Day 16

Final Day

My mentors desk. Lots of books there.

The storage room. All of the pictures we scanned are kept here.

Our work station. I think I'm going to miss it.

Write a reflection in which you highlight the most significant personal learning experiences for you at internship.

The most significant personal learning experiences I’ve had at my internship...Well, I think that one of them has been just working. I haven’t done any school work, no math, no art. I’ve only been working to achieve the goals of my internship site and that has been a learning experience. I had a boss, co-workers, a break room...All this has really taught me about life in the workplace. I haven’t worked a day in my life I guess you could say...or at least not professionally. This is the first time that I’ve been thrust in to a workplace and I’ve gone through trial and error, meeting deadlines, working with co-workers and helping them with their work, setbacks, all sorts of things. The most important thing is that we got all our work done and that’s what matters. It’s not always just the experience it’s also the product. Why go through all that trouble and end up with nothing to show for it? That’s why this has been one of my most significant learning experiences. There was also sense of freedom here that I thought was interesting. I didn’t know there would be that much freedom in this job. All we would do was ask our mentor if we could go take pictures or whatever and he would let us go. We would prowl the boats taking pictures for what seemed a really long time but Kevin was always nice about it. He did his work, we did ours. I don’t think it’s the same for every workplace but I really enjoyed that freedom because we weren’t constricted by periods and we could take our lunch break whenever. It was nice not having math homework though we go back Monday. Will I even remember how to do schoolwork?

Day 15

Create your own series! Post a series of photos that show us something only you can think of. You are only limited by your imagination.

Flora and Fauna and Sights of San Diego Bay

This is the view from where my workspace is.

This is sort of the other side of the room.

Go Coast Guard!

These are some pigeon lovers on the B-39.

A seagull on the USS Dolphin. You can see all the privately owned boats in the background.

The Embarcadero. Reminds me of those classic Hollywood scenes where there's all these palm trees as you're driving down the road.

Another picture of the pigeons on the B-39.

Some type of duck in the harbor next to the B-39.

The coolest boat art I've ever seen. It's painted like a whale coming out of the water.

This is one of those "art trees" that they put in to make the bay look nicer...

The figurehead for the HMS Surprise.

A normal seagull being all cool and sitting on the B-39.

More ducks off the side of the B-39.

Kelp of the side of the B-39.

The most awesome pigeon picture ever. Strut that stuff!

The very large cruise ship that's sitting in the harbor. It's not global warming! It's just our boats getting bigger and displacing the oceans!

Where the Berkley is tied to the dock. We're not going anywhere.

The cute not normal seagull that I saw resting on the rope to the USS Dolphin.

Another one of the "art trees." I really like this one because it's actually covered in dog tags and some of them say thank you veterans.

Flora growing off the side of the USS Dolphin. I think maybe they should clean them once and a while...

Pelicans in the harbor as well as cormorants.

More pelicans in the harbor.

These are the cormorants.

Pelicans and cormorants in the far off distance. The zoom doesn't go too far on this camera.

Picture of the Embarcadero from my workplace.

More pelicans and cormorants.

The privately owned boats sitting in the harbor. I saw one that was from Miami, Florida.

American flag on the USS Dolphin. It can go past 3,000 ft. but that's all the military can tell us...

This is the front end of that boat with the art on it. It's a sailfish.

This is the design on one of the cannons on the HMS Surprise.

Day 14

My Mentor

Name: Kevin Sheehan

Job: Collections Manager

Company: San Diego Maritime Museum

Location: San Diego Maritime Museum

1492 North Harbor Drive

San Diego, CA 92101-3309

Interview with Kevin Sheehan

Cassie Olson: Why did you choose to get a Ph. D in history?

Kevin Sheehan: I’ve always been interested in history and back from the time that I was at school I did a lot of reading. Looking back at the story of England and the Middle Ages or military history, the story of Australia, maritime history, that sort of thing. So I’ve always been drawn to history but when I came to studies I realized I was pretty bored and one of the things I did want to do is make a career out of history if I could and with the aptitude that I had, the interest that I had I decided that history would be the best thing to focus on. So it was one of those things that I felt I had a skill and had an interest and had the opportunity.

CO: Why did you chose UC Berkley? Did you think it was a good fit for you?

KS: It was, well, it was the place I got into. That was the other stance. I applied to other schools around the U.S. and that was the class I got into. Also happened that my wife, my future wife was also at UC Berkley and so it would have meant that if I had gone to a different school we would have been living apart, we didn’t want to do that so it worked out pretty well. Berkley was the place where I wanted to go and I was lucky enough to get into.

CO: Do you think there is a reward for doing what you do?

KS: Well the reward is part of being satisfied, I think, and sort of having the sense of achievement and doing something very original. It doesn’t pay as well as some other jobs do obviously if you want to get a higher paying job you would go into the sciences and focus on that. On the other hand, doing history was where my interests were I would have been, I think, very frustrated doing some other sort of job and it also has made that I can talk to other historians as a peer rather as someone who doesn’t have a degree. So that’s really important for me too but it’s not just about having letters after your name it’s also about really having a sense of satisfaction and pride in what you do.

CO: If you could have any job in the world would it be this job or would you have a different job?

KS: Well that’s a really good question. I don’t know. I would like to do work in maybe a museum that was maybe a little more secure in terms of funding, a little more endowed in terms of resources, with a bigger staff and that sort of thing but at the same time there is advantages in working in a smaller place because you get a lot more experience that you would not get working in a bigger place. I have a much more diversified job than maybe someone in my position in a larger institution so that’s the advantage. What else would I like to do? Well I enjoy teaching and I would like to teach in a college environment but that can be very hard to get into and it’s also really hard to juggle say two different staffs at jobs so I feel very lucky at the moment that I have this job. It may change in the future, we may move somewhere else, and I might have quite a different job but we’ll see. We’ll see.

CO: When you were a kid did you ever think that maybe you would do this job?

KS: No I never had any inkling that I would do this job. I always thought I was going to be a lawyer or something like that and that’s sort of what my teachers at school sort of advised me to do. To go and become a lawyer because I was good at humanities instead I chose to do history.

CO: What led you to your job at the Maritime Museum aside from coming to San Diego?

KS: Well, it’s kind of pure luck in a sense because I came down here because my wife got a job at San Diego State when we were in San Diego and then I looked around and started teaching part time at colleges and I was still finishing my dissertation, working towards my Ph. D. and then I gave a paper to a conference here at the Maritime Museum, got to know the guy who was the librarian at that stage and once I spoke to him I realized you know this would be a really neat job to have and he mentioned that he was going to be moving on from this job sometime in the future, and it just was by chance that he told me that he was moving on. I came down, interviewed, and got the job. So it was...I was really very lucky.

CO: Why do you take on interns?

KS: Interns? Because interns are a...well they...interns make a real contribution to the museum in terms of, you know, what the work that they do here. You guys do here. The photo scanning and working in various aspects of our operation and it’s also satisfying to have younger people come in to do work in the library because most of our volunteers are actually older, they’re retired so we have the other spectrum here. Most younger people don’t have the time to come and volunteer so interns add a sense of life to our operation in the library and also they often have interesting insights into technology and how to do things, stuff that we don’t get around to doing ourselves, so interns really contribute by broadening the experience here and hopefully HTH Institute interns live up to their name of being students who have a real affinity with technology and know how to use it.

CO: What do you think is the most important thing you’ve learned working for the Maritime Museum?

KS: The most important thing...It’s hard to say as you pinpoint one important thing but probably the most important thing that I have a lot of skills in terms of coordination of volunteers which is not a job I would have chosen for myself. Probably 80% of my work here is really about coordinating the work of other people rather than doing my own particular research on my own particular paperwork or collections management or whatever. That’s not a job I would have originally chosen for myself but it’s one that I’ve learnt that I can do fairly well and really by working with others I get better results than if I were just here by myself, doing it all by myself which would have been my natural inclination so that’s probably the principle learning that I’ve had.

Day 13

Choice 1. Post three pictures that show a specific "perspective" of your internship—this could be taken to be a client or customer's perspective, a physically unique perspective (maybe the worm's eye shot is a metaphor for life as an intern! or a bird's eye shot is the view of the CEO?), or maybe you have a better idea for how to use perspective to shed new light on your internship.

This is the front of the Medea. While it's slightly over from where my mentor's window is he sees this and the USS Dolphin as well as the Hornblower in the distance.

Believe it or not, this is a dictionary. It's the side of a dictionary that lives in the main part of the library. It's huge and has a painting of a girl on the inside.

This is the computer with PastPerfect 4 booted up on it. The page it's on is some swords in the objects collection. I tried to do a perspective shot but I don't think it turned out too well. Anyway, the point is that I tried to take it from above because Kevin overlooks all the collections.

This is one of the check out boxes. If a member wants to check out a book they fill out a small piece of paper with their information and put it in here.

Day 12

Part 1: Documenting Collaboration






My mentor Kevin showing one worker/volunteer how the computer works.

Part 2: Writing About Collaboration

In the course of one typical workday, how many different people do you directly work with? How many people are indirectly affected by your work.

In about one workday I would say that I work with maybe two people if that. For the most part I work by myself and try not to bug anybody.

Describe your direct collaboration with others—how does it go & how does it influence the work?

I usually just talk and bounce ideas off my mentor as well as Marc who is the other intern. We just talk, see if we can work out an idea, if my mentor likes it then we try to work it out. It influences the kind of work that we do and what we are doing that day. For the most part I work the most with Marc and don't see my mentor for most of the day. Usually just when we get there, lunch, and when he leaves.

Describe your indirect impact on others through your work—there are probably many people you never actually see who are affected by your work. How does this happen? How does this influence your work?

The indirect impact on others would be seeing the webpage we're helping to build. This influences our work by making us want to make our webpage look the best so that people are impressed at our work and not disappointed.

Feel free to continue writing about collaboration. How might people work differently in your job in the future? How might different resources change the way we work? How might a different manager or mentor want people to work? How would you use collaboration if you were in charge?

I think that people who work my job in the future would definitely do my job different in the future because I think everybody would have a different approach to what they're going to do. Different resources would change the way we work enormously. I think that if the Maritime Museum had maybe a small greenscreen so that they can take pictures of ship models and objects they would find it easier to edit them. I think that a different mentor would maybe hover a little bit more and make sure that we are working all the time. I would use collaboration to get input from many different sources so that the finished product is of good quality.

Day 11

What were the highlights? What were the challenges? What was memorable and why?

Summary of my Week

Monday we didn't have internship so I wasn't here Monday.

Tuesday I scanned more pictures and even more pictures.

Wednesday I finally got my internship project from my mentor. I started working on that right away. Marc and I took pictures of the model of the Cutty Sark and started researching. We also got soaked walking to Jack in the Box for lunch.

Thursday I worked some more on my internship project, messing with the photos, answering some of the questions in my project. I slipped and fell on wet stairs and that hurt. Still does.

Today I'm still working on my internship project. Writing some more. I'm going to do some of it over the weekend that way I get it all done and we can start posting content onto the website.

Highlights

My highlight has to be these guys.

I guess that they're migrating through now at this time of year. There were a lot of these guys as well as cormorants.

Challenges

My challenge has to be dealing with the people that come on through the library. Sometimes they are asking for books or they just come in unannouced. A group of people with Rubios came in today. I thought that you weren't supposed to eat in a library.

Something Memorable

That would be going on the Star of India this morning, coming out and seeing all those cormorants and pelicans. There was a pretty strong gust and I was looking right at it so it was making my eyes water. That was fun. Somewhat stormy weather can be fun.

Another memorable moment is when I fell down the stairs. I'm not going to forget that one in a while and my body won't either.

Day 10

Because several things happened to me today I'm going to post several pictures that sum up my day instead of just one.

This is what I did the first few hours today. I have to cut out this model of the Cutty Sark. It's going to take me awhile.

I also had to do research for my new internship project. So here I'm at the Cutty Sark website for the actual ship (not the model).

I went to the bathrooms which are up this flight of stairs and coming back I slipped and fell about halfway down the stairs on my rear end. Hence now the caution sign they put up after I fell. My arm and hiney are still sore...

I have to answer some questions for my internship project using my reasearch so here's that.

And finally, this is what the water looked like when I left to go to back to school to go to robotics. I hope the weather lets up soon but I guess it's going to be on and off according to the news...

What new questions has your internship inspired you to ask about our world? What has it made you wonder about? What are you moved to go out and do or learn about on your own time?

The question my internship has inspired me to ask about our world is: Where is my place in this world? I don't know what I want to do with my life. Everybody at my internship has made up their mind about what they are doing and they like doing it. I'm really kind of shaken up about this. Where should I go? Which path should I take? Am I choosing the right college? Does it fit me? Will I succeed in life? These are all questions that I've thought about. All they managed to do so far is give me a headache but eventually I think I'll figure those out.

It's really made me wonder about my choices. Relating to the questions above: Is what I'm doing productive in the long run? Will what I'm doing right now get me somewhere in the future? It seems pretty pointless to do something if it doesn't have a purpose.

I'm moved to go out and learn knotting believe it or not. They have a little knotting thing on the Star of India and it's a lot of fun to play with. I can do a Chinese good luck knot and I can make really intricate friendship bracelets but that's about the extent of my knowledge. So I want to go learn about knotting and especially decorative knotting.

Okay. Moving on to questions.

1. Why did you chose to get a Ph.D. in history? Was history something that you had always wanted to study? Why did you choose UC Berkley? Did you think it was a good fit for you?
2. Do you think that there is a reward for doing what you do? What brings you to work in the morning?
3. If you could have any job in the world what would it be?
4. When you were a kid did you ever think that you would be doing this job? What led you to your job at the Maritime Museum? Did you ever have any other careers in mind?
5. Why do you take on interns? Do you feel that interns seriously contribute something in their time there?
6. What do you think is the most important thing you've learned working for the Maritime Museum?

Internship Project

I have two projects. I went into detail for the first one and now I've got the details for the second one.

Internship Project
Maritime Museum of San Diego

Goal: To develop a simple webpage that will highlight the museum's recent acquisitions.

Method: Work in conjunction with the collections manager to:

1. Research the use of this type of web page by other museums

• How do museums - particularly maritime museums highlight their important collections?
• How do the websites of these museums help to attract patrons to the museums through highlighting their collections?

2. Research the background to the object/s to be presented

• What is the place of this object within the overall mission of the museum?
• What is the story behind this object - it's importance for maritime history?
• What are the specifications of the object: it's size, composition, state of preservation?
• Who made it? What can you find out about the maker/artist?

3. Write a series of short paragraphs on the object and it's history.

4. Photograph the object.

5. Compose the webpage in cooperation with museum staff.

6. Apart from helping to design a simple webpage, think of three things that you learnt while doing this project.

Day 8

What new appreciations (for who? of what?) have you gained through internship that you did not have before? How did you develop these appreciations?

I have definitely gotten a new appreciation for librarians. I thought that a librarians job was fairly easy. All you have to do is organize books right? It's so much more than that. They have to know where every book in the library is all the time. If you happen to be the head of Collections as well, you get the collections to wrangle with too. A head of library and collections oversees everything that is donated, everything from collections that is on display, and everything that is in collection storage and believe me, that's a lot. There's pictures, books, artifacts, ship models, and all sorts of things ranging from mannequins to nautical devices.

I developed this appreciation for my mentor just by watching him work. He is constantly leaving and going to do something and he's always helping people out who come in with donations or questions. He's always doing something. He also helps us out when we need help. He's a real cool guy. How can you do all this at once? I don't know, but he can. He really is a great mentor. I just hope we're not bothering him too much and I hope we can help him out with things he needs help with.

Day 7

Project Description

Internship site: Maritime Museum

Department: Library and Collections

Project Title: The History of the Junk/New Acquisitions Web Page

General Description: A picture history of Chinese Sailboats.

Learning Objectives: To learn about the maritime history of the Chinese Junk as well as to make a new acquisitions page for the Maritime Museum web page.

Organization/Company Objectives & Benefits:

Objectives: To use pictures at hand to learn about maritime history.

Benefits: A new Acquisitions page.

Schedule:

1/18: Scan pictures, look through the catalog, pick out pictures.

1/19: Scan pictures and look through the catalog along with starting to write up descriptions for each page.

1/20 - 1/25: Start organizing my pictures along with descriptions for each page.

1/25 - 1/28: Organize my pictures. Put them in order. Nit pick and finalize.

Academic Skills: Researching, Organizing, Writing, Communication

Technical Skills: Scanning, PastPerfect 4, iPhoto, Researching

Collaboration—Skills and Opportunities: This gives me the opportunity to really discover something new. I don't know too much about junks. It also gives me the opportunity to explore all the pictures that the maritime museum has collected.

Exhibition Plans: Are we doing a formal exhibition at school or at our sites? Is the HTHMA planning to do an organized exhibition? My own exhibition plans just include making a book and displaying a book. I could also make a website using Wix. I am going to put it on my DP of course and that's about it.

Schedule & Timelines: I've talked with my mentor about what we are doing. Things aren't really set in stone quite yet. The new acquisitions page is still in the works, I don't know when that will happen. That's something that my mentor is planning. As for me, I've got some pictures already and I know what I'm going to do for my project. It shouldn't take too long to get enough pictures. The main thing I have to get done is all my writing. I have to get it done by the end of this week so that way I can send it off so I can get it bound. You can do that with iPhoto. That way I get it back in time for my POL.

Summary of my Week

I brought in my laptop and scanner and got a start on it on Monday. The stupid thing wouldn't work with the computer there and so I had to revert to their canon scanner. That wasn't so much fun. Marc's computer also caught a virus and died so we can't use that computer anymore because the IT guy hauled it away to fix it.

On Tuesday I brought my computer. I thought I had seen a flashdrive in the computer that I could use the day before but I guess I was wrong because there was no flashdrive. I ended up sending pictures back and forth between my computer and the museum computer until I worked up my courage to ask my mentor if I could borrow his. He let me and it was much, much easier after that even though his flashdrive was a little cramped for space and it took several trips back and forth to get a set of pictures on the other computer.

On Wednesday I brought my flashdrive (which has much more space). It was pretty easy the whole day. Just scanning and scanning some more. I think we might have gone somewhere for lunch, probably Anthony's Fish Grotto. I know one day out of the week we went to Anthony's. Anyway, after lunch it was back to scanning. I think Marc and Kevin left early on this day and left me to my own devices. I invited my Dad down and we explored the maritime museum. When I came back there was no volunteers in the library so I locked up and left.

On Thursday same old same old. Nothing much changed from Wednesday to Thursday. Scan, scan, scan. Even though sometimes it's a little automatic it can be fun. My mentor doesn't hover so I'll listen to music with headphones or me and Marc will talk. It's nice.

On Friday more scanning of course. I think my scanner is starting to hate me. That or thankful that I'm using it. It doesn't get used much at home. We had a coffee break today. There's no more styrofoam cups in the galley so I used my cup that I use for lunch since it was originally made for coffee. Coffee with a ton of creamer and a pack of hot chocolate is the best. It keeps me going. After coffee more scanning. For lunch we ate inside then went outside to just sit because it was nice. There was a guy doing name paintings so I spent my emergency money and got one for my mom. I wanted the yellow roses but he gave me different flowers. I'm going to buy another one for my mom's birthday which is in February. I know he comes every week because I've seen him twice so far. I'll get another one next Friday. Kevin left a little early so me and Marc sat and scanned and listened to music because no one else was in there that could listen in. The janitor came in when we were playing "I'll Make a Man Out of You." He scared me so bad I almost jumped! I left a little bit earlier that day so I told Marc to lock up. I hope he did.

Well, that was my week pretty much.

As for highlights I would definitely say when we find funny pictures like some guy with his butt to the camera. Those are the best because they break some of the monotony. Interesting pictures too. Challenges so far had been the lunchroom with staff in it. It's hard for interns to walk straight in. We're intimidated by the adults and by the fact that we are greenhorns compared to their experience. I don't really work much with others just Marc for the most part. I don't even see Kevin for most of the day even though he's just one room away but I suppose that's to be expected. He has his own work to get done and doesn't have time to mess with his interns. An interesting experience I did not expect had to be going into the bilge and seeing a creepy mannequin in pieces. Freaky but still interesting. Something to add to the interestingness (yes, that is a word) was the fact that we were putting away flags. Flags. That's not something you'll find at law firm! Just a museum! The way I would describe my first week to someone would have to be it's a job. That's the way it's supposed to be and that's the way you're supposed to experience it. You can't really describe it. It's enigmatic.