INTERNSHIP AT STEPS WITH THEERA
CAS LEARNING OUTCOMES :
Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process
Demonstrate the skills and recognise the benefits of working collaboratively
INVESTIGATION
I was an intern for a cafe called Steps With Theera during May 2020. I wanted to do an internship because I wanted work experience for myself and also for CAS. This internship looked interesting because the cafe is unique as the concept is something I haven't seen before. In this cafe, the employees are people that have autism or other disabilites. The employees are trained to work so that they can get a job in the future. This concept is not common so when I saw the oppourtunity to take this internship, I did because I want to help other people as well.
PLANNING
The internship was initially supposed to start in April of 2020 and we were supposed to go work at the cafe which was located in ekamai. However, since COVID 19 started in March 2020 and a lockdown took place, it got pushed to around May-June instead. We were also not able to go to the cafe, so we had to work from home. The work that I did were translating documents from english to thai, and also transcribing three audio interviews. At the start, I was pretty disappointed that we would not be able to go work at the cafe because that was the most exciting part for me. But when I started doing the work from home, I realized it was a different kind of experience and it was also good in some ways.
ACTION
After talking to the owner of the cafe, Max, I started the internship officialy in June. The first work I had to do was translating their english website to thai. It was actually challenging for me because even though I can write thai, I'm not 100% good at it which made it a bit difficult. However, I was able to contact the staff at Steps With Theera for help anytime that I wanted which was helpful. After the translation, I was assigned to write a transcription of an interview. I think the transcription work was pretty fun because I got to listen to the interviews and they were pretty interesting to listen, which made the job fun. After that, I was assigned two more interviews to transcribe.
REFLECTION
This internship was a really good experience and I'm glad I was able to be a part of it. Even though there were few issues and complications due to the pandemic, we made the most out of what we could do. A few of my friends were also part of the internship and it was great that we could share this experience together. The internship taught me to work proffesionaly and to take responsibility as the work we got was important and we had deadlines. It taught me to manage my time well too. Since it was during summer break, I felt very productive and I felt like I didn't waste my time lying around in bed doing nothing.
DEMONSTRATION
Overall, I would definetly recommend anyone to try out an internship if they want to because it would always be helpful in some way or another. Even though it was an unapaid internship, I enjoyed it and the experience was really helpful.
