An End of an Internship

What a wild ride. The internship with the ASSIST center was a rich learning experience in many ways. I learned to work with educators I never would have known if not for this project. The biggest challenge we faced was one that students will likely encounter when working in the class room. How do we not run full speed ahead with just one idea? Our group came up with a plan and wanted to execute immediately without really considering the challenges ahead. We wanted to divvy up the work and get cracking immediately. We had to stop and take time to look at labs that have been working on components for longer than we had been there. Working with the professors and being patient ended up giving us a product that was leagues better than we had hoped. Working with our mentors we could see things from different, wiser, perspectives. They were able to point out roadblocks we had not anticipated. They ended up saving us time and headaches that we thought weren’t even factors. They provided resources whenever we had a challenge. I think the biggest take away from this experience was to slow down and reach out. Other people have done similar things. I don’t know best. They can help. A high school sophomore solved a coding issue I had fought for a day with just one sentence, simply because I asked the room if they knew how to make a certain task happen. All in all it was a good, constructive blow to my pride that ended up growing my resources and knowledge in creation and exploration.