My Time as a Research/Database Intern

For my co-op assignment I worked for the Clark College Foundation as a Prospect Research/Database Intern. When I first entered the foundation I was unsure of how I would fit into the organization. This would be the first time I had ever worked in an office environment and I had no idea what would be expected of me and if I would be able to perform the job that I had been hired for.

On my first day my supervisor Chris Mildner took me around the building and introduced me to all of the employees at the foundation. Each employee introduced themselves and explained to me about their particular job position. Everyone at the foundation was very friendly and made me feel very welcome at my new job. Chris then explained about the work the foundation does for Clark College and its students. By learning about each employees contributions to the organization and the goals that they were trying to accomplish helped me to better understand the significance of the work that I would be performing.

I spent the first week at the foundation becoming familiar with the Razor’s Edge database; Razor’s Edge is a database program designed for non-profit organizations. Chris had me practice looking up names of people from public documents within the database and then making sure that I found the correct name for that person. It was very important that the person that I found in the database was the exact same person that was in the document of the information that the foundation wanted to track. I learned that there could be more than just one person with the same name; more important I learned how much research can be involved in one task that originally seemed very simple. The foundation had a very strict name verification procedure in which I needed ...

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...ion are very friendly, willing to answer any questions about a task, and are very good at helping a new person understand the whole work process, which helps someone to understand the importance of their individual tasks and makes them feel like part of a team. I will be working for this employer again next quarter and am going to be able to complete my co-op experience at the Clark College Foundation. I would definitely work for the foundation in the future as a regular employee if I were given the opportunity.

Working for the Clark College Foundation has given me valuable job experience and I now that I have a better understanding about the kind of tasks that may be required of me in the future. Someday when I do reach my goal of becoming an administrative assistant I hope to apply some of the things that I have learned from this experience to my future career.