My First Internship

Last summer, I was an intern at the California Fuel Cell Partnership (CaFCP). My reason behind taking this internship was to gain job experience, and the internship listing looked interesting. The listing talked about computers and programming, which is what I am interested in. There happened to be twenty people who also signed up for the internship, but only three were chosen for the interview. Thanks to my schedule and the other possible interns’ scheduling, I was fortunate enough to be selected for an interview, and later offered the position.

When I first walked into the CaFCP office, I knew I was going to have a good experience. The office was big and in the back of the office was the work quarters- with nice cubicles. I was given equipment to get started: notepad, pen, flash drive, and a computer. These simple supplies were helpful and all I needed throughout the whole internship.

My first two weeks of work were dedicated to learning- that’s it. The following weeks my work was different almost every day. Thankfully the supervisor and I planned out my future weeks and they didn’t end up in chaos. The last week was more relaxed, especially after the final project.

During those first two weeks I had to learn a lot, including website scripting languages. A few of the scripting languages were HTML, PHP, and CSC. There were more assigned scripting languages to learn but after some events I only needed those three scripting languages even though I didn’t have to use them too often. If you are not aware of what a scripting language is, it’s a way one can tell a computer what to do without making a progrHear am in ones and zeros.

The main goal of the internship was Website Programming and Development and I worked on one major project involving this. This was making improvements on a website. I could make some of the decisions on how it should look, but also had to follow some new 2016 website programming practices. This project was broken up into smaller tasks. First I created a list of items to change on the website. Next, I produced a project plan on how to attack the project. Finally, after checking with the team, I implemented the changes to the website.

After working most of my summer at the CaFCP, for about the last week of work I had to create a presentation to present to the CaFCP team and in front of the mayor of West Sacramento. I didn’t have a project plan, but I did have a plan. I did a quick outline of the presentation then added a picture. Finally, I added a script and practiced presenting in front of my supervisor. At the presentation, most of the team liked the presentation- including the mayor.