My internship was with the City of Napa , supervised by Scott Neilson and under the direction of Warren Craig. I worked with Andrew Hansen who was also an intern. We were placed in the Information Technology (I.T.) department of City Hall and had to assemble, deploy, and configure a 6 computer network for the Convention and Visitors Bureau (C.V.B.) Our tasks included upgrading hardware on outdated workstations, reformatting, updating, and installing new software and configuring these 6 workstations to be ready for use by the C.V.B. employees. One of these six workstations was to be a “server,” meaning it would host the local shared network drive for shared documents. After the six workstations were all ready to go, we had to deploy them into the C.V.B. This included backing up all their old data and copying it over to the new workstations, and creating a network printer.

We were assigned multiple tasks. These tasks would result in a network of computers. We ended up setting up six computers, one of which was going to act as the server. After we got all the computers ready, we moved them to the C.V.B. for installation. While setting these computers up, we had to backup all the users' old documents and copy them onto their new computers. After all six computers were set-up, we had to configure them for their network printers and set up network drives. Attending New Tech High helped give me some of the skills needed to accomplish these tasks.

My work done for the City of Napa could be closely related to my work done at New Tech High. In a traditional high school campus, almost everything is individual work. At New Tech, however, the teaching environment is more business-like in that the students work in groups to accomplish a larger goal. New Tech breaks down its teachings into the eight learning outcomes: Technology Literacy, Curricular Literacy, Oral Communication, Written Communication, Critical Thinking, Career Preparation, Citizenship and Ethics, Collaboration. The two major learning outcomes that my internship dealt with were Career Preparation and Technology Literacy. I was working in a professional environment, almost as a city employee, getting a good taste of what the real world would be like while working hands on with modern day technology. Because of the nature of my internship, I was constantly working with technology. Being in the I.T. department exposed me to many individuals who had college level educations working with computers and knew far more than I did. I learned a lot about computer networking and easier ways to back up and restore data. We also must use our own time-management skills. At the City of Napa , I saw a very similar situation to that of my teachings at New Tech; many employees working in groups or departments to accomplish something larger by a set deadline.

I really enjoyed my internship because it was a great experience in a field that I may find myself after college. I got a taste of my future, so to speak. I was already technologically savvy but I still learned new things with computers, specifically regarding networking. The team (Andy, Warren, and myself) was able to make all of the decisions on our own. It took a little longer then we had originally planned because of scheduling conflicts between Andy, Warren, and me. I would definitely recommend it to a future student if another opportunity such as this comes up because it has been a great learning experience. The students are put into the real work world for 50 hours during which they get a very good taste of what it will be like after school living a working life. More importantly, if the student chooses an internship that is closely related to their post-graduation plans, they can really see where that field can lead them. All in all, the Internship was an excellent experience and I have no regrets in doing it.