Summer 2018 Internship
Day 1 (5/29)
I arrived close to 9 and received a warm welcome from my supervisor. She sent her assistant with me to pick up the badge Iād be using during my time here as an intern. After I got my badge, her assistant showed me around the buildingāāāwhere other offices, the break room, etc. were.
She then gave me my first āworking at the officeā starter pack:
Then, my supervisor briefed me on how policy adoption works at the board level. She taught me about the clerical side of things: getting policies formatted and prepared for board review.
It seems like a lot of paperwork is involved. And wording is extremely important. Iām seeing the legal side of thingsā¦ how words matter, basically.
Then, she showed me how to create a correlation table to ensure our local policies are aligned with state standards.
My work today is related to a policy about seclusion and restraint. I need to prepare it for the next board meeting by formatting it properly for them to review.
Iāll be working on one or two other policies later today ā more on that later!
Update: I wound up organizing three sets of policy series and determining which policy files we were missing. It took several hours, and all I have to produce from it is a sorted, digitized list of all the missing policies.
I feel like thereās a way this couldāve been done faster or automated rather than me squinting painstakingly at the many four-digit policy numbers on the screen for hours on end. But maybe thatās just me. :(
Day 2 (5/30)
So today the secretary at the front desk told me I no longer had to sign in or ask for permission to enter the building. I guess that means itās official now, eh?
One of my colleagues told me that my supervisor had left a bunch of policies for me to read over in my spare time. Which is honestly all the time I have, since she didnāt give me anything specific to work on.
I think Iāll type up brief snippets about policy revisions for each one, so that itās easier to access when needed.
I got bored early on and decided to try to get my e-mail and everything set up. Iāve been talking to the IT guy, and he told me a lot about his life. He said he wasted four years of college, dropped out, and then took on a job with Verizon. And from there, he got into IT work.
I also considered driving for Uber or Lyft this summer. I could use the extra money. >_> And plus, with a GPS, I should be fine driving around the area.
Iām sitting here waiting for him to install a VPN client on my computer and set up my work phone.
After getting a few things set up, I headed back upstairs. My supervisor came back from meetings not too long after I got into her office. And then I shadowed her as she met with an executive director of the discipline department. They discussed plans for the student handbook theyād issue in July. (AKA the handbook that Iād always recycled right after bringing it back from schoolā¦ >_> oops.)
But while they were meeting, they decided to give me real work. Iām to create this inventory of all the trainings theyāve provided in different departments. So it seems like I have a huge project to take on now. Yay! Things to do. :D
Day 3 (5/31)
Today was a continuation (the Part 2) to my work yesterday. Iād compiled the trainings from 2017ā2018 yesterday, and I just finished inventorying trainings for 2018ā2019. And now Iām waiting on my supervisor to finish meetings so she can tell me what to do for the day.
I worked on two policies: one about seclusion and restraint and another about sexual harassment. I was happy to see that the public school system is now prioritizing the voices of those who have been the victims of unwanted sexual contact. We adjusted the language so that victims donāt wind up being punished if they report what happened to them, since they were technically a participant in said sexual misconduct, albeit unwillingly.
After that, I wrote two cover pages summarizing the proposed policy changes for each.
And from there, I proofread a draft of a manual thatās supposed to explain the process people have to go through to appeal long-term suspensions and whatnot. Itās pretty complicated stuff. :O
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