M3//S2 A3.9 Journal Prompts (Weekly)

Journal Prompts For Internships (8th Entry)

To receive credit for an internship, students must keep a journal, and use those reflections to craft a one-page summary and self-evaluation of the internship. Pictures of your progress can be used like screenshots of your work, photos of collaboration (with consent from participants), or examples of training you had to complete. 

Please use the following prompts to guide your weekly journal entries during your internship. Each week, respond to 2‐3 prompts (or another reflection) from the list below. 

Think deeply and critically about the work you are doing at your internship, your overall experience, and the intersections of your academic work and internship experience. 

The questions below are designed to help you write your reflection. It is a structure through which you can reflect on your experience - you can use them as starting points for your entries or create your own prompts.

For each week's assignment, submit a Google Doc (Meaningfully named and shared as Editor) that address some of the prompts (or your own reflection) below.

Each week submit the same Doc with additional journal entries. While this will be graded for engagement by your MVHS teacher and Foothill Professor, it is for your benefit and can take any form you like. At the end of the semester you will use your journal entries to write a one-page summary and self-evaluation of the internship.

Beginning of your internship (Weeks 1-4: Jan. 17, Jan. 24, Jan. 31, and Feb. 6)

• How was your first week at your internship? 
• Who were some of the staff you met and their roles at the organization? 
• How has the organization structured its orientation and training for you?  How will you and your supervisor meet for project feedback and guidance? 
• What has surprised you about the culture of your workplace? 
• What is one insight or highlight you’ve had so far regarding your internship and what to expect going forward? 
• What projects or assignments are you most excited to jump into? 
• What questions, concerns, or curiosities do you have now that you’ve been there a little while? 
• Sometimes the start of an internship can be slow. What are ways you can take initiative to show you are ready to take on projects? 
• Which of your course(s) or academic project(s) do you anticipate will have the most relevance to your work as an intern? 
• On a scale of 5 (high excitement and motivation) to 1 (little or no excitement or motivation), how do you feel about your internship? Why did you choose that rating? 

Middle of your internship (Weeks 5-9: Feb 14, Feb 28, Mar 7, Mar 14)

• What are the primary tasks you’ve worked on so far at your internship? 
• What feedback have you received on the draft or completed work you have submitted? 
• What challenges have you faced during your internship so far? What steps did you take to resolve those challenges, and what was the outcome? 
• How has your relationship with your supervisor evolved? What has worked well? What could be improved?
• What projects have been the most rewarding to you so far? What has made that work so satisfying? 
• How would you describe the pace of the work at your internship? 
• What have you observed about the way staff at your internship site communicate with each other and collaborate? 
• Have you observed disagreements among staff members at your internship site? If yes, what was the nature of one of those disagreements, and how did the staff members navigate that situation? 
• What are 2‐3 examples of ways you have applied knowledge or skills gained through your coursework while at your internship? 

End of your internship (Weeks 10-15: Mar 28, Apr 4, Apr 18, Apr 25, May 2)

• Describe ways in which your skills and/or knowledge of the field have grown since you began this internship. What do you know now that you didn’t before? 
• Summarize your progress toward fulfilling your learning objectives. 
• What aspects (if any) of your internship experience have most surprised you? 
• What opportunities have you had to observe or interact with the people or businesses your organization serves? 
• What were the biggest learning moments for you during your internship, and what made them so? What do you know now about yourself that you didn’t before? 
• In what ways has this internship experience influenced or clarified your academic plans for the coming semester? 
• What (if anything) would you do differently in your next internship or job experience? 
• How have your ideas about “work” shifted or changed through this internship?

One-page summary and self-evaluation of the internship due May 19. 2025