The time that I spent at the Fish Hatchery was very different from the time that I spent at school. Instead of sitting in classes all day, I spent most of my time outside working with my hands. I developed many new skills throughout this time, but I was also able to use some skills that I had developed through other aspects of my life. One of these skills is my ability to learn new concepts quickly. During my internship, I learned new information, skills, and procedures very quickly. On my first day, my mentor showed me how to clean the indoor fish troughs and by the next day, I was able to clean the troughs without any instruction, albeit much more slowly than my mentor. Early on in the internship, I was taught how to feed the outdoor fish, which requires weighing the food, measuring it out, and feeding specific fish specific amounts of food. Even though there was a lot to learn by the end of the week I had become quite proficient in feeding the fish. And after more practice in the second week I could feed the fish without any help from my coworkers. Being able to learn things quickly during an internship, especially at a place like the Fish Hatchery where there is always something new going on, can be very helpful so you don't have to spend extra time learning new concepts. I also found that after I was shown or completed a task once, I made fewer mistakes and became faster the next time I perform the task. Another skill that I brought into the link was curiosity. This might not necessarily sound like a skill, but being able and willing to ask a lot of questions and wanting to learn a lot of different things can be invaluable when you are learning lots of new things all at once. Being curious helped a lot when I was learning technical new procedures, like fish dissections and health checks. Instead of just learning the bare necessities of how to perform a fish health check and of fish anatomy I was able to learn much more by asking many questions about every step of dissection. Being curious allowed me to get much more out of my internship than I would have if I hadn't asked any questions.
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Taking Water Temperature and PH samples at Lake Night Horse
The Challenges I Faced and The Skills I Developed Over LINKThe most important skills I learned from my internship experience were spatial awareness and independence. All of which were essential skills to have to keep up with the fast-paced environment of the Fish Hatchery. Because there are so many moving parts it is very important to be constantly paying attention to where you are, and what kind of environment you are in. I did not gain this skill by facing a difficult challenge during the internship, but I instead gained it through practicing being aware of my surroundings every day. It was a good thing that I began to pay more attention to my surroundings because certain situations, like loading fish out of the raceways or working around the large trucks while stocking, can become dangerous very quickly. One of the challenges I faced during my internship was learning how to become more independent. When I first started my internship I followed my mentor around like a duckling. I didn't want to attempt any task without the help of my mentor and I was too nervous to start any new tasks without the instruction of my mentor. This caused me to spend a lot of time awkwardly standing around, waiting to be given my next task. After my first week, I began to get more comfortable with the daily tasks of the Fish Hatchery and I was more confident in my ability to perform the tasks. I slowly began to be able to do my work independently and I didn't need to ask what to do as often as before. By the end of my internship, my newly gained independence helped me to feel more like an actual employee of the Fish Hatchery.
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Having an intern at the Durango Fish Hatchery is valuable because there is always something going on, whether they are daily chores coupled with maintenance or unusual events like stocking trips that can't be put off. Having an extra helping hand is always helpful and appreciated at the Fish Hatchery. Each day is different from the last and there are always new tasks to do, some of which were very fun! However, some of the tasks are very tedious, so having more people to spread out the workload is very important. While I was at the Fish Hatchery one of my coworkers injured her wrist so I had to help her with her daily chores. Having more people at the Fish Hatchery also makes it possible for large projects that don't necessarily need to be done immediately, to be completed. Everyone at the Fish Hatchery said that the show pond, which I restored as my project, was probably something that wouldn't have been done without me there to do it because there were so many other pressing tasks that had to be done first.
How LINK Has Helped My Plans for The FutureI had a lot of fun during my internship because I was able to work with my hands, I had the opportunity to see something that I'd normally never get to see, I got to go to cool places, I learned a lot of interesting things, and I worked with wildlife. This internship allowed me to experience a line of work that a lot of people don't have the chance to see. I was even privy to places like the fish quarantine building, which was my favorite place because that is where the rare San Juan lineage cutthroat trout are housed. However, even though I had a lot of fun I wouldn't want to work in wildlife management or at a fish hatchery because such organizations are founded on anthropomorphic views of nature. I want to work in a field like wildlife conservation or biological research, where the work is more so centered around an ecocentric view of the natural world. I would also like to work in an industry where I would be more involved in conservation efforts and where I could use my brain to solve bigger problems.
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