Metacognitive Strategies - Creating Goals and Planning for the Internship

June 3rd, 2011

Well, it is the last day of orientation and we are all attending a presentation from Michael about how to maximize our internship experience. The crux of the presentation was the idea of how people learn best and what ways someone can better an educational experience for themselves. A lot of how people learn has to do with what they want out of the experience they are a part of and, in the case of this internship, I have a number of goals for my experience:

• Gain valuable field experience/analytical with modern seismological equipment and strategies.
• Make connections with professionals in my field.
• Clarify some of the options available to me after graduation and the pros/cons of each.
• Participate in an internship that will make me stand out from the crowd for future employers.
• Chance to present an abstract at AGU.
• Have an adventurous summer that builds my confidence and independence!

Now that I have considered my goals for the summer, I need to make plans for how I will accomplish them over the course of the internship.  To this end, I will be proactive in every aspect of my life. Tackling programming in Matlab and UNIX shells with gusto; Inserting myself into research situations (learning opportunities) whenever I can, even if it is not directly related to my project; meeting and making connections with people at the University of Memphis and aboard the M.V. Strong; pursuing conversations with collegues about the future after college; and forcing myself to get out and experience my new environment. I believe, with these goals and strategies in mind I will recieve an incomparable internship experience. Anyways, that's it for now, I will be posting more when I get to Memphis and while I'm on the boat!

P.S. Ado will NOT whoop my "tush" at chess!