Reflective Internship Paper

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Reflective Internship Paper

The first week of the internship programs should always start off smooth and have a well-designed course of action. For the University Radio internship that was not the case. The University Radio works and runs the university’s radio broadcast. This internship started off on the wrong foot. The problems that the internship faced in the first week was lack of communication, lack of leadership, and over-well unorganized chaos.

            It is important for any internship to have communication within the business or program in general. Communication is key to having a successful program. In the first week of the internship for the University Radio was nonexistent in the first initial days of the internship. This left many of the interns within the program with tons of questions that were not answered. For the internship it is mentioned in the beginning that each internship has to have 10 work hours for each week in actual internship program. Communication was established until the very last few days of the Unit 1 week. Since this internship is online to establish a good form of communication would be idea for the University Radio. The lack of communication was part of the lack of leadership in the first week.

The leadership for the internship during the first week was also nonexistent. Due to the leader of the internship being sick, information being sent out to the intern was lagged and sent at the last minute. This causes problems for many interns because of the Unit 1 assignment being due at the end of the week. Information that needed to be sent out was only then sent out by the co-manager of the program when the better part of the week was already through. When having assignments that coincide with the internship first week of work it causes not only problems with the academic portion of the class but also the work side of the program as well. It was only after the interns had their first meeting when communication and leadership was established. By then the bad taste was already left the interns’ mouths about the program.

            One way that the University Radio can avoid this situation from happening in the next semester is by having a solid course of action. When the leader of the program has a personal emergency and matter that cannot be held off, the co-manager of the program should be able to step up and take over the things that were left from the leader. By having a back-up leader that can step up and give the vital information needed for the interns to get started on their journey to a successful program would not only help the interns but also help remove some repeated emails of questions that the leader should be able to answer.

            Organization is also what was lacked in the first week in University Radio. The emails the interns received were from different people with different information some that did not pertain that the internship caused a lot of confusion for the interns in which meetings and information were necessary to remember to attend or do. The internship in general should have a sight overhaul in how the information for the program is sent out to the interns. For instance the email in regards to the weekly team meetings should be sent not only to the Kaplan email address but also the personal email address as well. This will give the interns two email notifications that they need to attend that meeting. As far as meetings go the time that the meetings are schedule are that the very end of the week which makes too hard to grasp the work that needs to be done during that week. The unit week should start off with the meeting as every intern and leader is coming in with a clear head and also it allows for questions about the previous work week to be answered if there is a need for clarification.

            All in all the University Radio week was not the most effective way to engage the new interns and with the changes listed, the problems can become a thing in the past. University Radio has the potential to change the first impression given to the interns and makes the program a positive experience.