Finished!

Well my hours are done and dusted and I couldn't be happier.

240 is a trying amount of hours to get done in one semester and if I had my time over, I think I would do my internship to go over two semesters or something along those lines. It's been quite difficult to manage this, writing a massive research paper and working at my 2 paid jobs... all since early July. Then again, one semester, less hours would be nice too!

I have really enjoyed this internship, and while my hours are up I am actually staying on the project (not as intensely because I can't actually afford to anymore!) to assist with the rest of the museum plan. I figure it is something that my name is attached to and I do want to do a good job.

My supervisor has also mentioned future paid work at the start of next year, however it wouldn't be full-time and permanent. I said I would think about it, but perhaps I could do it as a side job as well? Right now I want to get into the workforce and use my degrees that I've spent 6 years getting, so a temporary-non-full-time position isn't really ideal, but we'll see.

I've learnt a lot about community consultation, writing reports, working with independent contractors, STATISTICS, collating data, focus groups, surveys etc. My supervisor said that this was a similar process to doing a PhD and that I would be well prepared to take it on afterwards. Hmm... maybe in a few years? I think for now my academic side needs a holiday!

Well I'm still preoccupied with these survey tables and graphs, but the good news is I'm almost there!

This has probably been the most challenging task of my internship, mainly because my brain simply struggles with seemingly simply mathematics! It is interesting seeing all the data clearly, it's just getting there that is slightly frustrating, especially when my version of Word appears to be sick of it too! (It has crashed a few times on me so far...)

I realise this post is probably similar to the last one as I'm still working on the same thing I was last week, so it will be kept nice and brief... on a positive note, I have about 10 more official hours to go until I will have clocked the required 240 hurrah!

My question to anyone who comes across this post, are there any more official admin things we have to do to have our internship 'signed off' by COFA, once we have completed our official hours? I would hate to miss a particular deadline after doing 240 hours of voluntary work in one semester!

Home stretch

I met with my supervisor again last week and she estimated that we're over 2/3 of the way through the museum plan... YAY! I'm about to get stuck in to collating the survey data, which is actually quite mathematical so I'm not too sure how my creatively inclined brain will manage this task! It's a whole lot of statistical analysis, which is interesting because it shows the raw data of what people in the region have been saying about a new museum there. It will take a fair bit of time to create all the tables though, as she recruited a biometrician to obtain the stats from the perspective of gender, age and whether or not they live on a farm. So that equates to roughly 60 tables.... yikes. The good news is that I'm getting my hours down, which right now is up there on my list of priorities... while I aim to finish my 240 required hours in the next three - four weeks, I will most likely stay on the project until December when they present the plan for discussion and comment to the Council. My supervisor has also said that I could potentially present some of my findings to the Council/local community, which would be a really great (unpaid) experience. We're almost there!

surveys, data, reviews

This week has been more productive than last week; I have managed to get a lot done already (and it's only Wednesday!). I am still trucking along with the literature review (word count now exceeds the research paper limit, by the way) and I have added in the necessary extra sections my supervisor wanted me to include. I have also finished summarising the raw data from the survey conducted by the council. The results were interesting to say the least. One such question asked about the effects of climate change, with a considerable percentage of people surveyed saying that they don't believe that global climate change exists!!! Thankfully the majority of people acknowledge it as a problem in our society. Interesting to say the least...

I have also tried to get in contact with the Aboriginal elders my supervisor wants me to interview. She warned me they might be hard to track down as they often have a different perception of time; she even suggested that sometimes you just have to 'rock up' and try your luck with who's there! I don't know if I'm keen to sit in a car for four hours for the chance I might interview someone... Emailing and liaising will suffice for now!

I have knocked off more hours as well, which is good. I'm now down to the '75 hours to go' mark. I aim to have all my hours down hopefully in the next three to four weeks, to coincide with the end of semester. One thing is for sure, I don't want to carry the hours over to an August graduation. Until I hear back from the Wiradjuri men, at least I can utilise my 'free' time to work on the research paper.

The literature review that never ends

I'm a little overwhelmed this week; my supervisor has given me so many more additional jobs to complete and trying to do all of this, finish research paper assessments, work two separate casual jobs for actual money, and maintain a semblance of a social life is becoming increasingly difficult! I figure I can rant on here as pretty much everyone in the Art Admin program is in the same boat on this one!

I am STILL working on the literature review for the museum plan. When I think it's done I get another email which says to add in another section on something else and so on. It's rapidly approaching the 10,000 word mark! In addition, I have to go and sit in on interviews my supervisor is conducting for another project out at Windsor Library week after next, as I then have to return to the country to conduct a couple of interviews with some Aboriginal people from the Wiradjuri tribe. Not too sure when yet, but it'll be sometime in the next month. It's great that I'm being given the independence and responsibility to do this on my own; however I'm starting to get a little stressed with only 4 weeks until the draft of our paper is due in. At least I'm well and truly passed the half way mark with hours. 240 is A LOT and thankfully I only have about 100 remaining.

It's a good thing I booked myself on a holiday for two weeks in November, I think I'm going to need the time off!

Ten weeks of interning completed... many more to go!

I can't believe it has been ten weeks already since I started working with my supervisor on this project. It doesn't feel like that long at all!

I met with my supervisor again this morning to go over what I have already done and what is left to do. She explained it like we're working in a pyramid format, building and collating information and research to build our case, which will eventually be presented to government and other funding bodies. It's quite exciting to know that the work I'm doing will become the foundation for the museum. It is a lot of work though; I tend to think that I am going to need much stronger reading glasses at the end of this internship as I spend most of my time staring at my computer screen or reading piles of documents! As I am framing my research paper around aspects of my internship, I am saving myself a lot of time researching an unfamiliar topic. Two birds, one stone... it's working out alright for the time being at least!

Next thing I have to do is add to the massive literature review I have been working on for the past two months (!) - I need to add in extra sections that mention certain funding and government bodies, such as the Federal Government, the State Government, Arts NSW and M&G NSW. The way this was explained to me is basically when the museum plan is presented for funding purposes to these people, it helps to 'stroke the ego' of their organisations by mentioning them by name within the body of the plan. It makes sense and I guess will help in the case for building a new museum in the regional area we are working with.

I am more than happy to continue working on it, as I am learning so much and acquiring a lot of knowledge about this side of the museum sector, but part of me seriously thought I had bid adieu to the 7,000+ word lit review; with everything I have to add in, it will probably grow to be longer than my research paper!

We also have the final data from the survey, which was distributed online and amongst the community - around 550 people completed it, so there will be (hopefully) a wide spread of demographics and responses to the questions. Another job I have is to summarise the answers to the survey questions, which will then be compiled with the focus group responses to form one large sample to put forward in the museum plan.

At least with all of these jobs I will have no problem accruing hours for the course - 100 hours down, 140 to go and counting!

Focus group data collation

I have started putting together the data from the focus groups (which were largely done before I started). It is kind of tricky because on some of the transcripts, some of the numerical data does not add up, i.e. with the number of participants matching the numbers given with age brackets. I can't exactly make up data so I think I will have to leave that part for the moment until I discuss it with my supervisor. It is frustrating not being able to just get on with it, but I guess I can use it as an opportunity to work on other aspects of the museum plan.


On another note, does anyone have any suggestions for how to make a good table? Would it be best to do one in Excel or just make it up in a Word Doc? I'm not the best when it comes to 'advanced' things such as mathematically based tables dealing with percentages and what not. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!