Research completed or skills or technologies I to learn to advance my internship learning goals

 

A month before the start of my internship, I won a gift card from Facebook developers circle Berea College to enroll in a full course on Udemy to study web development with ReactJS. So I utilized this opportunity to gain an introduction to the basics of ReactJS, which was the primary technology we were to use for the New Technologist internship. Then, during the program, I always referred to some parts of this course like reusable components and redux to better understand what we were studying from the Software engineering curriculum of the internship.

Utilizing this course’s React Redux explanation enabled me to understand Redux, which was handy for our team’s final project. For the final project, I implemented a budget filtering feature that allowed users to filter the doctors in the application's database based on the average cost of the doctors’ services. This feature required the use of global state management using redux, which with the help of the internship instruction, the Udemy course, and youtube videos on redux, and my teammates, I integrated React Redux into the application.

Additionally, we had many opportunities to practice version control with git and GitHub, pair programming with Visual Studio Code live share throughout the program which helped me better understand how to use these technologies in different projects we worked at during the internship.

Furthermore, I dedicated two hours every morning outside my internship schedule to study and further research on topics listed in the pre-work or post-work of the curriculum. The pre-work was an explanation of the different Software engineering aspects we were to study every day while the post-work were stretch goals for the daily instructions. This time always allowed me to utilize the instruction time better to ask questions about what I had not understood during my research.

How the interactions I have had at my internship will help me elsewhere

While working on our team project for the internship this week, I spent time either working on an individual feature or pair programming using the Visual Studio live share feature. The team project has been a time when we had to communicate about the code we are writing, explaining our thought process as we work on the coding aspect of the project, and resolve any conflicts we have in our thought process or the code.

The New technologist internship's structure makes the navigation of team dynamics a crucial aspect of the entire experience. Working on the project management curriculum and the software engineering curriculum taught me how to express my ideas clearly, accept feedback, and decide on a course of action with my teammates.

These interactions have improved my communication skills, where I can discuss my ideas and give my teammates feedback confidently. I have also learned that sometimes deciding on one approach as a team is better than trying to hold on to an individual idea. 

I will apply these skills in the teamwork we have in Computer Science classes and other classes outside my major. Unlike the previous semesters where I have been a bit shy about sharing a different perspective, my internship experience has taught me that having a different view is not wrong. Instead, the differences in perspective are always an opportunity for the team to think of different approaches to solving a problem.

Additionally, as a leader in the Girls Who Code Berea College loop and ACM-W Berea College chapter, I will apply the communication skills I have attained from my interactions with my team, mentor, instructors at the internship when working with the members of the clubs.

Coffee chat with Nitah Onsongo

This week I had a coffee chat with Nitah Onsongo, currently working as a Project Manager at Microsoft. Nitah joined Microsoft as a software engineer then transitioned into a data analyst role before joining the current team where she works as a Project Manager.

During our coffee chat, I wanted to learn about the day to day experiences of a Project Manager at Microsoft and how to utilize school experiences to prepare for a Software engineering career.

Nitah explained the role of a project manager as all responsibilities relating to developing a suitable product that will satisfy a user's need and supporting the entire product life cycle from ideation to shipping of the product. Her day-to-day experiences as a Project manager range from analyzing how users interact with different products to planning out how different product features are implemented.

With such a diversity in the tasks, Nitah emphasized the importance of taking courses outside Computer Science in other fields like Business, Mathematics, and other fields. The choice of these courses taken outside the specific field of study should be based more on how curious a student is to learn about a particular topic than on what course sounds good or taken by many students.

Since Berea College is a liberal arts college that mandates taking courses outside the major, I can utilize this opportunity to take courses in different areas that I am curious to know more about in addition to courses that directly relate to the Computer Science courses.

Furthermore, Nitah emphasized involvement in different projects that will provide long-lasting hands-on software development skills while working on projects that I am passionate about. Working on such projects also poses new challenges that I will learn to resolve, which is training for the work environment.