Post-Internship Immersion

What is one thing you learned during internship immersion?

I learned more than I could have imagined during immersion. One thing that I know will definately help me in the years to come is that I learned how to take initiative. Many times during immersion and internship in general, I took it upon myself to find more work to do. If I knew I could handle it, I volunteered myself to help more and take care of different tasks. Sometimes, the tasks would be small, office work; other times, they would be larger scale projects. For instance, at the start of immersion, I asked if I could be a part of Leo and Chandler's project. They were going to be working at the High Tech Fair in Del Mar, teaching middle and high school students about carbon footprints and energy efficiency. Even though I'm the HR intern, I thought what they were doing sounded like interesting and something that I would enjoy doing. I was interested in learning everything that they were learning about. I also had a feeling that my mentor would start to run out of HR things for me to do during immersion, so I thought the fair was a good opportunity for me. I talked to my mentor who completely agreed with me and wanted me to do it. After that, I talked to Leo and Chandler's mentor who allowed me to be a part of the project. This completely changed my immersion experience because I was able to do something a little different and learn much more than I had thought I would previously. I was proud of myself because I was able to complete all this, while still completing all of my HR tasks. Coming into the project as the HR intern and with Leo and Chandler being the Climate Change interns, I was a little nervous that I would be far behind before I even started. However, I did my research and did just as much work as both Leo and Chandler and was able to teach people new things at the High Tech Fair. We had so much fun at the fair and it was overall a great experience. I was able to talk to professionals and representatives from all kinds of companies like the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant and the San Diego Zoo Conservation and Research Program. I think that people were impressed with us at the fair. From what I saw, we were the only booth run by high school students and I think people enjoyed listening to what we had to say.

Union Tribune Article on the High Tech Fair.