While my Green Map System experience still feels fresh, it is both surprising and rewarding to see how much I have grown so far. Beyond some of my expected areas of growth, such as familiarity with the city and long-distance commuting, I have seen major strides in my professional development that will be invaluable as I continue into the professional work. From my internship experience I have gained confidence in my writing and task management skills, in speaking to other professionals, and in incorporating my interests into my projects.
To begin, I have been excited to improve my speed and efficacy in completing complex tasks. For example, as part of the creating Stories and Tools as part of Green Map System’s new website, I have had to learn to incorporate basic HTML into my text to include hyperlinks, paragraph breaks, and other embedded content and have been excited to see how much more naturally this step has become now that I have practiced it with my earlier page uploads. In addition, as I practice each step for the powerful mapping platforms, Carto and ArcGIS, it is becoming much easier to input new sites and change information as needed. I have learned through this experience that some tasks that might seem hard to me at first, are actually manageable and that over time I can build skills in new areas while on the job.
Secondly, over the course of my internship I have had gained confidence in speaking to many individuals involved in local government, nonprofits, and the tech industry. In order to represent myself and Green Map System effectively, I had to take an initiative to introduce myself to others to ask about their work and effectively explain my organization’s mission and impact. In addition, I have learned to consider and discuss meaningful
connections and opportunities between my organization’s work with others of various unique focuses. Relating my experience and my organization’s mission to others will be absolutely invaluable to my future professional work, for tasks such as building partnerships, gaining clients, and simply working with others.
Finally, as noted in previous posts, I always find it meaningful to incorporate my own knowledge and interests into my tasks, and this internship has certainly helped me master skills to do so effectively. With my Green Map Story of the Northern Valley of New Jersey almost complete, I feel that I am adding educational value for using different mapping platforms as well as value to my own community with information of its own green spaces charted online. Thus, through incorporating my own personal knowledge, the completed project is valuable to users on both the local and global level.
I have taken no moment of my internship for granted, as learning opportunities have come up with each activity I have approached. With that, I am excited to see what the last few weeks have in store as I prepare to take these skills into my senior year at Brandeis and the world of work in the years beyond.