Ethan Lawson 

Reflection Paper 5 

07/09/2025 

ODU Summer 2025, CRN 35529 

Professor Teresa Duvall 

Southwest Virginia Community College 

Internship Reflection Paper 5 

Fifth 50 hours 

The fifth fifty hours interning at Southwest Virginia Community College has given me empathy for individuals with limited technical skills and knowledge to navigate the constraints of my position. Daily I communicate with students and staff with limited technical skills. Since most summer classes are held virtually, the majority of on-site calls I handle involve faculty and staff. Some common problems they have usually involve monitors not being detected, printers not working, and projectors not displaying. Most of these issues can be resolved by updating the operating system or drivers, readding the printer or restarting the print spool service, or simply plugging it into the right port. Sometimes updates get pushed out over the weekend, and computers won’t respond until a hard reset is performed. On the one hand, these are quick and easy problems to fix. On the other hand, getting the same issues is quite a bore after you’ve seen it a few times. There seems to be a select few that have the same recurring issues no matter how many times you explain to them the cause. Issues like these have trained me to remain professional and empathetic to individuals with limited troubleshooting capabilities. Certain issues, like changing phone numbers for Microsoft authentication and clearing ports, have helped me navigate the constraints of my possession. Not having access to user interfaces for switches and Microsoft admin is understandable since I’m a mere IT Help Desk Technician. So, I commonly need to ask a coworker to handle such things to complete my own duties.  

Some of the most significant things I have learned are the benefits of thinking like a detective and being comfortable with feeling unprepared. Most of the time when a computer shows signs of hardware failure, we simply replace it. However, if it seems like a software issue, we usually make a solid effort before deciding on the next step. To reach a more in-depth understanding of the issue and symptoms presented, I sometimes go beyond the scope of my duties. For example, if disk usage is at 100%, I will check for any critical system logs or completely remove the hard drive if we have already replaced it. This is only to increase my knowledge and troubleshooting abilities. I don’t take such actions if a computer is still within warranty because those can be repaired and returned to inventory. In many scenarios, all you’re working with is a brief description of the issue from someone with little technical knowledge. Asking the right questions can help you narrow down possible issues, but you never know for sure until inspecting it. In this position, you must embrace the unfamiliarity of issues and have the confidence to make decisions on the fly. 

In addition to work related tasks, I have learned the power of patience, prevention, and curiosity. Some issues tend to solve themself with enough time. For example, one time a student was having issues with Microsoft 365 on their Chromebook. The next day when they brought it for me to look at, it had resolved itself. It’s important to work to solve the issue but ensuring that it does not happen again can save time and effort in the future. This is why after helping someone with an issue I brief them on the steps I took to solve it. The technological field is growing and without the curiosity and drive to learn along with it you can quickly fall behind. Our campus alone is constantly changing tech equipment like the phone system. I have started training for navigating Microsoft Teams instead of our current ethernet powered phones. If I did not, I would be unable to help people learn this new application which would reflect poorly on our department.  

Overall, this internship has opened my eyes to what it means to work in the tech industry. This field demands that you see all the pieces of a system as a whole along with what connects them. You must adapt to the knowledge and skills you gain and implement them towards unfamiliar ones. You must be able to recognize that some issues are simply out of the scope of your duties and be okay with not solving them. Continuous learning and innate curiosity are necessary to change with the times. A lot of people in the tech field might not like to communicate with others regularly, but collaboration is necessary in many of these roles. Furthermore, any tech field that provides a service requires you to be patient and empathize even if communication is solely digital.