Wade L. Johnson
Promise 2016
PROMISE stands for Professional and Managerial Internships in State Employment. This year at Oregon State we had 24 PROMISE interns including myself. We were placed at variety of work sites with one or two mentors. These sites were all attached to Oregon State University in some way but may also include some state and national agencies and organizations. This program focuses on providing these internships to historically underrepresented students including students of color, LGBTQ+, first generation students, veterans, non-traditional, etc.
During my PROMISE internship, my work site was at Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Oregon. My mentor was Itchung Cheung, the academics program manager. My role consisted of helping around HMSC in a variety of ways including assisting courses in the field, helping coordinate the REU program, and also developing my own project. This project will bring an ambassador program to HMSC that will use previous students of HMSC from the three main programs that utilize HMSC (Fisheries and Wildlife, Environmental Sciences, and Integrative Biology). These students will attend events around Oregon State University's main campus to promote HMSC and educate their undergraduate peers about opportunities, courses, and student life in Newport.
From this internship I learned quite a bit about what it takes to run an institution like HMSC. I also learned how much the small details (or lack of) really matter. If one small oversight is taken or a question unanswered, then more issues can arise. With that being said, adaptability and fluidity in some policies can make things run a lot smoother than rigid guidelines. More than anything I learned that patience is an exceptional virtue that can make or break how individuals handle certain situations. With so many different types of personalities, skill sets and perspectives working in one place, being patient can sometimes be the only things one can do.
The best aspect of this internship was the opportunity to live at the beach for an entire summer! Kidding aside, I appreciated every part of my internship. My mentor was wonderful in that he let me work independently (how I work best), supported the ideas I had, and provided great feedback. Although this internship was not on my radar when applying for internships for the summer, I could not picture myself anywhere else.
During my PROMISE internship, my work site was at Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Oregon. My mentor was Itchung Cheung, the academics program manager. My role consisted of helping around HMSC in a variety of ways including assisting courses in the field, helping coordinate the REU program, and also developing my own project. This project will bring an ambassador program to HMSC that will use previous students of HMSC from the three main programs that utilize HMSC (Fisheries and Wildlife, Environmental Sciences, and Integrative Biology). These students will attend events around Oregon State University's main campus to promote HMSC and educate their undergraduate peers about opportunities, courses, and student life in Newport.
From this internship I learned quite a bit about what it takes to run an institution like HMSC. I also learned how much the small details (or lack of) really matter. If one small oversight is taken or a question unanswered, then more issues can arise. With that being said, adaptability and fluidity in some policies can make things run a lot smoother than rigid guidelines. More than anything I learned that patience is an exceptional virtue that can make or break how individuals handle certain situations. With so many different types of personalities, skill sets and perspectives working in one place, being patient can sometimes be the only things one can do.
The best aspect of this internship was the opportunity to live at the beach for an entire summer! Kidding aside, I appreciated every part of my internship. My mentor was wonderful in that he let me work independently (how I work best), supported the ideas I had, and provided great feedback. Although this internship was not on my radar when applying for internships for the summer, I could not picture myself anywhere else.
