Getting back on Track
Monday, March 30, 2026 • 4 min read
Okay, I need a plan. I have put off my internship for an embarrassingly amount of time. What do I need to do? What do I need to do?
First, let's see how many hours I have left to complete. Fortunately, I'm tracking my time with ToggleTrack. After doing the math, I can work for about 2.5 hours a day for the next fifteen (15) workdays to reach the 120hour minimum. I think I can do that if I add brainstorming time like this.
Next, what do I want to accomplish for the remaining 34.5hours I got left? Well, I really do want to add my supervisor's ORCHID profile link to her profile in the website. I think it would be an easy way for site visitors to find a list of her research. Also, ORCHID I have the impression that it's more "social" than Google Scholar and Research Gate. Yes, those are my supervisor's three "social" profiles as a researcher.
Now that I think about it, I would like to share my notes with the team. Yeah, or... I just think it's a bit strange to keep those links to myself, y'know? I would *like* to add those three links to the lab's website. Maybe I should ask my supervisor first and see what she thinks. If I had to choose one to display in the website, I would choose ORCHID.
Next, I'm going to finish those interview questions for my coworker. She's doing some amazing social and scientific research in East Africa. So far, I have a draft for her introduction. For the questions, I'm thinking three to five well thought ones about her time over there so far. The goal is to showcase the work and life of lab members. My coworker is on a fellowship so I'll forgo the "basic" details and hone into the good stuff. What it's like to live over there! I have very little personal experience with the region so I think site visitors who are most likely from the American continent and Europe would be interested into reading insight in such a faraway region.
So for the presentation of this interview after the design of the News section has been up and running for a few weeks. I'm thinking that... ah yes, I was also advised to reach out to outlets for my writing. Yeah, I should seriously consider that, shouldn't I?
Instead, let's focus on writing topics. The lab has an interdisciplinary focus so talking about biodiversity, conservation, and political ecology to introduce people to the topics. They make sense to me because my family is from Latin American where agriculture is inherently woven with cultural identity. Ecuador is an agrarian country so agriculture and ecosystem health has a huge influence in politics. Perhaps I could write about this! Write about my own reality (or my cultural background to be specific) where while industrial agriculture does have a space in the country's economy, it relies mostly on small and medium-size producers (milk, fruits, seafood, coffee, cacao, and others). Yeah, I like that. It's also... lab agnostic I would say? As in it could also be read outside of any website. Syndicated is the word haha.
Something I could write about is an informal piece on my experience playing the board game my supervisor was part of designing. I played it twice and I think people might be interested in knowing about someone's experience. It would also indirectly be a way to promote it.
- Based on the list of my deliverables I wrote with my supervisor before the start of the internship, my focus on April looks a bit like this:
- Board game
- Something related to agriculture, ecology, economy, and politics on an agrarian country (ex. Ecuador). Perhaps highlight one of the many sustainable agriculture projects in the c
- Q & A with lab member
- Graphic/visual explainer (Optional)
- Something something, poster on basic agroecology concepts. I have learned that the best guides are the ones for personal use so I can gather some notes from what I have learned and make a poster out of it.