Internship Reflection: Elkridge Country Club

Internships have always been on my mind, and I've always wanted to get experience before graduating and entering the workforce. Fortunately, I chose to challenge myself this summer and took an internship at Elkridge Country Club in Baltimore. Going forward, I will describe my responsibilities in Elkridge's online environment, how I spent my summer, and what excellent teamwork entails.
My to-do list was lengthy, and I'll begin with maintenance. I ran frequent antivirus scans and ensured that all accounts had up-to-date passwords. One of the jobs included updating the operating system and the club's POS. The POS for the Club was perhaps one of the more innovative projects I had. We had to rebuild it and make it more user-friendly. It was a mess, and I was assisting the devs in changing the UI. Another significant issue was that following the thunderstorms; we had a significant problem with servers and networks, so I would shadow the engineers and assist them in resolving the network problems as quickly as possible. This year, my skills in quick issue-solving and troubleshooting have improved.

Another task on the list was website development. With the help of my supervisor and developers, we ensured that club members could use the app and website without any problems. When it came to booking any athletic class, the club app was not very user-friendly, and it was probably one of the things we wanted to alter but didn't have the time because it was the peak of the season, and we couldn't afford to have the app down for a few hours.

Organizational abilities are one of the things I am most proud of and have improved—management of time and labor. Working so well with databases, my knowledge from the course I took in school last semester truly made my life simpler; additionally, excel is such a strong tool, and we were producing sheets for everything we did. Inventories, event registration, additional club fees, and payroll and budgeting for employees, I have far exceeded my expectations, and I have once again shown myself that I can adapt to a high-pressure workplace without affecting my work ethic. However, none of the efforts would be feasible without the support of a strong team. I was really fortunate to have three incredible South African friends working with me. They were my housemates during the summer, and we learned so much from one another. They have helped me grow as a person while also pushing me hard at work.

This summer provided me with experiences that will influence everything I do in the future. It made me understand how crucial collaboration is if you want to run a successful business and keep your clients happy. Managing all of your responsibilities and working in tandem with your coworkers is critical for a successful business. Elkridge assisted me in forming an image of what a workplace looks like, and I carry many talents with me that I will cherish. And as my boss would say, "Teamwork makes the dream work!"

- Isidora Hrnjak | Ottawa University Computer Science Student