Target Executive Internship Last Week

This was the last week of the internship and it definitely had gone by so fast! I can't believe my nine weeks are over and have gone back to school at Linfield already. I have learned so much and cant even describe it in words. From the first five weeks of the internship focusing on shadowing the different work centers of Target including pharmacy, food, hardlines, softlines, and AP, etc., to the last four weeks of incorporating leadership skills, I have truly learned a lot and can apply a lot of these experiences to my business classes this year. This being the first week of school, I have already recognized the same concepts as what I had learned in my internship such as recognition or topics in human resource. Not only have I learned a lot, but I have also been able to develop and grow as a person. I feel I have overcome more shyness and have been able to lead a group of people in huddle as well as lead and direct dozens of team members at a time. I have developed my leadership skills and have been able to manage and execute strategy as well. One thing I had to get used to was feedback. I had never been given feedback to this degree before. While at first you may feel like your bosses are talking to you negatively, I actually learned that they care about you and they want you to be set up for success. This is why they give you such feedback, so that you can work on and develop such opportunities. While it may be hard to adjust to at first, I definitely got used to it as the weeks went by. I also have learned to overcome challenges that may have come my way as well as put myself in uncomfortable situations and be able to handle them. I was a part of an interview process where I conducted the interview. I had helped in inventory as well as the overnight logistics process. I have done almost every task that is in every work center as a part of this internship. I have learned the processes of the retail Target store, and I love that I never once looked at the time until I was able to go home. I loved every minute of my internship and believe it was something that has given me great experiences and will be able to apply such concepts in the future, especially in my business courses.

This last week was mainly focusing on my leadership skills and leader on duty shifts. This week I had done a night shift as leader on duty and it was very challenging as I had never done a night shift before. I was learning many tasks that had to be completed such as checking off the cleaning logs for food and Starbucks as well as making sure all the carts were getting back to the store from the parking lot. I definitely struggled with this and asked for a lot of feedback after to see what I can improve on. I also mainly worked on my presentation for my project. This was my final presentation to the district leaders. My project was on the Best Team Survey and focusing on the backroom work center to make sure they were satisfied with their jobs. My project included helping with ordering new clothing for the freezers they worked in and improving recognition, working conditions, communication, and overall satisfaction. I presented to the district this past Monday and it went very well. The district team leaders thought I was confident and very prepared for the presentation. I asked for some feedback and they mentioned I had great eye contact and had a very good speaking voice. I could work on not saying the word "definitely" so much, but as for that they were very impressed!

Final Week at OHSU

This week concluded my 5 week internship at OHSU! Overall, my internship was full of hard-work, stress and big challenges, but it was a great learning experience and I am very glad that I did it. I learned a lot about working in an office like how to be professional, how to work with co-workers, how to work for supervisors and I also learned some tools that can help me out in the future such as getting efficient at Microsoft Excel, researching tips and resources and different presentation tools. At times, I felt really overwhelmed and didn't want to continue the internship but I was able to keep moving and get through it and came out better for it. I am very thankful for my supervisor, Dr. Sakaguchi, who was great at teaching, motivating and coaching me along the way and I am glad that I got a chance to learn from him. He is a great teacher and I plan on keeping in touch with him in the future. I met a lot of people throughout my internship and I made a lot of connections and really feel that I was able to sharpen my networking skills that I learned in my career explorations class.
My presentation went very well and I am glad that my supervisor made me do it. Before I gave the presentation I just wanted it to be over with but once I started, everything fell right into place and I am happy and proud of my work. The division asked some very good questions and luckily I was prepared for them and able to answer them with confidence. When I started the presentation I told everyone that it could be a discussion based presentation and that anyone could ask a question or make a comment at any time. I am glad that I did this because it made the presentation a lot less formal and eased the tension in the room. I was a lot less nervous once people started talking and getting in to the details of the presentation as I felt that I was talking with them and not at them. In the end, the division decided to go forward with my presentation and they are proceeding in talks with management about funding so that they can get the ball rolling on it. This made me feel really good because I felt like I actually did something that mad a difference and helped the division. All of my work up until this point had not lead to such a big result and it was hard to see that what I was doing was making a difference. But now that the division is going to take my project and continue it, I feel as if I actually did something helpful for them while I was there.
The biggest thing I think I will take away from this experience is that I now know I don't want to go into the health care industry or hospital administration. It is unfortunate that I don't want to because I networked with a lot of good people in the industry, but now I can focus on exploring different areas that I may find an interest in. The internship has been one of the best learning experiences of my life and I am so glad that I did it. I will be keeping in touch with everyone I met along the way and maybe one day I can use one of their connections for a future internship or job!

Target Executive Internship Week Eight

This week, all the interns were invited to the Target distribution center in Albany, Oregon. This was an awesome experience. I was able to see the processes before the product actually gets to the retail store. The distribution center is essentially this huge warehouse with product and more than 600 workers! Corporate sends this product to 26 distribution centers. The team members work 10 and 12 hour shifts. This differs from the retail stores in which team members don't work as many hours at a time. The distribution center in Albany also services 68 stores in the states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska. Throughout the tour, it was awesome to see where they received their product and the whole process of where they receive to where they ship out. There were so many trucks where the team members must fill all the trucks with the products. Every truck is about 2000 pieces! You can see how much work and heavy lifting goes into working in the distribution center compared to the retail store. The distribution center is very clean and organized considering how much product there is. I thought this was a very educational experience and a good perspective to see compared to a store perspective. It allowed me to see how every part of Target affects another. There are so many different parts to Target, from corporate to the distribution center to the retail stores.

Again, it was also nice to see the other Target interns again and catch up with them and see how their internships are going. The District Team Leaders and business partners were also there again to share the experience with us. I really love how they really care and invest so much in the internship. At any other company, I dont believe we would have gotten the same time and respect from such higher levels of management.

Target Executive Internship Week Seven

This week I continued to work on my intern project which involves the Best Team Survey and developing an action plan around one of the opportunities within it. The Best Team Survey is a survey that every team member takes every year revolving questions about the satisfaction with their work. The action plan I am working on is for the work center logistics backroom dayside team. They had many dissatisfactions with their work center so my project involves speaking with them and helping to make their work center a better place to work. Recognition, communication, and working conditions were the top concerns. In terms of recognition, this team didn't feel they were being recognized and were being grouped with the logistics overnight team when in fact they were their own work center. This week we had a special breakfast for this team while they had reached a thousand days of safety! I have also been trying to get the leadership involved with this change as well, getting them to realize the back room day team is their own work center. As for communication, I have partnered with the Executive Team Leader of Guest Experience to help with equipment control. We have numbered the walkies and PDAs as well as keeping them locked up in a cabinet. This holds accountability to the team members so that they will have to be signing the equipment in and out and should not be leaving them around the store. As for working conditions, I have improved conditions within the freezer and cooler by ordering new gloves and face masks for them. This team was previously using garden type gloves in the freezer. Overall, I feel that this work center just needed to be listened to about their concerns. Because they are stuck in the back room for the day, the store can tend to "forget" about them. I have really enjoyed getting to know this team as I did not have that much communication with that team before. I feel that through this project I have learned to be a leader and pay attention to detail. I have learned a lot about how we need to keep each work center satisfied, because if they aren't happy, they wont be able to do quality work and may even quit. This would in turn affect the other work centers. I would say I have learned how important it is to make sure that every work center is satisfied and that without these satisfied team members there would be no Target.

Full Circle

My computer has not been letting me log on for the longest time. My internship ended yesterday and the experience from last summer and this summer have come full circle! There are new interns taking over right now which is the same thing that happened last year. The kids have been having a really hard time adjusting to this because since they are children with mostly Autism or Aspergers, they have a very difficult time adjusting to change. The last few weeks of my internship really helped me affirm that I do want to work with this population of children and be the teacher that really helps these students grow. My last science lessons went very well and we ended all of our science lessons with a bang which was very exciting for everyone involved. We started off all making tornadoes in a bottle with glitter, soap, and water. They really enjoyed this because it was very hands-on and they got to really see how science can be in action. Next we used a black light to see what different thing would glow under a black light. We first put the black light up to white paper to watch what happens when it glows. Next we put the black light up to regular water and nothing happened, then we put it up to tonic water and it glowed very brightly. We talked about the differences between tap water and tonic water and why tonic water was glowing. We then painted out white papers with vaseline and lemon juice, the students loved this because they got to paint with their fingers and really explore what they felt like (so this was also them getting overt their sensory issues). We then put the black light up to the paper and it glowed which really excited the students. We took a movement a break at this time and the students got to explore different things that were glowing under the black light. Our last experiment we went outside and this was probably my favorite experiment because of the results and also because the students were extremely excited about it, based on their amazing reactions. The experiment was a classic one and something that every child should see. The Diet Coke Geyser. I luckily that day thought ahead and got the geyser tube from the store so the experiment went a lot more smoothly. The reaction from the students was honestly amazing when the geyser shot up a good seven or more feet in the air.

This internship taught me so much more about the world of Applied Behavioral Analysis, but also so much more about myself. I learned how much patience I have in certain situations, how to handle situations when students are reacting to things, and how to really work with children with vastly different personalities. Now that I am back at Linfield, I really do miss the kids I worked with and I am very happy that this internship was able to further show me that I want to do 1-on-1 therapy sessions and hopefully teach in an ABA behavioral/social skills classroom.

Week Four at OHSU

After a vacation back home and some time off, I am back at OHSU for my fourth week. It is good to be back and working again because I am picking up right where I left off on developing market research. We had a department meeting today which was very motivating and I feel that my research is actually helping. For the first time at my internship, I feel like our department has a consensus on what direction we want to take the program. This makes my job a lot easier because I can now focus my research more and start working with actual numbers and real data. I met with my supervisor after our division meeting and he assigned me to develop the marketing plan for the new program. This is a pretty daunting task because I have never developed a marketing plan, I am the only person working on it and there are no guidelines for it. Basically, I have to present a marketing plan to the department next week that either the department and all of the teachers in the program and they will then will vote to either move forward with my plan or develop a new one.
I am excited to start putting together the marketing plan and I know that this will push me and be a great learning experience, but it is very intimidating as well. I am nervous that I won't make a good impression on the rest of the department but I also don't want to disappoint my supervisor. My supervisor has given me the opportunity to work and learn in a great environment and I want him to feel warranted for his decision to select me for the internship. As I spend more time in the office, I am continuing to develop relationships with more and more of the staff. It's a little weird because I am surrounded by a bunch of people with PHDs and multiple degrees, yet the way they act and conduct themselves is so low key. I have noticed that everyone is very sensitive when they have a disagreement in the way that no one ever tries to pull rank or seniority. Even the head of the department is always very cautious while discussing a disagreement and never tries to value his perspectives more then anyone's. It is interesting to watch and listen to the different perspectives that people bring from their different background of schooling and current position in the department.
As I enter my final week of my internship, I am very excited, stressed and nervous about giving my presentation. I want to put together the best marketing plan that I can but also deliver a presentation that is acceptable for experienced professionals and not just a presentation for my class at Linfield. I want to make my supervisor proud and demonstrate everything that he has taught me over the past four weeks. I feel that Linfield has given me most of the tools to do well throughout this internship and prepared me for this final presentation, and I hope that I can deliver a plan that is beneficial to my department.

Target Executive Internship Week Six

I just finished week six of the internship and am entering week seven! It amazes me how fast time goes when you are working retail. This week, the interns in our district which includes the Target Clackamas store and Eugene and Springfield interns went on a store visit with the district team leaders in Salem and Keizer. On a store visit, the district team leaders as well as the Human Resource Business Partner go through the store to make sure that Target location is maintaining its Target brand, is well zoned (aisles are kept tidy and items put back in its rightful place), endcaps are full and impactful, guests are being serviced, fun, fast, and friendly team, products are in stock, signing is right, and that the store is maintaining Target brand offstage of the salesfloor. A district team lead's job is to manage a certain number of stores in their assigned district. They must visit each store at least once a month. If there are "problem" stores in which a store may need a district team lead's help, then the district team lead may visit that store on a weekly basis if need be.

We carpooled with the district team lead to Salem. To me this was a little intimidating because the district team leads are our boss's boss's boss! They are essentially high level management. While I know the district team leads are very open and enjoy getting to know the interns, I still felt that there was this pressure there to impress them and come up with smart questions. On the way to Salem, we mainly conversed about Target and about how to prep for a store visit. We then had lunch at Olive Garden before heading to the Salem Target. The store visit was great. They even gave the interns little goodie bags! I learned a lot about how store visits are run and what the district team leads are looking for. It was also interesting to see these smaller volume stores and the differences between how they are run. I thought it was awesome to see how well zoned their store was. Back endcaps were even well zoned. It was also nice to see that Target also cares about offstage brand. So that means the break rooms, offices, and common areas where the employees are need to be clean and neat. This is what the Human Resource business partner looks for on his or her store visit. They also check to make sure the store is using best practice. They make sure the human resource office is following its planogram as well as the message boards. You may not think twice about an office having a specific layout, but it is important that every human resource office follows the same layout from store to store. This also goes for their message boards. There are specific layouts for these as well! After the store visit, there is a recap. This is where the DTL and business partner state what they found and how the store can improve and what is already good at.

After the store visit at Salem, we continued to Keizer where we conducted another visit. Keizer is about the same volume as Salem. What was interesting to note was after looking at their store reports which measures almost everything about a store from payroll to sales, was the fact that both stores were not making sales. And what I learned from this was how to drive profitable sales at a Target store. Although we can't internally control how many people will come to the store, we can control how much they buy, essentially their basket size. Driving a bigger basket size depends upon having the right kind of signing, maintaining a well zoned store that keeps the Target brand, having the products in-stock, and a fast, fun, and friendly team that provides good service. By doing these, basket size will increase.

After the Keizer store visit, the Eugene interns invited the Portland interns to join them for dinner since they would be in Portland for the night. I thought this was a nice gesture because we dont get to see them very often so it was nice to get to know them better at dinner. We talked about how their internship was going and a little more about their backgrounds and how they found out about Target. It was a good change of pace. Usually I am working with other team members or executive team leadsl, so it was awesome to see how the other interns are doing.

Another great event that Target put together for the interns was a team build for Habitat for Humanity. Again, this was a great opportunity to get to know more of the interns as well as other executive team leads from other stores and district team leads. This time there were interns from the other district as well. Although we did not build a whole house, we did end up saving the family from spending over five hundred dollars in landscaping costs. Our tasks for the day included building picnic tables and digging a number of trenches. Although digging holes may seem like easy work, it was actually really difficult! It takes a lot of hardwork and dedication and team work to have gotten all of that done in a timely manner. Afterward, the district team leads took us out for a early dinner.

To me all of these events show that Target really cares about its interns and wants to invest a lot of time and money into us. I think this is what's so great about the company as well. And to be able to spend so much time with high level management? That is really cool. I dont know any other company that gives so much to its interns. Interns are truly seen as peers to the executive team leads and are given important tasks. We not only are training to be leaders on duty but we are given shifts as the leader on duty in our latter weeks of the internship. Obviously, we will not know everything about how to be the most effective store leader in ten weeks, but that's why Target is so great. Target allows us to make these mistakes to learn and grow from them.

Target Executive Internship Week Five

Again, this week just blew right by. This week I officially chose what project I will be concentrating on in the next three weeks. At the end of each internship, an intern must choose a project that relates to an opportunity within the store that needs improvement and come up with a sort of action plan to a solution. My project focuses on their best team survey which is conducted every May by all of the team members at that store. Out of all the work centers that took the survey, the backroom was the work center that had the highest increased levels of dissatisfaction compared to last year. After looking at these metrics, my project will be to come up with an action plan to improve the satisfaction levels of the backroom team members and ultimately make a positive difference in the next three weeks. So far, this week I have talked with my mentor to see what has already been addressed from these issues. The backroom team has talked with the Human Resource Manager and addressed their concerns in which she has passed on her notes to me. With those notes, I sat down and came up with a sort of a plan to stick to. I then went to their team leader where I explained my project and its purpose. She was happy to see that I had chose that specific project, and I then preceded to talk with the rest of the backroom team members. So far, I have made good progress so it will be interesting to see my results in the end of the three weeks and whether I had made a difference. To measure the results, I would re-administer the survey to see if their levels of satisfaction had increased.

The beginning of the week started with a phone chat session with the internship coordinators which gave us a chance to give our feedback on the internship so far. I think it was a great idea because it allowed us to reflect on all that has been happening in the past few weeks. I also went down to Eugene with the other Portland interns to visit the Target store there. All of the interns in our district met there for a chat session that was led by the district team leaders. This chat session gave me a chance to see the other interns and see how they were doing while also being able to share my experiences with the district team leaders. The district team leads were all really impressed with our responses and can see how much we have grown within the first five weeks of the internship. I was also impressed how open they were about our feedback and that they wanted to help out in any way they could. I think Target has a great internship program because of this. Not only am I able to interact with my peers at my Target store, but also the other interns at other stores and also the district team leaders. And the fact that they know us by name is awesome. Getting this much "face time" shows us that they truly do care about their interns and the internship program.

This week I also was put on the role of LOD which stands for leader on duty. The leader on duty is basically the manager of the store for that certain shift whether it is in the morning, afternoon, or evening. This is a big responsibility. As the leader on duty, you are in charge of making sure guests are being serviced, operating the store, strategically thinking of which tasks should be completed next, and keeping the store looking good. Although I had shadowed with the leader on duty before, it was entirely new to do it on my own. It was very overwhelming at first, but I got the hang of it after a few hours. I get a little nervous with whether or not I can answer people's questions if a team member or a guest asks for me, but I know I can always ask one of my peers for help if need be. This definitely helps my development as a leader and has given me a lot of experience with what it takes to be a manager.

I also feel that the Store Team Leader and my mentor have taken on a new perspective of me. Although I appeared on the shy and reserved side at first, they now know I can take on a leadership role in the building after having done the LOD shift. Since my first status with them had been in the first three weeks with them, I think I really have shown them that I am open to all these new opportunities and can be seen as a leader. These past weeks, I have interacted with the district team leaders in a chat session, have led morning team huddles, and have taken on the LOD role on my own. They as long as myself have seen a lot of improvement in my growth here at Target.

This upcoming week, the interns will be going out on store visits to Salem and Keizer, so it will be interesting to see what those Targets look like. While in Eugene, I could see major differences between the Clackamas store and the Eugene store. Eugene is a smaller volume store so it appeared a lot less busy. In fact, when I walked in, we had thought they were closed because there was almost no guests there! So it will be interesting to see how Salem and Keizer are. We are also participating in a Habitat for Humanity volunteer event so I am really excited for that as well!

Target Executive Internship Week Four

I can't believe half of the internship is already over! The time has gone by so fast, but I am definitely feeling a lot more comfortable around my peers and the guests. This week I learned about the logistics process of the store which is done overnight at the Clackamas Target. Logistics basically is the process of unloading the pieces (boxes) in the truck and scanning and sorting it which will ultimately be pushed to the floor in the most efficient and fast manner. Team members who work overnight generally start at 11PM and can work anywhere up until 6AM to 7AM depending on their workload. Sometimes trucks can be about 2000 pieces which is considered a light load! Trucks deliver every day; however, trucks that carry fresh produce are a few times a week. The overnight process is started when the ETL (Executive Team Leader) of Logistics gives permission for the team to start unloading the truck. Each truck is supposed to have a goal of an unload time of 60 minutes or less. Each box is unloaded, scanned, and put onto a line and is sorted to a certain pile where it is located on the floor. While these boxes are being unloaded team members are constantly pushing these boxes to the sales floor to fill the product on the shelves. Once the truck is all unloaded, then everyone helps with pushing the product to the sales floor. To me, it was amazing how fast the unloading process was. Unloading a couple thousand boxes in an hour and the fact that they haven't had a safety incident in over 970 days is amazing. Although the process of logistics may not seem glamorous because it is overnight, the team members and ETL seem to make it work with their personal lives. Work and life balance may seem very hard, but the ETL of logistics had said the hours don't interfere with the rest of her life. She makes it work between seeing her husband and friends. I thought that was really cool to hear because logistics was really interesting to me and is something I would consider for the future. After shadowing the logistics team members, it put into perspective the process of the product unloading from the truck to the process that it gets pushed to the floor. While it may seem simple, it is actually a lot more complicated. There is a planogram team that put sets together such as a "back to school" or "back to college" set. They install the signs that are hung and the boxes that hold the school supplies, etc. Signing is also important. The team must make sure that they are properly hanging the right sized signs and the right number of signs that show the product's price as well.

I also shadowed the ETL of guest service this week. The ETL of guest service is in charge of all the front check out lanes, guest services, Starbucks, and the Target Cafe. So this week, I spent some time in Starbucks and Target Cafe overseeing the different processes. There are a lot of guidelines that have to be followed as well. I shadowed the Guest Service Team Leader as well. They are in charge of guest servicing the guests at the time of checkout and solving any problems that may arise in the check out or return process. Another really great experience I had was being involved with the interview process. It was interesting to be on the other side asking the questions. After watching one interview, I was able to lead one interview on my own.

Overall, it was a good week and each and every day learn something new. The whole process from the unloading of the truck to the moment a guest purchases the product is amazing just how much goes into it. This was the last week of shadowing in the different work centers. This upcoming week will be focused solely on picking a project that will be presented in front of the district in week ten of the internship.

Target Executive Internship Week Three

Having just finished my third week at Target, I have been feeling a lot more confident with what tasks I have been given. I am retaining the Target language a lot better. Of course, there is something new I learn everyday. And because Target is always changing as a company, there are team members who tell me they learn something new everyday as well. This past week, I had a chat session with the store team leader which was basically checking in with her about how the internship was going and what I am expecting out of the internship. She also let me know her first impressions of me as an intern and what I excel in and what I can work on in the future. The "opportunities" that she gave me surprised me a little, just because I am not used to getting a lot of feedback in my previous jobs. And Target definitely focuses a lot on giving feedback, so it took some getting used to to be told what my weaknesses were. But I have an open mind and will be working on these weaknesses to show that I am trying my best to excel in my ten weeks here at Target.

During this week, there was also a intern event where all the interns from our district got together and had a pizza party and played mini-golf. The event was suppose to be a kickball tournament and BBQ but because of the weather, we decided on mini-golf instead. I thought this event was a lot of fun, because it gave me a chance to get to know the other interns at other Target stores as well. I also got to see how they were enjoying their internship and whether their experiences were pretty similar to mine so far. There were also district team leaders, the Human Resource Business Partner and other store team leaders as well. So it was important to talk to them as well and network with them. And it was interesting because there happened to be a store team leader there who graduated from Linfield! In fact, I found out that there was at least another store team lead from Linfield, and one team member who works at my store graduated from Linfield as well. Because Linfield is such a small school, and the internship being dominated by "Oregon Ducks" and "Beaver" students, it is always cool to see other wildcats in the Target family. I really like that Target put together this event, because it was good bonding time and gave us a chance to get away from the store for a little while. I think that it is great that Target would incorporate intern events into the internship. It shows that they really care about us as interns and that bonding and connecting with other interns and Target ETLs, STLs, and DTLs is very important to them as well not just constantly being in the store.

Another big event that happened at the store this week was inventory. Inventory in one word equals stressful! While I have participated in inventory at my summer job in the Linfield bookstore last summer, this was nowhere near the scale of inventory at Target! And because inventory happens right after the store closes, there isn't much time to put away the abandons "products" that people have left around the store. A third party named RGIS is hired to count everything in the store, and you can just imagine how much there is to count. There is probably millions of dollars of merchandise! After RGIS goes through the counting, we are suppose to go around and "zone" the areas. To zone means to basically straighten up the products and make sure they are organized in a proper manner. We also make sure to audit certain sections to make sure RGIS is correct in their counts. It was interesting also because this process happens overnight from 10PM to basically however long it takes to straighten up the store and make sure it is in condition for the guests to arrive the next morning. I left at 4:30AM but there were still team members there after, so I couldn't imagine how long they had stayed! I think it was a interesting process to see and definitely learned a lot about how important inventory is to the store. Inventory helps the store figure out its shortage indicator, which is how much product is suppose to be in the store but cant be found or was stolen. Target also grades on how much shortage the store has. This is where Asset Protection comes in. Because say a guest walks out with $900 dollars of stolen merchandise, then the store is short in those items and loses profit. So it is important that AP is constantly monitoring the store. So you can see how every department correlates to one another and communication is key between different departments.

Every morning at 8, the team gets together and the Leader On Duty leads a huddle. This huddle is where team members give announcements, and the LOD reports the stores numbers such as the daily forecast and goal for sales, safety numbers (how many days since a guest, team member or logistics incident), service reports, and any other information they may have for the day. Huddles are important because it ensures that every team member knows what is going on for the day and what to expect. This week, my mentor wanted the other intern and I to lead huddle. At first, this was a little intimidating, but once we knew what we were going to say, it wasn't hard at all. Our mentor was proud that we were able to lead the huddle and I also felt a sense of achievement as well.

Overall, this week I feel as if I am more comfortable with my internship. I know that I cannot possibly be expected to know everything in the little time I am here at Target, and that I can always ask questions when in doubt. I am also more comfortable with asking guests if I can help them find something and am more comfortable with idea of leading such a large team. I am starting to think of options of what to do for my upcoming project as well. I feel as if these three weeks are flying by. I also am getting used to the schedule I have been given. In retail, you don't work 9-5 five days a week. In fact, in retail, you can be working morning, evening, or even overnight shifts. The Executive Team Leads and Store Team Lead who works on salary can work many hours depending on how much the store needs you. You have to learn to be flexible and open to such long hours as well. And this is definitely something to think about for the future and be a factor in when I decide on a job.

Behavioral Plans

I hope everyone is having a great summer! I have been very busy lately with work, my grad school summer class, and nannying! The past two weeks have been really enlightening and so rewarding. I have been working one-on-one with one of the children in my classroom starting to implement a behavioral program that will help be able to function a lot better and more successfully in the classroom. I am very excited about this and have been compiling lists of behaviors that I hope to change with this child. It has been so amazing to see all this children grow and work toward their learning and social goals. The summer schedule is going amazingly. This past Friday we went to a pool with all of the children, and we are also going this Friday. So the blog I wrote would not post and I decided to edit this one. We went swimming yesterday and it was truly an amazing experience. I was with all five of the kids alone in the pool for most of the time, so I truly learned how hard it can sometimes be to be in charge of so many children, especially ones with special needs. It was really exciting to help them work on their swimming skills and work on their overall sensory issues with being in water.

I am loving spending time with these children this summer and really excited to watch them grown as we do countless activities. My science lessons have been going really well and the students have been responding to them with a thrive to learn and they are trying their hardest. This week we made lava lamps, fireworks in a glass, did tie-dye with Sharpies and rubbing alcohol and overall just had a really good time. I think it is very important for these children to partake in a variety of activities that they can really enjoy and understand.

Target Executive Internship Week Two

I recently finished my second week at my Target internship. This past week, I learned a lot more about the AP department at the Clackamas Target Store. AP is assets protection. Other retail stores may call this department loss prevention. I shadowed the Executive Team Leader of AP and she explained a lot about what her department does. I found a lot of the information she had to say to be very interesting. Asset Protections create a safe and secure environment for the guests and team members. They focus on reducing losses for the store. There are different positions within the AP Team such as ETL Assets Protection, AP-TL (Assets Protection Team Leader), (APL) Assets Protection Leader, (APS) Assets Protection Specialist, (TPS) Target Protection Specialist. As you can see these are just some of the many acronyms that Target uses. I am still getting used to following and speaking the Target "lingo". I shadowed this department for two days.

This week I also started late shifts from 2:15-10:45PM so it was a different schedule then starting early in the mornings. As a part of being in retail, you have to adjust to the different work schedules that are irregular. Working the late shift allowed me to see the process of how Target closes its store at night. In the Target Clackamas Store, it is one of the only stores that stays open for 24 hours. After the store closes at 10 PM, there is an overnight team that comes in to work on setting up the "back to school" section, there is a logistics team that also comes in to work in the back room and unload delivery trucks. For my late shift, I helped the LOD (leader on duty) zone the store. Zoning in Target language refers to tasks that are done to keep the store neat, clean, attractive and easy to shop. Zoning can include straightening products on shelves or putting back items that I find in the wrong area. By zoning a little before the store closes to its guests, it will ensure that when the store opens the next day, the store will look neat and clean and show the Target brand.

This week I also shadowed the Executive Team Leader of Soft lines. Soft lines refers to clothes shoes and accessories and hard lines refers to anything that is non-apparel. The day I shadowed the ETL of soft lines, she was the Leader on Duty. The Leader on Duty is the executive who is in charge of the store and responsible for making the store run smoothly. She showed us a daily routine of an LOD and what tasks they were responsible for. Tasks include checking the back room fridges to see if anything needs to be pulled to the sales floor, attending to any guests that may have an issue or need to speak to a manager, walking the sales floor, as well as ensuring everything is running smoothly in the Target Cafe.

There was also a training day at the district office in Tualatin. That day we learned and received training on flexible communication styles, how to think and speak on your feet, and understanding generational differences. I really liked the different exercises we did in the training. One of the exercises was to do three impromptu speeches. Although it seemed nerve wrecking to speak in front of a group of people, it wasn't really that bad in the end. I actually enjoyed it and liked listening to other people's speeches. I also got to catch up with the other interns from the other Target stores.

Overall, I am really enjoying the Target internship so far. I am really growing to love the company even more than I did before going in to the internship. Target is a fast-growing, innovative, fast, fun, and friendly company. Everyone I work with seems to love their job and some people have been there for over twenty years. These team members show a dedication to Target and really trust the company. I think this is an awesome opportunity for me to see if I too want a future in a career in retail.

Third Week at OHSU

My third week at OHSU was by far the most demanding week at my internship thus far. The biggest project that I had was to create a presentation that included a matrix, which compared all of the MS programs in Healthcare Management in the nation. Once I determined what all of the major components were to compare between programs, it wasn't very difficult to create the matrix. I have been learning a lot more about using Microsoft Excel and I am getting better and faster with the program every week. This is a skill that I believe will be useful in my future career.
The most important lesson I learned this week is to always present yourself well and take every networking opportunity that is available to you. I learned this after I gave my presentation about the MS programs. The three main people I presented to were my supervisor, the head of the division, and one of the professors in the school of medicine, Mike Neal. When my supervisor introduced me to Mike all he told me was that Mike was one of their professors and worked a little as a consultant for their program development. I assumed that Mike was someone in the medical field and had a little background in business so although I was polite to him, I didn't make any great efforts to make him a contact. After the presentation Mike talked with me a little and it turns out that he had worked at Intel for a very long time and at different points of his career been the director of marketing for them and also the director of product development. I didn't think it at first, but Mike will be a great contact for me to have because he worked at Intel for so long, was very well respected and worked in so many different divisions.
Dr. Sakaguchi and I talked about a meeting that I sat in on and he taught me an important lesson about how to bring up information that conflicts with what your boss believes to be reliable data. It was a very interesting and valuable lesson to learn because it is hard to find a way to bring up information that conflicts with someone who has more authority then you and doesn't come off like you are "challenging" your boss. Dr. Sakaguchi has been doing a great job of teaching me not just about how to conduct market research but also about conducting yourself in an office environment and your relationships with your co-workers and superiors. I will be getting deeper in my market research this week and be assembling a market segment analysis which will push me to work hard and efficiently.

Second Week at OHSU

My second week at OHSU was a lot like my first week but a little less overwhelming. I am now working in a new building because my supervisor's division moved from one building to another one. The biggest thing I learned with helping my supervisor move was hoe much reading I have ahead of me in life. We packed and moved at least twenty full size boxes with textbooks and other types of professional publishes. Anyways, I got to know the other people in the division a little bit better this week. It is really easy to get to know people as everyone is very friendly and likes to have small talk with each other throughout the day. The funny thing about my supervisor's division is that the secretary is pretty much the second in command. She helps out with everything and knows what everyone is doing at all times and even has to write off permission for some people to do certain things around the office.
I have been doing a lot of the same things that I was doing my first week as far as my personal tasks go. I have been doing a lot of market research on different types of MBA and MS programs in Healthcare Management all around the country. Anything that I find that is important, I put into a word document and later I will be making a presentation out of all the information I collect and summarizing it all up for my supervisor and the head of the division. The work that I am doing is not very difficult, it is just tedious and time consuming. My supervisor gives me the perfect amount of direction so that I know what I am doing and looking for but doesn't hover over my work and interfere to make sure I am doing everything correctly.
I usually check in with Dr. Sakaguchi in the morning when I arrive and talk with him about what I will be doing and working on for the day and then usually don't see him again until we eat lunch together. At lunch we usually talk about what I have found during the morning and then usually have small talk about whatever we want to talk about. At the end of the day I always check in with Dr. Sakaguchi one last time to discuss what I found in the afternoon and that pretty much is all the time that I spend with my supervisor. This next week I expect that I will be doing a lot less research and be working more on putting together a presentation on what I have found. Dr. Sakaguchi told me he has a few programs that he will teach me how to use that are better then powerpoint so I am looking forward to learning about the new programs over the next few days!

Target Executive Internship Week One

This was the first week of my executive internship with Target. My internship will be ten weeks and I will be shadowing and working with my mentor and executive team leader, Julie, other team members and the store team leader, Melia. Through this internship, I will learn more about the Target corporation, its brand and its culture. Through training and working with other team members, I will get a overview of the operations of Target and all the different departments that make up the store, such as Human Resources, Logistics, and Sales, etc. As an intern, I will help in running the store as well as leading its team members. Also, at the end of the summer, I will participate in a project that will require me to implement the knowledge I learn from the internship that addresses an area in the store that needs improvement, whether it be with safety, maximizing sales, or service, and come up with a solution. This project will be presented in the tenth week of the internship to the district team leaders.

The first week started with a lot of training both on the computer and spending a lot of time on the sales floor. By spending time on the sales floor, I will be able to learn how to cashier, learn where products are located, stocking shelves, and inventory. My first impressions of this internship are very positive. Although I already had a good impression from Target, I respect this company even more after learning so much more about the company. Target is innovative and is always changing. They are involved with the community and donate millions to education. They really care about their guests and service is very important. I have to say it was very overwhelming this first week just with all the information I am learning. Target has its own language between all the acronyms it uses! Although I have been overwhelmed with all that I have to learn and am expected to do, I still had a lot of fun and am very excited for the upcoming weeks. I am also enjoying the new connections I am making with the other interns and getting to know other team members. It was interesting to learn that some of the employees have been there for a number of years, and that they have so much respect for the company. This really shows that Target really cares about its team members as well as their guests (customers). They want to foster an inclusive environment, one that is diverse and safe for their employees.

Overall, I think this internship will benefit me very much just with how much leadership will be involved and also with the experience of leading a number of people as well as running a store and learning about the business aspects of retail. The next nine weeks will enable me to learn so much knowledge both about business, communication, leadership, retail, networking, and the list goes on. In the following weeks, I will be training in departments such as the Pharmacy, Human Resource, Asset Protection, Inventory, Logistics, and Sales. I am nervous but I know it will be very exciting and a good opportunity for the future!

First Outing

This morning started out with a great morning circle! It was really exciting to see the new student fitting in and working on making new friends. Building Bridges is a behavioral school, so the students' are all used to various behaviors that are seen throughout the day and this morning one of the students start screaming. With this students great needs (he is on the Autism Spectrum) he needs to be restrained and have his head held back so he is unable to bite. This morning he needed to be restrained twice which is a great improvement from the four that he needed on Thursday. The children all had a successful morning of school.

Every Wednesday and Friday we going on an outing somewhere. Today we went to a park by our old school. The children did great taking the bus and we arrived at the park. That is when things really started going downhill for us. One of the students was playing with other children and they had squirt guns. The Building Bridges child was not paying attention to where he was squirting and ended up hitting one of the other boy's father in the face. I took the squirt gun away from the child and he started screaming extremely loud. We have a rule at Building Bridges that if we are playing with a toy, we pay attention to our surroundings. This child knew this rule and decided to break it anyway. This created great problems at the park because of the loud horrible sounds that he makes when he is angry, so he was taken away from the park by one of my co-teachers to be removed from the situation. We are really trying to work on this child's attitude throughout the day and his social skills.

I have had so many great experiences so far that they are hard to remember them all, and I cannot wait to have more!

First Week at OHSU

I finished what has been an exciting, educational and blur of a first week at my internship with OHSU. I started my internship by showing up to the wrong building at OHSU as I went to the Biomedical Research building instead of the Biomedical Information and Communication building. Dr. Sakaguchi was kind enough to walk over to where I thought I was supposed to be and he walked me over to where I was supposed to be. My first three hours at OHSU basically turned out to be a crash course on what types of degrees OHSU offers in the Healthcare industry. After Dr. Sakaguchi taught me everything about the three programs and degrees, he instructed me on what he would need me to do over the summer. The rest of the day was spent doing research about other programs that offer degrees in the Healthcare industry. My second day I was asked to find out what the requirements were for a school of Public Health to get certified by the College of Education and Public Health (CEPH). Once I found the procedures to become certified I had to put them into a slideshow presentation that I presented to the Division Head and Dr. Sakaguchi on Wednesday. I felt pretty comfortable doing the research and making the slideshow and was happy that I had done so many of them in college. I was a little nervous presenting on Wednesday but I felt Linfield had prepared me pretty well. The presentation went smoothly and both Dr. .Sakaguchi and the head of the department were pleased with my presentation. I was happy that my Career Explorations class at Linfield had taught me how to make a professional slideshow presentation because it made me a lot more confident while I gave my presentation. The Career Explorations class really prepared me well on how to carry myself in a professional environment and after doing so many job shadows, I really felt pretty comfortable being dressed up and acting like a "grown up." The division that I work with at OHSU is pretty casual and I like the fact that everyone is so easy going. I feel that my Marketing class has really prepared me well for all of the market research that I have been doing and all of my business classes have really helped with preparing me for the business language and terms that are used. As my internship progresses I expect that I will be able to give more input on decision making instead of just supplying background information like I am doing right now. I think my tasks will become more complicated as well. I feel good about working with Dr. Sakaguchi because he is very trusting and answers my questions with very good explanations. I usually eat lunch with him and talk to him for a few minutes after work in a more casual manner and I feel that in these conversations I might learn just as much as from all of the work that I am doing. Dr. Sakaguchi is a very experienced and has accomplished many things in his life, I am looking forward to working with him and learning from him for the next few weeks!

Orthopedic Internship

I completed my third internship experience. This time I felt much more relaxed in the medical setting. I knew what to expect and nothing really had changed. However, they did have a new medical assistant working with the patients. She was very kind and even let me help out with taking patient’s vitals. She kept mentioning that it was stressful being an employee of a hospital and having to follow their rules and regulations while working for an independent physician who had his own set of rules and expectations. This is something that I had never considered to be an issue before until now. Throughout the day I witnessed her discussions on the phone and with others about how stressful it was to try to make both parties “happy.” I wonder if she will still be working when I go back for my fourth internship.

The patients were wonderful to observe. I am fascinated by the various levels of pain tolerance reported by the patients for each of their medical issues. Some patients have a pinky sprain and can hardly function without heavy medication while an elderly patient who just had a joint replacement two weeks ago is already up an walking and “never touched the stuff” when asked if he needed anything for the pain.

I recognized a few patients from the last couple of times I was interning at the clinic. One of them recognized me. They all seem to be fine with me in the room with the doctor after he identifies who I am. I find that the patients will either make eye contact with the doctor only or on the rare occasion will glance in my direction. Surprisingly, quite a few of the patients brought in a “friend” or spouse. One patient’s friend spent the examination telling me about their friend’s medical issues at the same time the doctor was quizzing the patient. That definitely made things difficult for the doctor to understand.

Next time I will get to take some stitches out—should be exciting!

- Lily

OHSU Start

Hi my name is Alex White and I am doing a four week internship at OHSU starting tomorrow, June 20th. I will be interning with Dr. Ronald Sakaguchi who is a dean at the Dental School at OHSU and is also in charge of the Hospital Administration program as well. My internship will consist of doing market research to help develop a marketing plan as well as doing research and developing the business plan for the Hospital Administration program at OHSU. I am pretty nervous about starting as I already feel a little overwhelmed but I'm also very excited. I did an orientation this past Tuesday so I at least know where to park and how to navigate through the maze of buildings up on the hill, I got to ride in the tram which was pretty cool too. Tomorrow will actually be the first time I meet Dr. Sakaguchi in person, as I only did a phone interview with him before I got the internship. I am excited to start working with him and learning from him because of his background and all of his experience. He got his PHD in dentistry, practiced dentistry, then taught at the Dental School and eventually became the dean of the Dental School. He also got an MBA which has led him to becoming in charge of the Hospital Administration program.
I am very thankful that I got this internship because I was only able to apply at the last minute. I had already accepted an internship at the sales company Up N' Automated until the second to last week of school when I was told that my internship had been dropped. The person who was going to be my supervisor at the company had received a promotion and wasn't going to be in town during the summer and because the company was very small, there wasn't any other employees that would be able to supervise and teach me. I had been accepted for the internship in April so I had not been paying attention to any other types of internship opportunities for the summer so I was devastated when they called me to tell me that my internship had been cancelled for the summer. However, now I am very eager to start and I know once I start that I won't be so nervous. I am sure that I will learn a lot through my research, work and just from being around Dr. Sakaguchi. I have never done an internship like this before so it will be a very new and exciting experience!

Building Bridges

Hi my name is Liz Brown and I am working at Building Bridges in Portland, Oregon.

Week Three started off quite interesting at my Internship. I am working at a Behavioral School for children with various learning and social disabilities. Today was the start of Summer Camp, which meant that their regular school schedule switched around and for some children this is difficult as they do not like change. During Summer Camp I will be a Kindergarten/1st grade classroom teacher for the most part and then I will also be spending some time in the Pre-school classroom. Throughout the summer I will be teaching the children science by doing fun experiments that really getting their minds thinking. I will also be starting teaching Language for Learning, which is a program that helps the children with developing their overall skills of listening to directions. It has been a very exciting learning experience so far, as this is the field that I want to be working when I am done with college. There is so much going on throughout the day that it has been very important for me to be super patient with the children and also help them work on their flexibility. There is one child that has been a struggle the past three weeks, and also was a struggle summer for me. We (my two cooperating teachers and I) have been working with this child on social skills, how to walk appropriately in the classroom, to be conscience of his body space, as well as others personal space, and his confidence in school work. Being in a behavioral intervention classroom is so beneficial for the students that I a working with, there three Autistic students, one student with ADHD and behavioral difficulties, one student with Aspergers, one student that suffers Prenatal Cocaine Exposure. The Summer Camp entails: making friends, cooperative games and activities, sports, role play, outings, team work, science and environmental studies, and math and reading practice. It has been amazing for me to see the growth even in three weeks with the students knowledge and minor improvements in behavior.

Office work & Farmer's market

As dazed as I was after finally done with finals last Thursday, I am now back on my feet and ready for summer. Received the next task from Ginger on Tuesday. Keywords: Excel, database, ASAP.

Great! I've been feeling like a housewife for awhile now with only packing and cooking to occupy my time for now. Everyday I torment myself with doubts of being here for summer. I have failed to find a job on campus- this was an outcome I did not expect. I've made the mistake of building my entire summer plan around it, and every rejections left me looking like a fool to myself. Or perhaps my biggest mistake was to have too much hope- for it was shattered mercilessly and I was too baffled to prepare myself.

I was determined to save for my parents by staying here, and invest in the future with an internship and possibly summer classes. But in the end I was left choosing between spending $1000 for a ticket home, or the same amount to stay here.

But like a quote in a movie I recently saw: "Sometimes destruction is a good thing. It ends one cycle so a new one can begin." I better make the most out of this internship!

So last thursday, I came to the mda's office and entered entries for the Art & Wine raffle. I also followed Ginger to Red Berry, a pretty neat apparel store, to pick up the alien mannequin. There Ginger learnt of tthe owner's interesting idea of marketing for the shop. Since the Farmer's market will take place on every Thursday from now on, in order to increase the shop's foot traffic, she would have customers and/or friends to be "live" models for the shop. They would be standing still and frequently change poses. She also plans to incorporate aspects from the Farmer's market to the exhibit, such as the wine and beautifully home grown flowers. The idea may not be the most original (Ginger herself admitted to have seen it in Portland), but it's not too late for one to learn and update oneself on the different usages of media marketing. Ginger also referred her social director to Dan Fergueson from our school, who has a slideshow on Facebook 101 for teachers, students and anyone interested in the topic. I thought it was interesting and realized the competitiveness, as well as the importance of updating yourself on the best and latest techniques of e-commerce in today's market.

After a short break, we came back to the office and I was given another set of information. This time, it's a huge binder filled with paperwork on the exhibit and food vendors participating on the Turkey Rama event this coming July. It seemed so overwhelming at first with all the different columns and criteria to check off, but after awhile it feels so repetitious. It's crazy to think that everyone is fighting one another for a job that anyone can do, and not necessarily one with a college degree. (Hint: Admission office, entry-level).

Anyways, by 1:00, Ginger was frantically preparing herself for the Farmer's market. mda's stall was a simple but pretty one (we're also next to a local musician playing a gorgeous electric guitar). It's nice to see merchandise t-shirts with local artists' work imprinted on them. The keyword? Think win-win.

I'll be coming back next week for more office work (and hopefully more time spent at the Farmer's market!).


Huong.

UFO Festival

My first volunteer duty at the McMinnville Downtown Association was to help out with the UFO Festival. MDA's involvement in terms of activity vendors included the alien souvenirs and cotton candy. This year, there was a large volume of volunteers so instead of helping out at the cotton candy stall, I was instead assigned to the Pet Costume Contest.

Together with 4 other volunteers, our jobs were to be the MC and judges. Basically everything was adequately prepared by Kris: from the table, pens, sign up forms to award certificates and dog treats. A girl was the MC and the rest of us were judges. At first everything seemed quite chaotic with everyone all over the place with their pets; but eventually a little bit of improvisation and flexibility helped settled things. Some of my friends came and attended the contest, but I could see that they were not that entertained. The pets and their costumes were, of course, the center of the show. But more activities could have made things more interesting and make up for the owners' efforts to dressing their pets. All we did was having the contestants lined up and walked their pets as their names were called. I guess we had too little time to plan so that was all we could do. I think I am over-analyzing things...after all, this was my first task and my enthusiasm was not sufficiently fed. Nevertheless, I heard that last year people were much crowded at one place and the change in location had helped a lot.

After the contest, Kris assigned me to sort through the garbage at the alien stall. By 5, the cleaning services arrived and it was time for me to go. Kris promised to keep me updated with the next assignment which, according to her, would be "not as fun". The first thought that came to my mind was "Finally, maybe I'd get to make some flyers and paper work next". But as I recall from MDA's yearly schedule, the next event on calendar is McMinnville's Farmers' Market. More vendor work, perhaps?

Overall, I think I had a nice first day volunteering at the MDA today. I like to help out, and don't mind running errands or doing mundane tasks. It was fun getting to know Kris, who was super nice and I could see that she and Ginger had put a lot of effort into keeping everything running smoothly and under control.

Internship Experience #2

I completed my second internship at the medical office yesterday. The doctor’s assistant showed me how and even let me prepare the injections for the patients. It was a great skill to learn. At first I had trouble preventing the air bubbles from getting into the syringes, but after a few times I got the hang of it. It was really hard to keep track of the solutions because they were all clear. I became acquainted with the offices biohazard and sharps receptacles too. After the injectable solutions were prepared I was able to watch the doctor administer them into knee and shoulder joints. At this rate I will get over my fear of needles really quickly.

The patients were wonderful to talk to. Many of them had very interesting life stories. In fact, I came across two people yesterday who each had different stories about their pet chickens. I was able to observe their facial expressions when the doctor was interacting with them. It is interesting to see how each one responds to the doctor when he is telling them their diagnosis and treatment options. In most cases everyone was in a cheery mood. A few of the male patients came in ready to tell the doctor a joke that they had “heard the other day.” One was a dumb blonde joke. No one seems to mind that I am there observing. A few patients asked what school I was going to and if I enjoyed it.

Because of the HIPAA regulations I am not really able to give much information about the cases I observed or any other medically relevant information about my internship experiences, but I can say that there are certainly some very interesting people in our world and everyone is unique. I imaging that the variation of patients and ailments is what keeps the doctor and his staff on their toes and busy everyday. I continue to enjoy working in the medical field as I have for many years now and I am continuously reassured that I am currently on the right path in my life.