film Theater. I asked my advisor if there would be a way for me to attend and she replied that I could go free if I worked and took photos at the event. What was particularly transformational for me was seeing how eager my advisor was to help me out, accommodate my interest, and listen to what I had to say. This instance of her expressing her care for my inquiry made me realize that a good mentor and manager can make all of the difference in a work experience. This is something that I’ve realized and grown to appreciate and look for in my work environments throughout this internship. I’m thankful to my manager for being interested in my development not just in the work setting but in my life holistically. 

Another interaction that aided in my transformation throughout this experience was an instance in which I spearheaded a project with the skills I had developed in the classroom. This internship was the first time I was able to easily transfer skills I learned in the classroom into the workplace, and they played perfectly into the academic path I had chosen. In my work, I asked my advisor if there is any way I’d be able to work with the design team and help them in any work they had. My advisor set up a meeting and I was able to jump in on a project to redesign some of the blog pages — for the first time I took initiative in an internship project that I had full independence on. The project is still in the works, but the development it took for me to initiate that first meeting was transformational. 

Overall, the project in both its environment as well as the people that make up the staff are what had made it such a transformational experience. To be able to work on a small team and see the impact that I have on each individual project as well as the flexibility to provide my own spin on the projects that I undertake were really crucial in my development as someone in the working force. Furthermore, the immersion into the professional art world has changed the way I approach my own work as a studio art minor as well as the works of my peers and the community surrounding art sharing. I’m grateful to have been able to experience this side of community engagement in culture. 

  1. Why is this change/transformation significant or valuable for your life? Write one or two paragraphs discussing why this change or development matters and/or relates to your academic, personal, and/or professional goals and future plans.

This project has had a tangible effect on my professional life and career trajectory. In my path to make an impact at the Wex Center for the Arts, I found that I really love UX design, and seeing the results of my work have a visible effect on the spaces that I influence along with my co-workers and peers. This has resulted in me focusing on the path that I’m taking professionally. The field of UX design has so many sub-branches, that I was overwhelmed and lost on a path to pursue since my coursework approaches the topic more generically and doesn’t provide much guidance on how to specialize or find your niche. Through my internship and, specifically, the project in the Wex Arts design department, I’ve been able to find what I do and don’t like about UX design and consequently find a niche for myself to fill. Because of this, I’ve been able to begin specializing my portfolio to the specifications I need to begin applying to full-time jobs post-graduation. Overall, I have found it extremely helpful and transformational to be able to gain clarity on my career path as a designer and find value in what I’m doing. 

Congressional Bank Internship

  1. Please provide a brief description of your STEP Signature Project. Write two or three sentences describing the main activities your STEP Signature Project entailed.

In my STEP Signature Project, I worked with Congressional Bank as an intern working with Healthcare Financing. I worked closely with my mentor primarily to complete financial analysis and work on data consolidation.

  1. What about your understanding of yourself, your assumptions, or your view of the world changed/transformed while completing your STEP Signature Project? Write one or two paragraphs to describe the change or transformation that took place.

Regarding my understanding of myself, I think the biggest thing for me was understanding the work life balance. In my previous part time jobs that I have worked, I did not really get an understanding of this concept. However, working 9-5 and having classes around my schedule really allowed for me to plan. I have a passion for exercise outside of work and class, so it was very important for me to be able to figure out when and where I can fit this in my availability.

In addition to this, before my project, my biggest assumption about working a corporate job was that you were constantly busy and stressed. Throughout my internship, I definitely had moments where I had to get something done in a timely manner, but overall, there are social aspects, breaks and meetings that reduce some of that stress.

  1. What events, interactions, relationships, or activities during your STEP Signature Project led to the change/transformation that you discussed in #2, and how did those affect you? Write three or four paragraphs describing the key aspects of your experiences completing your STEP Signature Project that led to this change/transformation.

I think that the biggest event for me to understand work life balance, was just working and being able to talk to my mentor and boss. I was able to get their perspectives on how they still do leisure activities after work or on the weekends. I was concerned at the beginning being able to do everything I am involved in all at the same time, but being able to work the day to day, and get in a nice groove helped a lot.

I worked closely with Matt Mulligan, who is an associate at Congressional Bank. Matt is two years out of college and provided me with a lot of insight during this experience. Since he is freshly out of college, he understood what I was dealing with with my time management and was very accommodating of it. I really learned the importance of communication with this, as if I was overwhelmed with homework, they would give me time to work on such.

Finally, my mentor, manager and I would have a weekly meeting on Fridays that I thought was very helpful. With this meeting we would recap what I did the previous week, and what I thought of what went well and what did not. I think that this meeting helped me not feel as lost and allowed myself to not stress over the small details, as I knew I had peers that would help me and make sure I was in the right spot.

  1. Why is this change/transformation significant or valuable for your life? Write one or two paragraphs discussing why this change or development matters and/or relates to your academic, personal, and/or professional goals and future plans.

While I learned a lot of lessons throughout my internship, both related to my career and internal developmental changes, both are very valuable for me in my future. Because of this internship, and my participation in the STEP Program, I can understand the importance of a work-life balance. I can now manage stress a bit better and understand the importance of communication with others. I can use these changes to better myself, and better prepare myself for the corporate world.

 

CRIS Community, Development, and Donor Relations Intern

My STEP Signature Project took place at Community Refugee and Immigration Services (CRIS), a refugee resettlement agency. Throughout the summer and fall of 2021, I served as the Communication, Development, and Donor Relations intern working primarily on communications-based assignments such as monthly newsletters, social media posts, and web development. However, I was also brought on board to help with the marketing for CRIS’ annual 5K.

Before working with CRIS, I had a limited understanding of what refugees went through when coming to the United States. Because of my Political Science major, I was more aware of the international politics surrounding refugees rather than how the individuals themselves were actually impacted. From a personal perspective, I realized that I definitely want to pursue a more academic route in my career rather than work within the non-profit sector. At the time of the beginning of the internship, I was still unsure what my next steps would be after graduation. I wanted to experience many different types of work in order to have a better understanding of myself and where I wanted to point my attention. Although I loved my time at CRIS, I believe that my passions are more suited towards academic research.

An event that CRIS held that clarified the difficulty of living your life as a refugee for me was a ‘refugee simulation’ held for staff at the Ohio History Center. CRIS staff acted as different institutions that refugees would regularly have to deal with such as the DMV or the grocery store. Staff participants acted as refugees and were given a budget and a description of the situation they have found themselves in (having children, waiting for a spouse to be brought to the U.S., etc.) Through this simulation, those acting as refugees frequently ran into obstacles limiting their ability to complete the necessary steps that would allow them to receive certain benefits such as access to schooling for their children or bank loans. Additionally, the language barriers and unfamiliarity with American institutions added on another layer of confusion, exasperating the frustration the participants felt. Seeing all of the responsibilities that refugees had thrust upon them when coming to the U.S. made me more sympathetic towards their struggles and sharpened my belief that offering refugees support is a worthwhile cause.

Another event that aided in my transformation was a Zoom event I helped organize for World Refugee Day. During the call, we had two refugees give presentations about their lives – mostly focusing on how they became refugees and what they’ve been up to once arriving in the U.S. This event was much more personal than the refugee simulation and offered a brutally honest perspective of what millions of people go through every year. Becoming a refugee is not a rarity – it is upsettingly common.

Finally, helping organize CRIS’ annual 5K allowed me to gain experience in the more technical side of the non-profit sector. The outreach team responsible for marketing the 5K, including me, worked tirelessly to advertise the 5K, partner with sponsors, and organize tabling events to encourage people to participate and fundraise. Overall, CRIS had an excellent turnout! Considering we’re still in the middle of a pandemic, the 2021 5K was a major success. Although seeing the 5K run smoothly was incredibly satisfying, the work involved to make that happen was incredibly stressful. I’d much rather be working with refugees directly rather than organizing larger events for a non-profit.

Thanks to my STEP Signature Project being with CRIS, I was able to firmly conclude that the smartest thing for me to do after graduation was to apply to graduate programs. My long-term professional goal is to act as a human rights researcher for an International NGO, and in order to be qualified for this position, I must obtain a master’s degree. At the time of writing this reflection, I have been submitted to two graduate programs: the University of Stirling’s Human Rights and Diplomacy program, and the University of Manchester’s Peace and Conflict Studies program. I am beyond excited to continue my academic and professional career while becoming more specialized in the field of international politics. Without completing STEP, I may not have been able to confidently determine which direction my life should be headed. Now, I have never been more certain.

A media post I made urging Biden to support Afghan refugees after the attacks on Kabul.

A picture from the 2021 5K

Delta Air Lines Co-Op

My STEP project was an in-person co-op with Delta Air Lines in Atlanta, Georgia.  I conducted failure analysis on aircraft parts that failed during flights from multiple aircraft in the Delta fleet.  I also conducted damage tolerance analyses (DTE) on repairs on Boeing aircraft in the Delta fleet.  

My view of how engineers tackle problems in the real world changed during my STEP project.  Throughout my aerospace classes, I learned the fundamentals, principles, and laws of aerospace and use those to solve homework or test individually but at Delta Air Lines I learned that engineers don’t work by themselves all the time.  To solve the problems that were assigned to me I had to go to multiple engineering teams to get their input on certain damaged areas of an aircraft and coordinate with them to help me solve my problem.  I also learned that keeping a log of what is done when solving a problem is vital to be able to write a substantiation in a report to a given problem.

The first task assigned to me was to attend a structures workshop to be able to understand the basic principles of how to repair a damaged fuselage of aircraft to complete a DTE.  The workshop showed how to do the math of installing a doubler, a repair layer of skin, to a fuselage and when to apply multiple repair layers to be able to substantiate it later when writing a report to the FAA of why the repair was done that way.  For Delta Air Lines to complete a report you had to have an author, checker, and approver look at the report to be able to send it to the FAA, the author, checker, and approver are three different engineers that have the qualifications to sign off on the work being done.  The DTE I had to do was one already completed but I had to work through the steps on my own and have a coworker of mine be the checker so I can later come back in another rotation and do a DTE that needs to be done.  When doing the DTE, I logged all my formulas in a MathCad file to have in my report when I turned it into the checker, my coworker.

The second task assigned to me was to obtain the necessary data and log what is done on a damaged piece of a Boeing 737-800 to complete a failure analysis.  The damaged piece was a right outboard aft flap that broke off the aircraft during a landing in CMH airport.  The intact part of the flap was given to a mechanic shop at Delta Headquarters which I had to coordinate with to be able to get parts removed.  With the removed parts of the flap, I went to other engineering teams, two teams each had an OSU alum, to ask how they think a part should be cleaned off in order to analyze and how the analysis should be done.  To analyze the parts I used a stereomicroscope and a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) to record fatigue lines and material composition for the removed parts.  Logging what I did I wrote a detailed list of what had been done which I gave to my coworkers to finish the report on the most likely reason the flap broke during landing.

The third big task assigned to me was to do collect data from a jury spring from an aft landing gear from a Boeing 757-300 to complete a failure analysis.  First, I made sure the spring I had matched what was supposed to be installed, which it did.  I then went to clean the jury spring since it was recovered from a third party outside the airport.  To clean the spring, I asked multiple engineers what would clean the spring without damaging it further.  What I concluded from the information I gather was to use liquid penetrant to clean as well as to look for cracks on the spring.  Although no cracks were found the spring was fully cleaned.  I then coordinated with a lab to cut the end tips of the jury spring in order to analyze the tips under an SEM to search for fatigue lines.  At the SEM I asked an engineer how to conduct an element map which I also logged to be included in my substantiation.  At the end, I compiled all the data and gave it to my coworkers in order for them to complete the report.

The co-op at Delta Air Lines is what I envisioned working at a fortune 500 aerospace company would be like.  Applying all the fundamental skills I learned in my classes to real-world problems was such a payoff since completing homework assignments feels more like a chore than anything else.  I felt that I personally improved in how I would tackle a problem now.  Rather than trying to complete a problem on my own, I will now go ask other people how they would tackle it and then compile the data I have gathered to have a better solution than one I did on my own.  I also developed professionally by having known how working at a company is so once I am in the workforce, I can quickly adapt to company culture and processes faster than a person with no internship/co-op experience.  I am grateful for the opportunity STEP gave me to be able to complete this co-op and I am happy to say that I will return to Delta Air Lines for another co-op semester in summer 2022.

Zulily Operations Internship

  1. My internship with Zulily focused on developing my understanding of operations analytics, capacity planning, and warehousing operations. The main activities that I was responsible for included shadowing current operations managers and taking on daily tasks, such as managing process and labor flow and coaching team members on quality, safety, and production rates. Additionally, I conducted a process improvement project aimed at waste reduction and enhancing efficiency through pack-station organization initiatives.

 

  1. One major change that took place over the course of my internship with Zulily is that I gained a lot more confidence in myself and my abilities. Prior to being an operations intern at Zulily, I had worked at the same tutoring company for almost five years. Working at this tutoring company was a great experience, but it was a continuation of what I did in high school, so I was very comfortable in my role and capabilities. Working at Zulily, though, presented many new challenges that pushed me out of my comfort zone and helped me gain confidence in myself as a young professional. Additionally, being in the classroom and learning concepts is very different than seeing their application in a real-world setting, so adding this experience helped me further my confidence in my knowledge as I step into the real world.
  1. One relationship that helped my transformation was my relationship with my direct mentor, Dom. Prior to working at Zulily, I had never been in a warehouse setting. This meant that even short conversations between managers I shadowed sounded like a foreign language because of the Zulily-specific terminology and concepts that I had yet to be exposed to in my academic career. However, Dom was an intern himself two years prior, so he knew what it felt like to be new and made sure that I was included in every conversation. Even if including me meant having a lengthy debrief of a conversation that happened earlier, Dom made sure that I was up to speed. He also helped build my confidence by giving me tasks that I could complete with limited knowledge, and eventually the tasks grew in complexity as I gained more process knowledge. These tasks ranged from filling out the end-of-day reports to going on coachings by myself, all of which he modeled for me when I started. Overall, Dom was a great mentor who went above and beyond for my learning, and he served as an excellent role model of a young professional.

Another unique relationship that helped me build confidence in myself as a team leader and coach was that I was also able to help one of our team leads develop their Excel skills to help them with their daily role by having bi-monthly meetings focused on this skill. This team member was older than me and asked me to help them because they were afraid of being judged for their novice-level knowledge with Excel. Knowing that he came to me for help made me realize that I am a good leader, and it was empowering to know that I could use my knowledge in a way that helped someone build their skill set and build tools that could help them on a daily basis. Because I helped this individual in their development, they helped me in mine as they made sure to share their process knowledge and asked me to coach with them; both actions were beneficial to my learning experience. Ultimately, this interaction was mutually beneficial and I learned extensively from this individual, aiding in building my confidence as a young businesswoman.

An activity that helped me build my confidence in my abilities was my process improvement project; it proved to be a challenge because I had to start a project from scratch in a living, breathing warehouse, which is extremely different than assigned projects in the classroom. I learned how to identify and quantify an issue and find a solution. In this case, the problem was that paper marketing materials were disbursed at each pack station, but order packers were not given a tool for organization of these materials, which ultimately increased the number of labor hours spent on cleaning the stations. After measuring the scope of this issue, I developed an organizer and tested it at different pack stations, later asking for employee feedback and delivering a presentation to the senior leadership team. Again, this task challenged me in multiple ways; I had to drive progress by my own means and deliver results to my superiors. Completing this task, though, allowed me to see the breadth of the knowledge I had gained here at OSU and expanded my abilities within the workplace.

An additional task that pushed me out of my comfort zone was coaching the team members for quality, safety, and productivity. This task was a challenge not only because I was younger than many team members, but also because I was new to the warehousing sphere. By shadowing area managers on coachings, I was able to see the variety of approaches to managing people and conflict, and eventually develop my own preferred style. I also built strong relationships with my team members prior to giving coachings by making sure that I had a small positive interaction with each of my team members most days that I was at work. Building this relational foundation not only helped the coachings go more smoothly but also helped develop a feeling of mutual respect and trust between me and the team I was leading. Further, as the weeks passed, I gained more process knowledge which helped me coach individuals more effectively, especially with the explanations behind why the team member needed to change their actions and how doing a task in a different way will help that teammate in the long run.

 

  1. Interning at Zulily was valuable to my life because it showed me that I was on a path that I wanted for myself. Entering OSU, I decided that I wanted to be an engineering major. I stuck with this program for all of my first year, but as time drew on, I realized that I was not actually interested in the subject matter. I had picked the major because I liked math and numerical analysis without actually knowing what the degree would entail and the industry would be like. At the beginning of my sophomore year, I decided to switch my major to business, which was scary in itself because I was essentially altering my life path. I had to trust my gut on the decision rather than just continuing down the path I had planned, which takes a lot of trust in yourself. Taking classes through the Fisher College of Business proved to be challenging, but I had trust in my abilities to master the subject material. However, thorough the Zulily internship, a lot of unknowns were reintroduced, including a question of whether this opportunity would lead me down a path of success. Though my internship was challenging, it helped me learn that I am a competent young businesswoman with a strong skill set, and that I can rise to the occasion with confidence. Ultimately, this experience added a lot of value to my life by providing a new experience that put my classroom-based knowledge to the test, and showed me that I am capable of doing challenging things and am on the way to be a successful professional myself.

Smart Columbus Internship

  1. My STEP Project was an internship with Smart Columbus located in downtown Columbus, Ohio. The non-profit organization is focused on electrifying Columbus and closing the digital divide at the intersection of technology and community good. I was the communications and special projects fellow, and I worked on creating social media posts, newsletters, and other communication materials for the organization.
  2. Through this internship experience, I was able to get a better understanding of communications work as it relates to a non-profit organization. Up until this point, I had little real-world experience of what I was studying in my major. The bulk of my public relations and communications work was for class assignments. At Smart Columbus, I was able to understand the needs of a grassroots organization and the effort it takes to support its mission. I truly saw how important external communications was to inform the community of our organization’s current projects.I also had previous assumptions that communications work was simple and easy defined, but I learned this was not true. There was a lot of ambiguity in the beginning stages, and there still was at the end of the project. I learned it’s crucial for a team to have a strong strategy in order to fulfill their goals appropriately through their communications content.
  3. This internship experience came with its challenges, but I had plenty of opportunities to learn. My most current supervisor, Chris had a background in communications and was able to help guide me to the work that needed to be done in order to achieve Smart’s goals. Chris and I worked on a social media content calendar, newsletters, graphics, and copy together for Smart Columbus. His mentorship helped me fully realize what the organization was lacking.
    Smart Columbus Wordle

    With the guessing word game, Wordle, becoming more popular, I decided to put a Smart Columbus-branded twist on it. With some light coding of the website, I managed to create my own version of the game for our social media viewers to enjoy.

    When Chris came on, we had multiple long conversations about what strategies Smart Columbus needed to employ in order to take off our external communications. This was when I realized there was much more work that needed to be done, and a lot more than for just one or two people. A lot of was more than what we could accomplish in the time being though. For example, we talked about creating a greater media strategy for 1-2 years, but we didn’t have the team to execute this. Instead, we decided on implementing a micro-strategy that would last us a few months until a full-time communications manager was added to the team.

    At Smart Columbus, one of the most valuable things I learned was how to apply brand guidelines to communications materials. Although I am still learning and making mistakes, I’ve gotten much better at my graphic design skills than when I started. Smart Columbus has a very distinct, colorful brand. They’ve outsourced their branding and website, so it they had a lot of files on font, brand colors, and existing guidelines that I needed to follow. This gave less flexibility for me to create, but it was a great opportunity to learn how to make new deliverables with these guidelines, because most other  organizations have these in place too. Now, I’m creating graphics for all sorts of different projects that we’re doing in our different departments, and I’ve gotten much faster at producing this content.

    Smart Columbus Give-away

  4. This internship was transformational for me because it completely corresponds with my college major. As a strategic communications student, I’ve taken various classes on visual communication (working with Photoshop) and strategic message design (creating social media content). However, I never truly had an immersive experience that allowed me to take all of these skills and apply them to a real organization that needed it. Working at Smart Columbus was a positive learning experience for me because I used these tools I’ve learned in my classes and used them to enhance the mission of the organization. There were times that I tried and failed, but I am okay with that because this internship was meant to be a developmental project.

    This internship has been really valuable to me because I have so much relevant experience under my belt now. In my professional goals, I believe I will be a strong candidate when applying to full-time communications positions because I have the existing skills and knowledge to bring to the table. It was also insightful working for a small, start-up organization because I was able to see the scope of work and how difficult it can be to accomplish large communications goals with a small communications team. At the end of the day, I’m very grateful for this internship experience and what it has taught me.

Rockwell Automation Co-Op

Rockwell Co-Op

 

My STEP project was a co-op experience at Rockwell Automation in which I worked as an Embedded Software Engineer. Rockwell Automation is a manufacturing automation company, where most of my work would be on production line controllers. The bulk of my daily work was performing programming, testing, or design to either support the team’s work or my mentor’s work.

The largest change that occurred during my co-op was gaining an understanding of what real-world software engineering is like. As a Computer Science and Engineering major, we frequently hear “this is nothing close to the real world.” Throughout my time at Rockwell Automation, I learned the true meaning of this phrase near immediately. The skillset required for this job was in a way primed by my experience in the classroom. Fundamentally, I understood most of the programming concepts and could work my way through the code given to me. Additionally, there were basic concepts of design taught to me in my coursework. This was extremely helpful in getting me prepared for the job, but the jump required from the classroom to the real world was much more than I could have ever anticipated. Throughout this co-op, I improved and acquired skills that will help me excel in my career.

To reflect on this, I’ll go through some of the projects that I took the most from starting with my first project. I was paired with a Senior Engineer, John, and our goal was to implement a simplistic new feature for robots. In summary, these robots can turn 360 degrees, but some manufacturers default to clockwise or counterclockwise. Our goal was to remove this confusion by adding a simple feature to flip the degree input. This would make it consistent for the user to work on. For a programmer, this sounds like a very simple task and truthfully it is! The actual “writing code” portion of this took us around five minutes. What was challenging about this task was learning the code surrounding it and how it interacts. I also wanted to verify that these changes did not break prior code and worked. For this, I had to learn how Rockwell’s tests worked, run the prior written tests, and write my tests to verify this feature. At OSU we do go over testing and how it works, but it pales in the comparison to the test suite required to ensure programs are ready to be distributed and used in a professional setting. For this simple feature, I wrote one test to test it, but that one test used fifty different scenarios to verify that this worked. Finally, I was able to push my code to other engineers for a “code review” where they look at my changes and verify if they accomplish the goal. Luckily, this went well and there were only minor changes to be made! As I said earlier, this was a “simple” task, but in the corporate world, that means checking every possible box to ensure the code is working flawlessly. Learning the difference between school and work was my first and most crucial lesson. To say that it ended there would be an understatement, it was something that constantly happened within the term.

My next significant project was working outside of the traditional team environment. This involved me taking some informal documentation that was written and translating it to a high-level design. For this, I was required to learn a modeling language known as UML. In essence, this is a widely understood and well-known modeling language that can help illustrate designs within modern programming concepts. Additionally, I was required to learn how to write design documentation. As a part of our curriculum at OSU, we learn some parts of the design, but never as in-depth as I was required to write for work. This made this project quite a struggle for me, but luckily my team and mentor helped me through the process. Overall, this helped develop those skills. After the design documentation was drafted, I reviewed it with my mentor several times and eventually had a final copy that has been referenced by other engineers since.

My final project at Rockwell was a culmination of the skills I had learned throughout the term. In essence, I was told to quickly build a prototype in a somewhat unfamiliar area of the code and was not given much information regarding how to accomplish this. My first step in this project was using the design skills I had acquired in the prior project and using that to learn the new area of code I was working in. This was initially tough but learning how to read these design documents quickly gave me my footing within this new area. From there, it was mostly playing with the code and using the general programming knowledge I had learned at the company to create the prototype. As I was building the prototype, I was using internal Rockwell tools to test the prototype and verify that it acted as intended. To close out this project, I was asked to write a brief document describing the process and results. This was then presented to a group of software architects and engineers where I fielded questions based on my work. In the end, the prototype is being used as a reference and shortcut to developing new features. This project was extremely fulfilling though as it was the culmination of the skills that I gained throughout this co-op.

Overall, this co-op at Rockwell Automation was what I was looking forward to throughout my college years. Being able to move on from college and apply the skills I learned was my main goal going into college, and this was my first opportunity to do so. It’s common knowledge within most engineering majors that “you need an internship to get a job after school,” and when talking with recruiters for my next job the main questions they have are about my time at Rockwell Automation. For that reason, I’m grateful for STEP and how it made this co-op experience much easier on me. Additionally, I found my place within software engineering. It’s not entirely common that computer science students look to work within the Embedded or Firmware space. I had the idea that I would enjoy it, but my time at Rockwell solidified that. That being said, I have accepted a full-time offer at Rockwell Automation in an Embedded Software Engineering role and am grateful for STEP to help me with this opportunity.