The past two weeks have been pretty full on as my time at Adaface and with VI has started to wrap up.
To recap in the last 2 weeks I had my mid and end call for the internship which had to be combined due to a time clash, I reached out to my VI manager to try find ways to network with other students doing the program, and I continued working on the Adaface blogs - even having my first blog posted to the site!
My VI mid call was supposed to happen in week 5/6 however ended up needing to be moved. As I am only here for 8 weeks, it was easier to combine the mid point and end point check ins at week 7.
This check in assessed where I felt I was and where I saw myself going in the next 5 years . It was a really good chat about career opportunities going forth, my goals, and the steps I should be taking to achieve what I want to.
The advisor, Tsu, wrote this in a report and emailed me the results. This has been one of the best parts of the internship as it has helped my silent learnings to become visible.
Throughout this VI process I have struggled to connect with other interns. I posted messages in the intern forum on slack and only heard back from alumni a few weeks later. This was still valuable and I was able to connect with someone from Saudi Arabia.
I was informed by my mid point advisor that this could be due to many interns being from countries who don't speak English predominantly and may be less confident reaching out to have a conversation with me.
As American students tend to do this internship program in August, their summer period, the program has felt a bit empty and isolating from other interns.
Luckily, Adaface had another intern start in week 7 who is from Florence, Italy and studying in the U.K. so connecting with them has been interesting. I also managed to get in touch with a past Adaface intern from Michigan which has been cool as well.
Regarding the work I have been doing for Adaface, I had my first blog posted to their website which was really exciting. Here is the link: https://www.adaface.com/blog/person-organization-fit-for-startups/
As I start my final week - week 8, I am feeling a bit sad that I am finishing up with Adaface. While this is partly due to the fact that I have become pretty efficient in writing - I took only 4-5 hours to write one of week 7's posts! I feel like I have built a really good relationship with Keerthi my advisor and will be sad not to work with her. I hope that we can continue to stay in touch once it is over.