LINK Internship
LINK Description:
The LINK Internship program is a program designed to give Animas students a glimpse, along with some experience, into the real world and having a real job. Students go on 3 week internships at a business of their choosing, finding a mentor in a career that they are considering for themselves. They stay with their mentor at their job for the whole 3 weeks, and use the experience to help figure out what to do with the rest of their lives. They also complete a relevant project while interning, and get to learn how to do the job and everything it entails.
The LINK Internship program is a program designed to give Animas students a glimpse, along with some experience, into the real world and having a real job. Students go on 3 week internships at a business of their choosing, finding a mentor in a career that they are considering for themselves. They stay with their mentor at their job for the whole 3 weeks, and use the experience to help figure out what to do with the rest of their lives. They also complete a relevant project while interning, and get to learn how to do the job and everything it entails.
Business Description:
I interned at Durango Computers, which specializes in website design, app development, and IT support.
I interned at Durango Computers, which specializes in website design, app development, and IT support.
LINK Anticipation and Preparation:
To find an internship I looked at what I was interested in, and tried to go from there. I came up with writing and reading, and some photography, but not much else. So I decided to try both the library and Maria's bookshop, emailing both of them. My contact at the library emailed back asking for more details, which I provided, but ultimately didn't have the time for any interns there. Maria's never responded, but I knew already that they don't like hiring people under 18 from trying to get a job there last summer. So I looked to other people, and found that I already had a few connections I could use. Shan Wells, contributor for the Huffington Post, political cartoonist for the Durango Herald, and videographer for Fort Lewis College was a good friend of my parents and could possibly be my mentor. I stayed in contact with him, and worked out the details, and had a meeting with him. During the meeting, however, I started to realize that it wouldn't work out. |
So I found an internship that worked a lot better for me, at Durango Computers. I needed a low-stress internship. It also aligned with some of my interests, such as design and website building, and working with computers and being good at it is a necessity in the 21st century. There weren't really any downsides.
I hoped to gain the knowledge of how to better use computers, and some coding and programming thrown in. I also wanted to know what having a real job was like, since I've never had one. I knew beforehand that my project would be redesigning the website, so I hoped that I could do that for the business and do a good job, and also do what extra work I could. I was also going to make a logo that would last with the business for a long time.
I hoped to gain the knowledge of how to better use computers, and some coding and programming thrown in. I also wanted to know what having a real job was like, since I've never had one. I knew beforehand that my project would be redesigning the website, so I hoped that I could do that for the business and do a good job, and also do what extra work I could. I was also going to make a logo that would last with the business for a long time.
LINK Project
For my LINK Project I redesigned the website for Durango Computers, which can be found here. I took the pictures seen in the icons, and I designed the logo at the top from scratch. I also did everything the company didn't have time to do, such as making instagram and facebook pages.
LINK Reflection
Before this internship, I knew limited html coding, and had used wordpress before. So I already knew the basics of what I'd need to do, and easily picked up new skills. My most important skill coming in, though, would be the utilization of the internet. A lot of things we discussed and decided should be implemented, neither me nor my mentor knew how to actually do. So I would look it up, and find instructions, and complete whatever the task was. But through these methods, and from the guidance of my mentor, I learned a lot of new ways to use the computer. To remodel this DP, I used a technique I learned there, and used the coding of the website's page to get the banners and headers from the old version, because the new theme reset headers and I didn't have the images saved on my computer. So I got the pictures from the coding, saved them to my computer, and re-uploaded them all onto the new theme. It's too bad this uses Weebly, because I spent my internship learning to use Wordpress in a ton of different ways, which I could have used to make my DP even better. I learned how to make a business website, which I used for my project, and I also re-did and edited a website for a musician who is a client of Durango Computers. That website used a lot of different aspects of Wordpress I'd never seen before, and had to adapt to. The version of that I worked on is found here. The loading time is still not ideal, but before I messed with it it was at least four times as long. The problem with that was if a company or potential record label or something was trying to see the website, by the time it loaded they would already have given up on it. So it was crucial that it be edited to have shorter loading times, putting less content on the home page and resizing all of the images in Photoshop.
One of my biggest struggles during LINK was the feeling of being independent. I had guidelines, but lots of decisions were up to me, including how I did everything. Normally, I am an independent person, but I realized that I am good at being independent when I know exactly what I’m doing, how to do it, and can just complete the task without an issue. When the details are more vague and I don’t have a set way to do something, it’s harder for me to figure out what to do. I’m not good at making decisions by myself. With the graphic design part of this project, designing the logo, I had a hard time with it because I was starting from scratch. I knew it had to have the name of the website on it, and something to do with computers. It took me a long time to come up with even an idea for a design, and it went through heavy and numerous revisions before it could be used in anything. The other part of being super independent is not doing a lot of socializing with other people. To summarize, it felt like the only human I talked to for three weeks was my dad. However, I did eventually make an effort to get together with some of my friends and go do something, which was really fun and good in that I got to see friends that I hadn’t in a very long time. Being independent can be useful, but it’s also not a bad thing to rely on other people for some things and ask for help, whether it be how to complete a project or just fulfilling the human instinct for socializing.
My internship didn’t help me plan for the future in a traditional way, in the sense that I got to experience the type of job I’d want, because I decided early into it that I probably wouldn’t do IT work or computer support when I was older. However, it was time away from school, friends, and almost any socialization, so I had more than enough time for introspection and just spending time alone with my thoughts. I thought about my interests more and what I could do with them, and decided that I would like to study history in college, at least. I also realized that I was more into music and acting and that kind of thing, but I found that my main interest for the time being was writing. I could combine these interests in many ways, such as making historical fiction, or being a historical consultant for movies. So even though I probably won’t go into computer work or website design, and probably not even graphic design of any kind, I found out tons of other things about myself, and lots more things that I won't mention here. I learned a lot of important skills that will help me do what I want, too. For example, I’m thinking about making myself a website to put all of my work on, including any art, photography, essays, short stories, and other fiction pieces. It would be like a portfolio, and would probably help me in the future somehow. I couldn’t have even begun something like that before this internship.
One of my biggest struggles during LINK was the feeling of being independent. I had guidelines, but lots of decisions were up to me, including how I did everything. Normally, I am an independent person, but I realized that I am good at being independent when I know exactly what I’m doing, how to do it, and can just complete the task without an issue. When the details are more vague and I don’t have a set way to do something, it’s harder for me to figure out what to do. I’m not good at making decisions by myself. With the graphic design part of this project, designing the logo, I had a hard time with it because I was starting from scratch. I knew it had to have the name of the website on it, and something to do with computers. It took me a long time to come up with even an idea for a design, and it went through heavy and numerous revisions before it could be used in anything. The other part of being super independent is not doing a lot of socializing with other people. To summarize, it felt like the only human I talked to for three weeks was my dad. However, I did eventually make an effort to get together with some of my friends and go do something, which was really fun and good in that I got to see friends that I hadn’t in a very long time. Being independent can be useful, but it’s also not a bad thing to rely on other people for some things and ask for help, whether it be how to complete a project or just fulfilling the human instinct for socializing.
My internship didn’t help me plan for the future in a traditional way, in the sense that I got to experience the type of job I’d want, because I decided early into it that I probably wouldn’t do IT work or computer support when I was older. However, it was time away from school, friends, and almost any socialization, so I had more than enough time for introspection and just spending time alone with my thoughts. I thought about my interests more and what I could do with them, and decided that I would like to study history in college, at least. I also realized that I was more into music and acting and that kind of thing, but I found that my main interest for the time being was writing. I could combine these interests in many ways, such as making historical fiction, or being a historical consultant for movies. So even though I probably won’t go into computer work or website design, and probably not even graphic design of any kind, I found out tons of other things about myself, and lots more things that I won't mention here. I learned a lot of important skills that will help me do what I want, too. For example, I’m thinking about making myself a website to put all of my work on, including any art, photography, essays, short stories, and other fiction pieces. It would be like a portfolio, and would probably help me in the future somehow. I couldn’t have even begun something like that before this internship.