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Connie will be the first to admit it: it was a shot in the dark.
She never thought that she would be even considered competitive
in a distinguished internship program such as the CUIP, let alone
be placed as Coordinator of her own special internship program.
Connie was a psychology major transfer student, and although she
had work experience, she didn’t think it was enough. But the
important thing was that she was determined to give it her best
shot, even if it was in the dark.
Prior to being placed in the position of Professions Training Program
Coordinator (PTP), Connie was an active member at her community
college in both Psi Beta and Alpha Gamma Sigma, honor societies
for psychology and performing community service, respectively. It
was through her extracurricular efforts that she was able to develop
skills such as marketing and outreach, coordinating volunteers,
and the ability to work within a group toward a common goal. While
attending community college full-time for 3 years, Connie also kept
a part-time job throughout in order to provide an independent income.
What really made Connie an excellent candidate for the PTP Coordinator
position was her strong oratory and communication skills, the ability
to work cooperatively with others, her attention to detail (essential
in any administrative position), and a genuine passion for helping
other students to realize their own personal academic and career
goals.
Fortunately, Connie’s placement as the PTP Coordinator helped
her to effectively put all her skills to the test, and subsequently
strengthen them over the course of her internship. As with any experience,
her placement had its ups and downs, but was, in general, a great
success.
The first set of obstacles Connie encountered, on her first day
of the job no less, was to learn a whole slew of new computer programs
including FileMaker Pro, Eudora, UCSC’s Employment Request
System, and the Bonner/Americorps website navigation to name a few.
There was also the challenge of improving personal time management
while juggling a full course schedule, a demanding internship, and
an active hobby of attending local music shows. The final set of
challenges came with the internship itself. When one is coordinating
a group of college students with their own class and work schedules,
communication can frequently break down, often at the most ill-opportune
time.
But, out of these challenges came many successes as well. Connie
effectively implemented several different organizational systems
for tracking paperwork and correspondence in order to keep the PTP
running smoothly. She was also able to assist in placing fifteen
interns in internships at local non-profit organizations that reflected
their academic and career goals, as well as grant the accompanying
Bonner/Americorps scholarship to 2 additional students outside of
the PTP. But of course, her biggest success is the amount of experience
and practical knowledge she took with her when she ended her time
as PTP Coordinator.
The nature of the PTP Coordinator position makes it highly applicable
to the accompanying CUIP class on Leadership and Institution Building.
The course really helped Connie to better understand not only the
role she filled within the University’s structure and mission
statement, but to also gain a better comprehension of how a large,
bureaucratic non-profit, such as the University of California, is
operated.
This understanding of large, bureaucratic structures led Connie
to develop an interest in organizational psychology and subjects
like lines of communication within large systems such as UCSC. This
interest prompted Connie to apply to graduate school in the area.
This next challenge was met with success as Connie was accepted
into her graduate school of choice in her chosen field. Thanks to
the CUIP, Connie will be attending San José State University
for an M.S. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology to further her
career aspirations of eventually working with non-profit businesses
to improve their organizational effectiveness.
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