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Final Day

Date: 8/26/17 Activities: Wrapping up loose ends Technical Information: OpenDataSoft, Naviline, MS Outlook The last day of work was both interesting and sad. We didn't have much to do since our data stories were done and we couldn't start anything new because it was our last day. I've grown attached to this place and I will miss it a lot once school starts. A lot of the day was spent talking to a lot of the employees there that we might not see again. We entered in our final hours in Naviline and sent our final report in Outlook. This internship was truly all I could ask for. I learned so many things in the ten weeks I was at Cary, both technical and soft skills. I would never have learned how to use programs like SAS VA had I worked somewhere else. The interpersonal skills that I learned were what I felt were the most valuable thing I took from this experience. The data stories group project was an entirely different animal than the group projects in school. Going...
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Finishing Touches

Date: 8/22/16 Activities: Finalizing data stories, meetings Technical Information: OpenDataSoft, HTML I've finally reached the final week of my internship. At this point, all of our data stories are final. We've had a few final meetings with some of the employees to make sure that everything looks good. It's very satisfying to see our completed work after weeks of hard work. As we finish our stories, the other interns are wrapping up their own work. They've installed hundreds of new phones throughout the Town of Cary buildings. Most of my frustration came with compatibility issues with SAS VA. I worked very hard to learn how to use the software and make many graphs to represent the raw data that I was given. First there were numerous problems with getting the queries to work properly. It took an entire week of editing to make it work. All of that work was basically wasted when I found out that I could not use my graphs for the data stories.
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Almost Done

Date: 8/17/16 Activities: Working with our boss and PR to finalize our data stories Technical Information: OpenDataSoft, HTML The editing and revising process is still ongoing. This is taking significantly longer than I had initially expected. Its hard to get it all done because when we change something, something else gets messed up. For the most part, the graphs are done, we just need to finalize the colors. The main thing we're still working on is how we're going to divide up the different sections in the most logical manner possible. I learned that I like to work in small groups rather than by myself. It keeps me motivated and it's simply more fun to collaborate. It would be better to have a little more space; currently all of the interns are in one huge cubicle. It can be quite distracting being so close to everyone. I've also learned that I would like a job where there's a little bit of everything. I've been mostly working on the same thing the wh...
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Crunch Time

Date: 8/9/16 Activities: Continuing the Data Stories Technical Information: OpendataSoft, HTML Our open data story project started off relatively small, but it has continually grown the past month. We used to only have one story; now we have nine. With this dramatic increase in the number of stories, we are working harder than ever. We spend a lot of time in the quiet break room brainstorming and perfecting our work. We will have a meeting with the PR people soon to discuss our stories and how they will roll it out. Heading into this internship, I wasn't very sure as to what I wanted to study in college. However, this experience has had a great influence on that. I have started looking at doing something like statistics as a degree. Working with data is something that I really enjoy and I didn't really know that before this summer.
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Sales Force

Date: 7/29/16 Activities: Introduction to Sales Force Technical Information: Sales Force, Town of Cary FAQ page A few days ago, Jack, Poorna and I were introduced to the business platform known as Sales Force. This platform has a wide variety of uses, but its primary focus is communicating with customers. Jack just left for a one week vacation; as a result, we have taken a break from the data stories. We spent the entire day revamping the FAQ section of the ToC website; this is the area of work that Zoe, Sydney and Mary Beth deal with. It was nice to have a break from the work I'd been doing for the last few weeks. My duties and role has certainly expanded since I started. I'm now working on multiple different projects at the same time. Before I only worked on my own things, but I've recently worked with a lot of the other interns. Nowadays, it feels like we have more responsibility because we have been under less supervision than before.
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Data Stories Continued (Again)

Date: 7/22/16 Activities: Written Component, visit to fire department Technical Information: OpenDataSoft, SAS VA Work on the data stories continues. We have received plenty of feedback and we are in the process of making the necessary changes. It also appears that this project will be bigger than we initially expected; we will be making multiple data stories. Today, Wilson, Jack and I went on a visit to the fire department and meet Fire Chief Kane. It was interesting to receive a request from another department to do work in a program that I had just learned. Unfortunately, Jack was given the task and I was given full responsibility of the Parks and Rec data. My main contribution has been creating the different visualizations for the open data story. We've put a lot of work into it and I'm really excited that my work will make its way on to the official Town of Cary website.
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Data Stories Continued

Date: 7/11/16 Activities: Graph creation, written component Technical Information: OpenDataSoft, SAS VA We have made significant progress on our first data story. Our primary focus is age groups and attendance in different Cary facilities. Unfortunately, we are unable to use VA graphs on our webpage, so we now have to work exclusively with OpenDataSoft. As we finish up creating the graphs, the three of us have started work on writing the written component to go along with the graphs. So far, all of my expectations have been met. The hours are very reasonable and the work is quite interesting and different. As this is my very first working experience, the interactions with my fellow interns has been quite fun.
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