January 18, 2017

Question: What is the biggest challenge YOU face at your internship? Also, describe one challenge that arose at your internship site (related to the work the company does). How did your mentor and their colleagues solve this problem?

I haven't had very many challenges at my internship so far but I have had experiences that have pushed me out of my comfort zone. I have never really liked making calls to people I don't know, especially in front of other people. One of my main tasks here has been to make calls to a wide variety of people. At first it was really hard for me and I was really nervous but now I am kind of used to it and I think it is definitely a good skill to have. Another thing that was challenging was being at the health fair on my third day of internship. I felt like I knew the information well enough but the majority of the people there spoke Spanish so it was difficult to communicate this new information that I barely knew to them.

The biggest challenge that has come up at my internship so far is with their cycling event Tour de Cure. The event is supposed to be on April 29, 2017 at the Del Mar Fairgrounds and it goes up the coast. After sending out a lot of promotion and planning a lot of the event, one of the employees at ADA found out that the Encinitas Street Fair is that day and that they are closing the main highway for Tour de Cure. Kim, who is in charge of Tour de Cure is solving this by trying to find another day to do the tour and also trying to reroute it so that it can still take place on the same day.