I meant to say Internship Reflection!
I don’t know where to begin… 6 months have flown by since my first day at Swift Kick. Well, they always say time flies by when your having fun. However, I did not know that work could be so much fun and productive at the same time. As the virtual intern, I was four hours away from the team, while also juggling another part time job as well as 17 credits. Needless to say, I was definitely keeping busy.
However, I soon learned from my time at Swift Kick to stop being so busy, and start being productive. During my time here I wrote weekly blog posts, created the Dance Floor Theory newsletter each week, managed the design of Dance Floor Theory posters, created a system for tracking retention metrics, created content for the SA Laughs page, and created a manual for future virtual interns. While these projects were extensive, the work system at Swift Kick allows you to be very productive. By having tops rocks, daily meetings, weekly one-on-ones, and a strong support system, I was set up for success.
To celebrate and encourage us to continue our success, we had quarterly retreats. I would have never thought that I’d escape a haunted room, eat a grasshopper burrito, or become a member of the Blue Man Group. However, I did all of these things on the quarterly retreats.
I came into this internship knowing that I’d be working for an amazing guy, Tom Krieglstein. I had experienced the Dance Floor Theory training a couple times at my university and at a conference, and I saw Tom as this celebrity-status, professional speaker on campus leadership. After the end of this internship I still see Tom as that celebrity rocking the stage at universities and conferences; however, I also see him as a role model, mentor, and friend.
Little did I know I’d also be working a whole team of awesome individuals at Swift Kick. I want to thank Nicole, Jay, Sabina, and Tom for appreciating my randomness (as you can see from the title), enthusiasm, and occasional “melba-ness.”
Nicole: I’m glad to have taken on my journey at Swift Kick with you as my fellow intern and now, great friend. I loved your sense of humor and character that you displayed during our meetings and retreats. Thank you for all the help you gave me creating SALaugh posts and designing the DFT Posters.
Jay: There was never a problem that you couldn’t fix. You showed me how important it is to surround yourself with efficient and capable individuals, especially when dealing with web design! Thank you for your patience and constant hard work.
Sabina: I love your personality. You have this way of connecting with others and making them want to put forth their best work. Thank you for all of your support over the past 6 months, and constantly being a team player. Stay awesome!
Tom: Thank you for always encouraging me to use my creativity within the various projects that we worked on. You showed me that making any project your own is important, whether it be designing a newsletter template or creating an assessment to use for metrics. You always pushed me to get creative, and then to refine that creativity through repeated cycles of problem-solving and experimentation in the projects. Thank you for all the support, faith, and love, as well the opportunity to have this experience.
I will take all that I’ve learned at Swift Kick and apply it not only to my last semester of college, but also in my future career as a secondary educator. Through this internship I’ve learned the importance of building communities where others feel welcomed, connected, and engaged, and I will do just that in the class room where I teach.
