Interning at CCSD was my first internship and tech-related job I've had. It was a crazy experience, through and through.

First off, interns at CCSD were in an odd limbo state when I was there. There are technically two types of “interns” there: one who is hired as an extra hand, doing special projects the district can’t do while school is in session, and one who bounces around all parts of IT, from server-side networking to phone lines to in-the-field technicians. I fell into the second category. Full time employees said that I was the second intern they’ve had doing this, so the internship as a whole wasn’t fully fleshed out yet. I had to take the initiative to learn from the professionals.

While I was there, I absorbed so much knowledge I wouldn’t normally have been exposed to. As a Computer Science graduate, I'm not exposed to much of the networking/physical aspects of technology. It was part of the reason why I took this position in the first place: to get a new look on what I’m learning about. The following is a list of the highlights from my time there.

Re-routing a school under one network into two.

Two schools physically connected were under one subnetwork. This project split them into two separate subnetworks, changing all IPs in one school without a loop during the transition.

Moved Telecom phones to Cisco phones.

Also had a quick overview of the physical PA lines, which are still in use!

Learned about Routers, Switches, and Powerbanks!

In addition to their basic usage, also went through how to console into them, make basic changes. Big fan of EATONs. Also a big reason behind my Capstone Project!

Other basic IT.

Fixing printers, re-wiring ethernet cords, organizing TR closets, imaging computers, Radix for promethean boards, and a Ticketing system with priorities (not specifically Jira but VERY similar).

Overall, it was extraordinary being able to shift what I’m doing in classes to the side, draw on it here and there, and learn how to put said knowledge into real-world applications. Please shoot me an email if you'd like even more detail on my position there!