AOIT Internship

Date: August 21st Activities: Updating labels, organizing website, designing invoice Technical Information: Microsoft Word, weebly Reflection: Today I continued on the same everyday tasks: updating the website, calendar, labels, etc. I also began a new task of designing an invoice that Sweet Peak would send to customers after they place an order. The setup of an invoice is pretty easy, word has a lot of templates for one. The most difficult part was finding a template that fit with the theme of her bakery and one that she approved of, that fit well with her logo as well.  Write a final reflection of the entire internship experience. Overall, my internship experience as a whole was a good one. I had a lot of fun working with Ms. Gage in a relaxed environment, with an overall relaxed work experience and schedule. I believe that my internship experience was a lot different than that of my peers, but in a good way, I wouldn't want to redo it in any way. I did have to make up so...

Date: August 17th Activities: Updating website, Food Lion run Technical Information: Weebly Reflection: Today I continued the same projects, updating weebly, organizing labels, and updating the data base. I also had the fun experience of running to the local grocery store which happened to be a Food Lion. I had to buy two dozen eggs and two bags of flour. I think the most stressful part was finding the right kind of flour: there were so many different kinds! Bleached, unbleached, oat, corn, etc. But after finding the correct flour and eggs, and I returned and Ms. Gage was able to continue baking to meet her deadlines. What major problems or frustrations have you experienced or observed in your work? How did you handle it? I haven't really faced any problems throughout my internship, most of my work was pretty simple and straight forward. Since I haven't faced any problems, I haven't had to really handle any. I'd say the only "problems" I've had to ...

Date: August 12th Activities: Updating website, organizing labels Technical Information: Weebly, Microsoft Word Reflection: Today I continued to work on more or less the same tasks, just to try and keep everything up-to-date. I had settled into more or less a routine: logging in, adding any new customers to the data base, checking for any new holidays to add to the promotions, updating the inventory list for Brew, and going through product labels, all while sipping some coffee or sampling a blueberry muffin (to check for quality of course). I think I had become I pro at a lot of these tasks, they had become like second nature. What have you learned about yourself and what you want in a career? I've learned that I have a knack for organizing things, especially making things fit well and look appealing together (such as organizing her website). I haven't learned much about what I want in a career, since I'm not looking to go into a technology field, and this internshi...

Date: August 9th Activities: Organizing labels, updating website Technical Information: Weebly, Microsoft Word Reflection: Today I continued the fun tasks of printing, organizing and filing labels. This was a necessary task in order to be prepared for the weekly orders from Brew and the farmers markets in Cary and Holly Springs. After organizing labels, I updated the the inventory lists for both the Cary and Raleigh locations of Brew. I also continued to update the website and organize pictures and resize text, as well as reformatting the calendar and finding more holidays and promotions to the calendar. How has this experience affected or changed your career/college plans? My experience hasn't really affected my career or college plans. I've known that I've never really wanted to pursue a career and technology but I've appreciated the experiences and skills I've learned through AOIT and this internship, I believe that these skills will help me in college an...

Date: August 6th Activities: Updating calendar, making a delivery Technical Information: Google calendar, Weebly Reflection: Today I continued to research obscure baked goods holidays and adding them to the website calendar. I also continued organizing labels, and maintaining the database, and other small everyday tasks. Today I also made a delivery to Clayton, a regular costumer of hers. It was one of my more exciting days, since I got to go out and do some "physical" activity, and it was a fun hour round-trip drive (I had never been to Clayton before so it was cool to go there).  How have your duties changed since you first started? Have you been given more responsibility? Yes, my duties have changed from the mundane work of going through past costumers to maintain an up-to-date database, to more complex and fun work of updating/reorganizing the website to have a more aesthetic style, as well as updating the calendar and coming up with promotional ideas. 

Date: August 4th Activities: Updating website and calendar Technical Information: Weebly and Google calendar Reflection: Today I started on probably my biggest project of the internship, which was finding obscure holidays to try and put them on the calendar, like did you know that November is national peanut butter month? My job was to find these kinds of holidays to add to the Sweet Peaks calendar to promote specials, such as honey cupcakes on national honeybee day, or a free peanut butter cookie with every order in November. I coordinated between the google calendar and Weebly so that all these specials would appear on the website when customers visited to place orders. What do you feel is your main contribution to your internship? What have you done at your internship that makes you proud? Why? I feel that the calendar and updating the database were my two biggest contributions two the internship, because they were two things that hadn't been accomplished yet and they bo...

Date: August 2nd Activities: Organizing labels, updating website Technical Information: Microsoft Word, Weeby Reflection: Today I continued on my task of organizing, sorting, and printing labels in preparation for the next market and deliveries for Brew. Another one of my ongoing tasks was keeping track of deliveries to the Cary and downtown Raleigh locations of Brew, since Sweet Peaks is the bakery they receive their pastries from. One of new tasks that I also began was updating/organizing the website so it would have a more esthetic appeal. How is the internship meeting or not meeting your expectations/objectives and why? Do you have control of this? Explain. My internship experience was a lot different than most of my classmates, I wasn't in a traditional office environment, I wasn't clocking in and out every day, and I wasn't working a traditional 9-5 work day either. I worked in a very casual environment, but I was still able to use a lot of technical skills an...

Date: July 27th Activities: Updating database, printing and organizing labels Technical Information: Enciva, Microsoft Word Reflection: After the third day of updating the database I was finally up to date, and I only had to keep up with it from now on. I also began the process of sorting labels: there was a system of folders each with different labels for pastries, my job was to make sure there were enough of needed labels for the upcoming farmers market, and print more if needed. There were also a few formatting issues with the labels, so with trial and error I was able to fix those as well. How have your classroom experiences prepared you for the internship? What do you wish you had learned prior to the internship? Technical skills I learned through AOIT especially through POIT freshman year helped a lot through the internship, I didn't really apply any programming skills through my time working with Ms. Gage, and I might have been more prepared had I been a wed design s...

Date: July 24th Activities: Updating databases Technical Information: Enciva Reflection: I continued to work on updating the databases, it was a long process that probably took about three or four days to complete. Each visit I had to make sure I wrote down where I left off so I could find where to pick up the next time I came in. I think by the second day I was up to 2016 customers. Describe the work atmosphere. How are decisions made, is it cooperative or competitive, what is the dress code and work ethic of the organization? The work atmosphere was very relaxed. I worked with Ms. Gage directly at her house, I had my own space on the counter where I would work on her laptop and talk to her while she baked. Ms. Gage is the owner of her own small business, so all decisions were made by her, it was a competitive business, competing with other local bakeries. There was no dress code, I could come over wearing what I wore that day or if I came from my other job, I could come in ju...

Date: July 22nd Activities: Updating database Technical Information: Enciva Reflection: My first task working with Ms. Gage was to update the database that her neighbor created for her when she first established her business back in 2015. There were A LOT of emails and former interactions to go through (three years of them!) The goal was to create a record of every past costumer so if they were a repeat customer, their information would already be stored in the system. Define the purpose of the business/organization – what they do, structure, who are their customers, etc. What is your job description – what will you be doing, who will you work with, where do you fit in, etc.? Sweet Peaks NC is a North Carolina state certified home bakery. The purpose of this business is to provide people with a variety of baked treats. There are a variety of customers, including Brew (a coffee shop with locations in downtown Cary and Raleigh), patrons at farmers markets (Cary and Holly Springs...