The author completed an internship at Pennsylvania American Water, where they addressed four competencies - critical thinking, communication, teamwork and collaboration, and information literacy. For a project designing an executive brochure, the author carefully considered the supervisor's needs to find the right pictures. The author also communicated effectively with colleagues to develop training programs. Through collaborating on gifts for an event and developing an e-learning module, the author gained experience working as part of a team. Evaluating information from various sources helped the author perform tasks like creating content and materials.

1. Jeremiah L. Mitchell
LTMS 695
Learning Technologies Internship
Reflection Paper
For my internship I had the pleasure of working at Pennsylvania American Water (PAW)
a water utility resource company that regulates consumption and distribution of water for the
state and municipalities in which it operates. During my internship I addressed four competences
that was a combination of skills, knowledge and attributes that reflects my educations. As an
intern I diligently addressed such competences as critical thinking, communication, teamwork
and collaboration, and information literacy. Hence, each competence’s attribute truly models
what Harrisburg University (HU) stands for and spells out in their guidelines. I firmly feel that
my education at HU reflected the work I performed day in and day out at PAW.
One of the competencies that I can reflect on is being able to use critical thinking skills to
solve problems, recognizing and differentiating facts, and the ability to revise information. For
instance, there was a project in which I was assigned to find pictures of American Water Official
Executives and the Board of Directors for a brochure I was to design. I carefully listened to my
supervisor’s needs and drew on conclusion on how to find the information that was needed and
apply it to the brochure that I was assigned. In other projects I had to differentiate what was the
end goal of what my team was trying to achieve when developing training, planning events, or
setting up training facility. I realize that a lot of project management goes on behind the scene
when managing staff, preparing for an event or training. When applying the competency of
critical thinking you also have to be able to communicate effectively with others.
The second type of competency that I learned to apply is to be able to communicate in a
professional manner. To be able to communicate effectively is valuable when you are trying to
pull information from other resources, so that you can carry out what you are supposed to do for
your job. I found myself sitting in scheduled phone meetings and office conferences with other
content experts on developing training for the deployment of the Table Top program. However,
there were times when expectations were not clearly stated. For instance, Joan my supervisor did
not state her expectation when I did my first draft of the executive officer brochure. After, she
had a chance to review my work she clearly communicated her expectations and introduce me to
Joi, a communication specialist. After having a conversation with Joan, I was able to listen to her

2. expectation and meet with Joi about applying branding to the brochures I designed. Therefore,
through communicating with others I learned the values of collaborating and working as a team
to achieve an overall goal when completing projects.
The third competency concept I got to apply was being able to collaborate and work as a
team with others. Throughout my internship I got together with a group of staff to meet about the
gift that should go in the gift bag for the Executive Officers and Board Members reception.
When collaborating with others I had the chance to hear others ideas on what would make a great
gift and how we were going to present the gifts to the Executive Officers and Board members.
Afterward, each team member was giving a certain gift to research and present in a fallow up
meeting. I also teamed up with my supervisor on developing an e learning module by utilizing
the content she has given me. Through collaboration she has provided positive feedback and
criticism on what needs to be added or taken out. As a team we was able to finalize the gifts that
would be put in the basket.
The final competency of information literacy allowed me to be knowledgeable and
familiar with information my co-workers shared with me. In addition, I was able to evaluate the
source of content and information and use it to my advantage in performing my job in
developing e learning content, developing training, the brochure and gift write ups. The content
of the information that the supervisor and staff shared with me was very valuable to me because
it allowed me to do my job more successfully.
In my conclusion it was a combination of each competence that allowed me to excuting
my job at PAW. The competency of being a critical thinker allowed me to calculate and
incorporate multiple sources of information through familiarity, reasoning and training and
development. The competence of communication gave me the ability to communicate clearly
and concise on expectation when completing a task. The competency of being able to collaborate
and with others gave me the ability to work effectively in a team concerted effort toward a
mutual goal. Then the information literacy competency allowed me to be knowledgeable and
familiar with different media types and be able to retrieve information from other outside
resources.