Setting up your Internship Blog
You should set up your internship blog on www.weebly.com. Make sure you set it up as a BLOG, not just a webpage! It needs to be a blog so people can comment on your posts. You can find a guide to setting up a blog here.
How to write good blog posts
I offer you three pieces of advice for writing high-quality blog posts.
Advice #1: The questions in the blog assignments are "prompts", not survey questions.
For every blog assignment below, you have "prompts" to get your started and help you decide what to write about.
These prompts are essentially the same as essay prompts - they are NOT survey questions, so please do not copy and paste them into your blog and fill in short answers underneath each one.
Advice #2: Don't write a blog post that you wouldn't want a college admissions officer to read.
Your blog is public. This is great, because it means you can show it to colleges and potential employers, which will give you an edge over other candidates. But it also means that if your blog is poorly written, poorly spelled, or poorly formatted, it's out there in the internet just making you look bad, 24 hours a day.
So, for each post, ask yourself three questions:
If the answer to any of these questions is "no", you need to keep working on your blog post before you submit it!
Advice #3: Read high-quality internship blogs from past years to get a sense of what a good internship blog looks like.
You can see a selection of high-quality blogs here.
Advice #1: The questions in the blog assignments are "prompts", not survey questions.
For every blog assignment below, you have "prompts" to get your started and help you decide what to write about.
These prompts are essentially the same as essay prompts - they are NOT survey questions, so please do not copy and paste them into your blog and fill in short answers underneath each one.
Advice #2: Don't write a blog post that you wouldn't want a college admissions officer to read.
Your blog is public. This is great, because it means you can show it to colleges and potential employers, which will give you an edge over other candidates. But it also means that if your blog is poorly written, poorly spelled, or poorly formatted, it's out there in the internet just making you look bad, 24 hours a day.
So, for each post, ask yourself three questions:
- Do I want college admissions officers reading this?
- Do I want someone to read this when they're thinking of hiring me?
- Would I submit this to a magazine looking like this?
If the answer to any of these questions is "no", you need to keep working on your blog post before you submit it!
Advice #3: Read high-quality internship blogs from past years to get a sense of what a good internship blog looks like.
You can see a selection of high-quality blogs here.
How to write good comments
Blogging isn't just about good blog posts - it's also about writing good comments on other people's blog posts.
Whenever you read a blog from one of your peers, you'll tend to have questions like "how did you learn how to do that?", or "Isn't that dangerous?" or "That sounds really boring, is it as boring as it sounds?", or "Do you go out to lunch with your colleagues, and if so, where?", or even "How do you get to work every day?"
Any questions that occur to you when you're reading will probably be good questions to ask - just make sure you phrase them in a kind and specific way.
Comments that make connections to your own internship are also good. So, if you're reading and thinking "Wow, that sounds just like something that happened to me in my internship", you could write that (and say a bit about what is happening in your internship, obviously! Don't just say "that's similar to my internship" and then not say anything about your internship!
Finally, if you read someone's blog and think "wow, they really need to step up and raise the quality, this is pretty poor", or you think "Wow,this blog is amazing!", then it's a good idea to provide them with some KSH.
In summary, think about comments like the righthand column of a double-entry diary. Just like with a double-entry diary, you want to write down the questions and connections you make as you read the blog.
Whenever you read a blog from one of your peers, you'll tend to have questions like "how did you learn how to do that?", or "Isn't that dangerous?" or "That sounds really boring, is it as boring as it sounds?", or "Do you go out to lunch with your colleagues, and if so, where?", or even "How do you get to work every day?"
Any questions that occur to you when you're reading will probably be good questions to ask - just make sure you phrase them in a kind and specific way.
Comments that make connections to your own internship are also good. So, if you're reading and thinking "Wow, that sounds just like something that happened to me in my internship", you could write that (and say a bit about what is happening in your internship, obviously! Don't just say "that's similar to my internship" and then not say anything about your internship!
Finally, if you read someone's blog and think "wow, they really need to step up and raise the quality, this is pretty poor", or you think "Wow,this blog is amazing!", then it's a good idea to provide them with some KSH.
In summary, think about comments like the righthand column of a double-entry diary. Just like with a double-entry diary, you want to write down the questions and connections you make as you read the blog.
Examples of Good Blogs
The following are all good examples of blogs written about doing a job. The first set (which will be the most useful to you) are all internship blogs from last year's juniors.
The rest of the blogs are from people in science, medicine, the arts, and sports. From what I've read, these blogs seem very interesting. However, I don't have anything to do with these blogs, the views they express do not reflect my own, and they may contain strong language and disturbing stories.
The rest of the blogs are from people in science, medicine, the arts, and sports. From what I've read, these blogs seem very interesting. However, I don't have anything to do with these blogs, the views they express do not reflect my own, and they may contain strong language and disturbing stories.
Good examples of Internship Blogs
Animals
Annika Moe - Blenheim EquiSports (horses)
Ellie Holtoway - Sandfire Lizard Ranch
Arts
Alyssa Lupercio - Media Arts Project (Film)
Lynnee Lampton - Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
Adrian Vega-Albela - Conan O'Brien
Adam Lusk - Studio CCMA (Music)
Summer Melendez - Oceanside Museum of Art
Sydney Luke-Hamasaki - The Playwrights Project
Business/Marketing
Andres Valenzuela - Director of Marketing, South Bay YMCA
Wylie Mitchell - HOA Business Solutions
Daniel Cohen - UPS (National headquarters)
Education
NaJa Bailey - YMCA (focusing on summer camp)
Madison Fessia - BOOST Collaborative
Brittany Seymour - Muir School (Kindergarten class)
Dean May - Innovation Unit (working with schools in England)
Erina Chavez - Walbottle School (England)
Government
Rafael Rosas - Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez
Laboratory work
Sabyn Nopar - Salk Institute (medicine - contains work with rats)
Sophie Prime - Gentner Lab (neuroscience)
Jeanette Gillie - Manchester lab (virology)
Law
Itzel Martinez - City Attorney's Office
Media
Alex Goddard - Transworld Media
Medicine
Lauren Thompson - Doctor's Office
Technology
Ian Sweeney - J & B Computers
Joel Loo - SPAWAR Systems (Naval Research)
Joseph Loo - SPAWAR Systems (Naval Research)
Mark Zemlany - Swift Engineering (Drones)
Dr. Patton's blog
I keep my own blog about the awesome places I visit when I'm going on internship site visits. You can see it here.
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Annika Moe - Blenheim EquiSports (horses)
Ellie Holtoway - Sandfire Lizard Ranch
Arts
Alyssa Lupercio - Media Arts Project (Film)
Lynnee Lampton - Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
Adrian Vega-Albela - Conan O'Brien
Adam Lusk - Studio CCMA (Music)
Summer Melendez - Oceanside Museum of Art
Sydney Luke-Hamasaki - The Playwrights Project
Business/Marketing
Andres Valenzuela - Director of Marketing, South Bay YMCA
Wylie Mitchell - HOA Business Solutions
Daniel Cohen - UPS (National headquarters)
Education
NaJa Bailey - YMCA (focusing on summer camp)
Madison Fessia - BOOST Collaborative
Brittany Seymour - Muir School (Kindergarten class)
Dean May - Innovation Unit (working with schools in England)
Erina Chavez - Walbottle School (England)
Government
Rafael Rosas - Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez
Laboratory work
Sabyn Nopar - Salk Institute (medicine - contains work with rats)
Sophie Prime - Gentner Lab (neuroscience)
Jeanette Gillie - Manchester lab (virology)
Law
Itzel Martinez - City Attorney's Office
Media
Alex Goddard - Transworld Media
Medicine
Lauren Thompson - Doctor's Office
Technology
Ian Sweeney - J & B Computers
Joel Loo - SPAWAR Systems (Naval Research)
Joseph Loo - SPAWAR Systems (Naval Research)
Mark Zemlany - Swift Engineering (Drones)
Dr. Patton's blog
I keep my own blog about the awesome places I visit when I'm going on internship site visits. You can see it here.
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