Now that the internship program is coming to a close for me, I wanted to reflect on what the experience has been like for the past year.  If I could describe the entire program with one word, it’d be freedom.  Yes, I did have an overall goal, and I didn’t just come in and do whatever I wanted, but within those confines was a broad area of knowledge that could be tapped into.  In my case, I was dealing with a crossroads between emerging technology, and everyday academic research, with a little bit of design work mixed in.  This required investigating not only how research was done, but probably more importantly, how it could be kept track of in the easiest way possible.  So, most of the time I would find myself researching the practice of research itself, while also looking to see if there was currently anything out there that would fit the bill for a suitable ELN to pitch to faculty members.  Along with this, I picked up a little bit of Adobe Illustrator experience to make some figures, and got to explore ways to design a graphic that will get a message across, while also being appealing to the eye.  The process of having all of these different aspects of a project come together can be pursued differently by each individual, and this is where I think the freedom piece comes in.  I was able to find my own way about these things, instead of being told exactly what to do every day, which enabled me to really explore the things that I found interesting, and whenever I needed guidance or suggestions on what to do next, I was able to get that from Jeffrey.  Because the program was run in this way, I feel like I picked up a lot of useful skills in terms of project design and implementation that will be extremely valuable as I enter the workforce.