U-M ITS Summer Internship Program 2018
Over the course of 14 weeks, I learned a great deal of invaluable knowledge from working at UM-ITS. I learned how to properly write documentation, both forward- and backward-facing, to UM-ITS’s standards. I wrote 20+ knowledge base articles which have been published to the ITS Service Center's ticketing system. I drafted and edited 10+ documentation articles which have been published to the internal ITS documentation website for use by end users.
I was heavily involved in supporting the campus-wide Google, Box, and Microsoft product rollouts. I have remained flexible and on top of my projects, including operating within a tight and fast-approaching deadline. Finally, I reviewed, edited, and added content published on the U-M Box and U-M Google support pages to ensure each link was functioning and that there was no out-of-date information being disseminated to end users.
In addition to my departmental work, I participated in a internship cohort project involving research of the UM-ITS Twitter account to determine their current impact and to develop a new social media content strategy for the organization.
Process Details
Day-to-Day Responsibilities
My day-to-day responsibilities involved drafting internal and external communications (e.g., knowledge base articles, documentation, emails, blog posts, etc.) to support UM-ITS and campus more broadly, monitoring release calendars and blogs for important updates and outage for U-M Google, Box, and Microsoft Office 365, and providing customer service to users with questions/concerns regarding our collaboration services.
Professional Development
The internship program offered me the opportunity to learn valuable professional skills at weekly intern retreats, which featured round table discussions with executive directors, presentations on emerging technologies and business skills, and other group activities, including the cohort projects that are presented each year to ITS at the end of the internship program and field trips to local tech companies like Google and Ithaka/JSTOR.
Cohort Project
In addition to my departmental work, I conducted research on the UM-ITS Twitter account (@umichTECH) to determine their current impact and to develop a new social media content strategy for the organization. Research included extracting tweet information via Twitter's API, creating data visualizations and comparative analyses, qualitatively coding, running audience analyses, conducting interviews, and finally, drafting content for future social media campaigns.