It is said that Confucius once stated "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." In this case, the single step to start the journey of this internship was to get access to the files I was transcribing.
Luckily, Dr. Cassanello and Dr. Bubriski had been on top of the issue from day one. It wasn't until this week that I could look at the workload I had in store for me.
Transcribing, I knew, took an extensive amount of time. To ensure that everything which was said in the various interviews was typed out for later reference could take hours. However, I was up to the task, as interviews with people from different walks of life interested me greatly.
Much to my surprise, this week gave me insight as to how any actual tasks varied from what I was expecting. It was my job to be a proof-reader and content reviewer for the various files that were attached to each interview.
Some of my duties include, as I stated before, proof-reading the transcriptions, making sure there were no grammatical errors within the pages, whilst also filling in any gaps that the previous transcriber had left due to not understanding what was said on an audio recording.
Another one of my tasks is to ensure we had the correct forms in order to use these interviews on the final project, as each participant had not submitted the release.
On top of this realization, I began to understood what the project really was. I had understood that there were interviews, and that the interviews were of women in the community, but I had no idea the extent of different backgrounds the department of Women and Gender Studies had touched upon.
Unfortunately, I am unsure of how much I can reveal. As mentioned earlier, not every participant had submitted the release form. Not only that, but the files I am reviewing are not available to the public just yet, so I cannot mention what the interviews covered.
However, what I can say is the project is something I am extremely excited to be working on, as I know the end result will provide better insight as to the pathways for success for students here at the University of Central Florida.
Coming up next week, I have my work cut out for me. There are many different batches of interviews that must be read over, proofread, and content-checked in order to move forward.
I have also been tasked with figuring out a way to make the task list easier and more accessible for the interns that come after me. Dr.Cassanello and Dr. Bubriski want to make sure that the work we are doing is done in the most efficient way. As of right now, I cannot think of anything that could make this work more efficient, save for getting more interns on the project.
Overall, these upcoming weeks I'm sure will allow me to gain a better understanding of the research done within the department, and how the different methods of obtaining and cataloging information is done regarding Public History.
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