Educational Milestones

 

These brief descriptions outline major semester projects and internships completed during my educational career at Penn State Wilkes-Barre in pursuit of my degree in Information Sciences and Technology.

 

 

Fall 2003 – Spring 2004

 

IST 495 – Real World Business Internship

Luzerne County Academic Assessment Tracking System (LUCAATS)

Wilkes-Barre, PA

http://www.lucaats.com

 

LUCAATS is an educational resource linking students in eleven Luzerne County public school districts to higher education, community agencies, volunteer opportunities and career/employment information. This program is granted yearly and supported by the Luzerne County Business and Education Partnership (LCBEP) and the Luzerne County Board of Commissioners. LUCAATS distributes a survey to children in grades 3 through 12 including recently graduated high school seniors to gather information to help support and promote higher education and career paths.

 

Activities accomplished while working at LUCAATS include:

·         Completed more than 400 hours of work related to information technology.

·         Worked under the direction of the program director, two program coordinators, and a technical specialist/database administrator.

·         Maintained multiple tables in a Microsoft Access database and MS-SQL for the organization’s school forms that are distributed every year.

·         Maintained the organization’s web site using Notepad, Microsoft FrontPage, Macromedia Dreamweaver, MS-SQL, and JavaScript.

·         Setup and configure necessary computers and peripherals such as printers, computer towers, scanners and monitors.

·         Create and maintain user properties in a Windows based environment.

·         Troubleshot various computer software and hardware problems in the office environment.

·         Run and monitor weekly antivirus and Windows updates and backups on the network server using management tools.

·         Used the systems development life cycle to outline, research, test, and implement applications for future use within the organization and provided written documentation for these applications for reference.

·         Participated in monthly board of director’s meetings which included school board and business executives from Luzerne County.

·         Presented future projects to the board of director’s on various occasions in oral and written form.

·         Assisted in setups for various presentations in the community using laptops, PowerPoint software and projection systems.

·         Assisted in the delivery of prizes to different schools throughout Luzerne County to student’s who have successfully completed and returned their survey to the program. All students who completed and returned their survey by a deadline were entered to win various prizes including mountain bikes, gift certificates, computers, and DVD players donated and purchased from various local businesses. Each winner was determined through a drawing using a Visual Basic program which randomly chooses a name from a list.

·         Worked with the organization’s staff and the board of directors in redesigning the cover and updating the questions asked on the survey which is distributed to students.

 

 

Fall 2004

Real World Business Internship

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Front Office

Wilkes-Barre, PA

http://www.wbspenguins.com

 

The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins is a successful hockey organization in Northeastern Pennsylvania with thousands of season ticket holders each year enjoying tomorrow’s star athletes today at the professional level.

 

Activities accomplished while working with the Penguins front office include:

• Completed over 100 hours of work related to marketing and promotions.
• Worked in an office environment under the direction of the marketing director and with various levels of management including other interns, ticketing staff, department directors, team store employees, and the team’s fan base.
• Researched and presented ideas for game intermission events.
• Updated fan survey and kid’s club databases using Microsoft Access.
• Ran various reports using Microsoft Excel and Access for office staff.
• Assisted in general filing and clerical office work if needed.
• Tracked sponsor advertising for more than twenty-five sponsors after each home game in radio and public announcement scripts. Made copies of all advertising scripts and filed each in a separate file for later reference.
• Used the team’s vehicle to run daily errands.
• Assisted team members and front office staff at community events such as luncheons and charity fundraisers.
• Completed sales calls to the public using information from fan surveys completed at home games to offer ticket packages and special offers.
• Interacted with the public before, during, and after each home game at Wachovia Arena in Wilkes-Barre.
• Worked with children and parents at the organization’s kid’s club table on the concourse of the arena. New members were encouraged to sign up for special discounts and advantages and returning members were able to win prizes playing games.
• Assisted with game night promotions including picking up, delivering, unpacking, and handing out of items to the public in an orderly and consistent manner.

 

 

Spring 2005

 

IST 440W – IST Integration

·         Worked in a group environment which consisted of five senior students in the IST major.

·         Was asked by the course instructor to approach an organization for a real world problem and provide a cost effective and useable solution which would be completed in a sixteen week time frame.

·         Created a user friendly database and application using Microsoft Access and Visual Basic for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins AHL hockey team.

·         Database holds information obtained by the Penguins from fan surveys at home games. All information the group used was obtained through meetings with Penguins staff on a bi-weekly basis.

·         Database linked multiple tables with varying information and reports were able to be viewed using the report wizard in Access. All information was entered using a Visual Basic form and maintained through a switchboard in Microsoft Access.

·         Used weekly dashboards to update classmates and the course instructor on the progress of the project and provided detailed examples in regards to major milestones in the project.

·         Used Microsoft Project to create Gantt Charts to chart our progress and milestones throughout the semester.

·         Completed a detailed user manual with screenshots and frequently asked questions in relation to the database and application created.

·         Using Microsoft PowerPoint, our group presented our final working application and database at the completion of the semester.

·         All documentation – including contracts, timelines, screenshots, and manuals – were included with backup copies of the database and application on CD.

·         All items were handed over to the Penguins at the completion of the project after presenting it to the Penguins staff, Penn State faculty, and fellow students.

·         The project was considered a success by our group, faculty, and Penguins staff.

 

 

 

Fall 2004

 

IST 421 – Advanced Enterprise Integration

·         Worked in a team environment to create a web site to meet specific requirements by the course instructor.

·         Took five mock businesses – two hotels, two restaurants, and one convention center - and created internal web sites for various tasks such as inventory, guest information, and discounts applied by using active server pages (ASP) and an MS-SQL database.

·         Completed a user manual including screen shots which were handed in as part of the final presentation.

·         Once each group had created their web site, our instructor helped us to integrate all tables and sites to share the same information throughout the five businesses. Unfortunately, the project ran longer than expected and the class was unable to completely integrate all five sites using XML.

 

 

 

Spring 2004

 

IST 420 – Fundamentals of System Enterprise Integration

·         The class was broken into groups where each group created separate “virtual” applications and used the systems development life cycle (SDLC) to prepare testing, manuals, reports, and charts for the creation of a “live” application.

·         Presented various topics throughout the semester in regards to middleware, SDLC, SAP, and ERP.

 

 

 

Spring 2004

 

IST 402 – Emerging Technologies

·         Worked with another student to compile and successfully enter a paper on instructional design in e-learning to a national conference on e-learning.

·         Our paper compared the benefits of the University of Phoenix Online and the Penn State World Campus and the technologies used by each entity.

·         At the completion of the semester the research our group found was presented to fellow students and faculty to be used as our final grade.

·         From five papers that were submitted, only two papers were accepted to be presented by our professor at the national conference which was held in Washington, D.C. in the fall of 2004.

 

 

 

Spring 2003

 

IST 256 – Programming for the Web

·         Created various web pages and forms using HTML and JavaScript.

·         Completed an online tutorial and presentation discussing different programming methods which could be used online for teaching purposes.

 

 

 

Spring 2003

 

IST 247 – Contemporary Projects in Software Development

·         Create a working online e-commerce store using Active Server Pages (ASP), Javascript, and MS-SQL Database.

·         Design of a web site, privacy policy, disability issues, and other aspects of e-commerce were introduced.

 

 

 

Fall 2002

 

CMPBD 205 – Integrating Programming Technologies into Business

·         Using Visual C++, I created several programs for various problems presented by my instructor.

·         Procedures and debugging was introduced for future reference.