2 September 2020
PLTW Capstone #1: Summer 2020 + Looking Forward
Brief reflections on my time in quarantine, internship at Kokomo 24/7, and my engineering class.
This post was written for the Project Lead the Way Capstone program.
This year, I am enrolled in my high school's engineering capstone class. This is the final class in the four year engineering curriculum offered at my high school. I'm excited to work with my classmates to create something new. Since students in this class would normally meet in person to, well, build something, my classmates and I will need to work hard to overcome the challenges of engineering over a distance. I'm excited to see what possibilities could arise as a result of this.
Since coronavirus hit, I've changed quite a bit. Perhaps being forced to stay inside with your parents all the time builds character (for everyone involved).
Jokes aside, my parents and I have been extremely fortunate. When school shut down, I was surprised by my newfound autonomy. My courses and extracurriculars either stopped or were made virtual. Up until now, I had felt consistently overwhelmed by the courses and extracurriculars I was (sometimes needlessly) committing myself to since starting high school. All I did was work, work, and work. I never made time for myself, or for a social life outside of school for that matter. Naturally, when I wasn't inundated by these commitments, I got the chance to step back and reflect. I started prioritizing my relationship with myself and with other people. I took more naps, played videogames with my friends, and started reading more.
When summer came, I onboarded as an intern at Kokomo 24/7. This was a fantastic opportunity-- I finally had the chance to apply my programming skills and get practical experience working at a startup. It turned out I had A LOT to learn, though. I learned about working with Kokomo's software, Angular, Python, tech support, documenting user stories and bugs, and communication with team members as well as clients. I admire the people that work there; they pour in hours and hours of work to keep things moving. I'm excited to continue my internship into the fall.