Reflect back on what happened this semester at your internship. How did you use skills developed in the Focus Academy to be an effective communicator? Talk about a situation where those skills were put to use in your job/internship. Make sure to talk about the techniques you used to be successful in this situation.
Be sure to comment on a classmate's post. Know that as this is a final, a simple comment like "So awesome that you did that..." will not give you a high score.
25 Comments
Jacob Anania
12/15/2018 07:14:36 pm
My internship as team manager and twitter account of Chad price have been good ways to expand my communication skills. As team manager of both basketball and football I have to communicate to my coaches about how the players are doing and use my skills to tell my other managers what needs to be done to get the best opportunity for the team. For Mr.Price twitter account I get to help communicate events happening in the burke community to help expand the burke pride in the school. I use this technology to help better our school as a whole and make the students aware of upcoming events to help support their fellow bulldogs.
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Jack Lortz
12/16/2018 05:50:46 pm
I would imagine that being the team manager also takes up quite a bit of your time, so you are also learning how to handle your time and time management. It’s cool how much you have helped out the team and have been a part of some special moments between the football and basketball teams success. Just being a part of a team teaches you so much about working with others and how to communicate. The focus classes have taught us so much that we can take into the real world.
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Collin Clough
12/20/2018 04:47:26 pm
My internship over the last six months had been working as a maintenance worker for an apartment complex. In focus through our first 3 years we learned complex and unique communication skills that I am proud to say I can use today. At my job I am required to not only have good communication skills but also good learning skills. At my job their isn't a day where I don't say hi to at least 5 residents, they are everywhere and as a maintenance man you need to be able to be friendly and form solid conversations. I also had to put these skills to use when communicating with my superiors such as the head maintenance and my boss. What came with this job was a lot of learning. Most of my skills I know now, had to be learned from my co-workers which requires the ability to learn and be coached. These to me are quality life skills that I can see myself applying even later in life.
kate rife
12/21/2018 01:53:08 pm
What an awesome opportunity! Being able to communicate so effectively through not just on social media in a professional manner, but to coaches for two sport teams. You’re not just learning and refining your communication skills but rather learning on how to become a better organizer with all the events and player statuses to keep track of and what time to share information on twitter and the coaches. Through advancing your communication skills, and learning other incentives like organization and time management (as Jack Lortz mentioned earlier), you’re becoming a better representative leader. Efficiently using these skills will represent Burke, Mr. Price and your teams extremely well. So good job becoming an even better leader
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Kailey Casey
12/16/2018 02:41:51 pm
I am a student mentor for the first chapter book club for the Rockstars at Burke. It is a really fun experience getting to see them be excited about reading and engaging in activities that pertain to the book that we read over this semester. I help out Micheala with understanding where she is in the book and help her read when it's her turn. Near the end of this semester I started to let her try to sound out the word and she is successful most of the time, if she still needs some help I help her sound it out or tell her the word. There are two other mentors with me in the club and it's fun talking to them, sometimes I help them or tell them where Mrs. Boscardins' things are that she needs for book club when they cant find them. I have a lot of fun watching the rockstars progressing in their reading compression and seeing them have fun in book club with their classmates and friends. They are so kind to me and to everyone in the club. This internship has taught me to try to step back and not take complete control over everything that I am worried will go wrong. What I mean is not just telling micheala the words but letting her try it for herself and I have seen progress in her reading abilities. I enjoy this internship a lot.
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jacob A
12/17/2018 05:26:23 pm
i think your skills with working with the rockstars is valuable help in a education field in desperate need of special education workers. The ability to deal with different actions and solving issues with books and other things will make you better equiped for the real world.
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gracie johnson
12/18/2018 08:58:23 am
I would imagine that your internship requires you to utilize the leadership skills that we’ve learned in FOCUS throughout the years. It seems like you’re doing so successfully as well as listening to issues and finding the right solutions to the problems. Sounds like you’re doing a great job being a leader and communicating the needs of the rockstars, keep it up! :-)
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Jack Lortz
12/16/2018 05:29:26 pm
Throughout my internship at State Farm I learned many skills and experienced an office-like atmosphere. While I did learn many things while I was there, what really made me successful was the skills I brought with me to the internship. Many of these skills I learned in the Focus classrooms I’ve attended that past 3 1/2 years. One major skill I learned in the focus room was having the confidence to speak with someone. With all the presenting to the class we did, I had no problem taking with clients on the phones and making a connection with them. Another good skill I learned in the Focus classrooms that I brought to State Farm was the use of technology. Because of the expanded use of tech in the classroom, learning the corporate database system and data forms I had to fill out on the computer came easily and I was able to learn them quickly. But one of the most important Focus developed techniques that I used was the ability to quickly think on the fly and respond to customer questions with an educated answer.
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jacob A
12/17/2018 05:24:12 pm
state farm must be a interesting job tp work at because of the different customers you deal with and the different job tasked. Those tools will help you in the real world because your going to meet different people and dealing with their emotions and actions will play a role.
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Gracie Johnson
12/18/2018 08:53:38 am
During the semester my internship was difficult. We lost employees, and gained negative employees, but I still managed to get my job done to the best of my abilities. Recently I received a promotion and am now a manager at Firehouse. Before the promotion was finalized I had a coworker who tried to ruin the opportunity for me. They told my general manager that I was talking negatively about him and that I said I would never want to be a manager. I got through this by using the skills I learned in FOCUS. I addressed the issue with my general manager, I was professional, and I set the record straight. I communicated with him and told him that I would love the opportunity and I assured him that I would continue to be professional with the other employee that was causing problems, because it’s a workplace not a high school. My leadership skills from FOCUS helped me to surpass my obstacles and continue to prosper and to eventually get the manager position, where I am now leading others.
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Will Schneidewind
12/20/2018 04:03:18 pm
Your job does not sound fun with all your coworkers leaving and then getting yelled at for something you didn't do, but you kept your cool and worked passed it. By not quitting and communicating with your boss that you didn't do that stuff you are now a manager. That's awesome especially now when you get older people will more likely to higher you after hearing that you were a manager at firehouse. Keep up the good work.
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Kailey Casey
12/20/2018 05:35:37 pm
Great job keeping your cool when faced with an issue at your job. I believe it would be very difficult to handle all that was thrown at you and still being able to be mature about it and act like a professional while still in high school with possibly people that are older than you. Great job and you have integrity that will get you far.
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Zaria
12/21/2018 09:49:28 am
Congratulations on the position! I would not have handled it as well as you did and you kept it professional no matter the situation and that’s inspiring.
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Lilly Gilinsky
12/22/2018 10:14:52 am
That is so great how you handled that tough situation. Not only did you handle it professionally but you didn't let it ruin the amazing opportunity that you got of becoming a manager. I'm sorry about the negative environments that have been happening at your work, but you seem to be handling everything very well and very maturely. By doing that I believe you will get much farther and be much more successful.
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Maxim Dolezal
12/20/2018 06:45:10 am
Over the summer working at Offut Airforce Base as a civil engineer intern I had to bring many leadership skills I learned from FOCUS into my job. One such situation is when I was intrusted with a position to make sure the biopods were being build correctly. I oversaw several workers to advice them on the plans provided to me. By learning how to properly connect with people from a leadership standpoint from FOCUS I was able to have an efficient constructive working relationship with them.
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Zaria
12/21/2018 09:36:33 am
I can imagine engineering can be extremely difficult. I like how you get to be your own person at your job to get done what you need to. I also like how you provide as much service as you can offer. I wouldn’t be doing engineering myself but it seems interesting from your point of view.
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Emily Whitsitt
1/2/2019 10:40:39 am
Your internship seems like a great learning experience. Communication is the most important aspect of a job and it seems your internship deals a lot with that. You have always been a great leader, this job seems perfect for you.
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WIll Schneidewind
12/20/2018 03:56:54 pm
During my internship at TD2, I used my leadership skills to talk to all kinds of people. I talked to contractors, construction people, and the owner. These skills happened when I went out to inspect the buildings slowly being built. Some contractors hate talking to me and some were nice. Every time I went on the job site and saw the contractor and asked him a few question on how everything going and if they have a date when they will be close to being down. If I see any problems I have to tell them to like clean up the street or repair a silt fence and making sure the city wouldn't fine them. Since a lot of contractors don't like people telling them what to do I always called or texted them saying hey you need to get this done. I used my great attitude to talk to them, and I didn't yell at them saying to get it done. I took my job very seriously and made sure everything got done. This internship will help me a lot out in the future.
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Gabi Jaapar
12/27/2018 07:35:37 pm
I understand what you mean when you say like not everyone liked talking to you and as a teenager I see why some people would have some reservations about that. I experienced some of the same things in my internship and having the communication skills that we learn in FOCUS help us have the confidence in what were talking about so that other people listen to us. It is a hard thing to overcome but can be really powerful.
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Zaria
12/21/2018 09:47:20 am
For my paid internship I started at Old Navy. I’ve been there for awhile and it’s honestly the best experience I’ve had job wise. I use my leadship skills constantly when I have to be at the registers like persuading customers to open a credit card or just helping out the other employees. I’m one of the main people who train new employees so I help them out to make it as easy and as simple as I can make it. For example, there were 2 new employees that needed to be trained by me on the cash registers, so, they shadowed me while I helped customers and just gave them tips and showed them the way things work.
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Kate Rife
12/21/2018 02:06:34 pm
This semester working as assistant to the office manager as been filled with plenty of communication learning opportunities. With being in an office management and administration position, you have to learn how to communicate and plan ahead effectively. Something that the Focus Academy has taught me in both areas, when turning in projects and papers. Now, since the semester is coming to an end, I’ve had to communicate with my boss what my next semester with school will look like since i will no longer have early out on both days. This allowed my boss and I to discuss my future work hours after i gave her a calendar on what days I could come in at 2pm and what days I could come in at 3:30pm. My boss was extremely appreciative I had told her months in advance (i brought this up to her in september) so she could have an idea for what the next year will look like; especially when our company will start doing lead jobs again and I’m in charge for putting together the required book for it.
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Lilly Gilinsky
12/22/2018 10:48:02 am
From working at the JCC, I have had some ups and downs. We recently got a new aquatics director and she has changed everything about the pool. She is also not the easiest person to talk to as she looks at lifeguards as if they are a burden on her. With this difficulty at my job, I believe I have used skills from Focus to help me stay grounded and be calm about the situation. I have continued to work hard at my job, and I have still shown up to work everyday that has been asked of me regardless of the negative workspace and some negative people. But something I've learned from Focus is that it's okay and can be an amazing experience if I start something new so hopefully soon I can get a new job and meet more new people like I did with Focus.
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Kailey Casey
12/23/2018 03:50:55 pm
Good for you for continuing to go there even though it is probably not the most positive place to be. Also great job for doing it with a smile on your face. I probably would have lost motivation months ago.
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Gabi Jaapar
12/27/2018 07:32:21 pm
Through my summer internship at Gallup I had to use the communication skills I learned in FOCUS to effectively explain my ideas to my peers and my boss. Being around high achieving students and in a professional environment required me to have confidence in my ideas and be able to defend my choices for the different things I had to do. An example of doing this was when we were coming up with new design for one of the company's webpages and not only did I have to present my ideas, I had to explain how it flowed with other Gallup webpages and why these ideas would be more user friendly than other ideas. Through the skills I learned in FOCUS, I was able to overcome objections that came up throughout my presentations, and confidence in my ideas that helped other to believe in my ideas too.
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Emily Whitsitt
1/2/2019 10:36:27 am
Throughout my experiences at Hamilton Heights Child Development Center I have had the opportunity to work with kids in all different scenarios. The FOCUS academy has helped me with my communications skills which is a huge aspect of my job. To keep the kids safe I not only have to advise them of what to do and what not to do, I also must communicate with my coworkers and the child's family on behavior and other information they must know about a child. While working in the toddler rooms we must keep a daily sheet about the Childs day. At the end of the day we give the parents the sheet as well as communicate with them about there child's day and any worries we may have regarding the kids behavior or health.
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Reporting HoursRequirement of 90 Hours per semester. Use the button below to email your hours to Mr. Siecke. You may also bring them to Mr. Siecke in 115 at Burke High School. Archives
April 2019
PaperworkClick below to download the required paperwork for the internship program. Remember, no hours can be counted until this is received. You may submit it as a signed, scanned document via email or place the signed documents on Mr. Siecke's desk in 115.
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