Index IntroductionLessons from Being an InternExploring Social CapitalInternship Experience and Professional BehaviorStrategies for Building Social CapitalConclusionWorks CitedIntroductionThis quarter I had the unique opportunity to choose an organization and gain internship experience to complete a project or resolve a business issue in an organization. I am completing my internship at Alchemika Salon, owned by Terry Barnes. Terry's salon is unique in that it partners with a third party, Green Circle Salons, to reduce and reuse salon waste, including used films, color tubes, extra hair color, glass, hair clippings, paper and plastic. (Green Circle Salons, 2020) Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Lessons from Being an Intern According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, salons fall into an industry called “Other Services (Except Government).”(U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2020) This Internship I it allowed me to reflect on how my internship experiences relate to the various dimensions of social capital and professionalism. It led me to reflect on how the norms in this industry are different than I had anticipated, as well as observing behaviors that have led to the development or underdevelopment of social capital. Furthermore, it gave me the opportunity to analyze how these methods of building social capital would play out in another context. Finally, it allowed me to evaluate my plan to build social capital with the remaining time left in this internship. Exploring social capital Social capital is a complex concept and contains three dimensions: relational, cognitive and structural social capital. The relational aspect of social capital includes trust and norms and relates directly to discourse. How we interact with our family, friends, and community members shapes our primary discourse. How we function in our primary speech, in turn, influences how we interact with others in secondary speech, in my case it would be how I behave and communicate with people in the salon, including my sponsor . (Claridge, 2019)When I think about it, my speeches, being in class in the BASAM program has influenced how I behave in my other current secondary speech, the salon. In this context, I adopted a more formal method of communicating, dressing and behaving due to the influence of my experiences in my secondary speech, being in the classroom. I also noticed a link between the cognitive dimension of social capital and my internship. In Terry's living room is a plaque from the Bellingham Herald. View an article published in the Herald about Alchemika Salon. The article discusses how Terry's business focuses on being environmentally sustainable and conscious of the waste her salon produces. In one of our meetings, I asked my sponsor about the plaque and its backstory. He told me about his experience contacting the Bellingham Herald and what the piece meant. This relates to the cognitive dimension of social capital because at one point Terry had to categorize individuals in the Bellingham Herald as a group who would care about the efforts he is making to reduce waste and be environmentally conscious. Internal Experience and Professional Behavior My experiences with this internship allowed me to see real-life examples of professional behavior in the workplace. Two examples of professional behavior that I noticed during my internship yesthey occurred during my meetings with my sponsor. My internship sponsor displayed professional behavior by always keeping his commitments. My sponsor is the sole owner of his business and only employs one other stylist. She is extremely busy, but there has never been a moment where she "collapsed" on meeting me. My context in this internship environment is a little unusual because Terry is my personal stylist. Moving from the role of client to that of intern gave me a new perspective and made me reflect on how the norms in this context are different from what I expected. I noticed that the way my internship sponsor dresses is less casual than I expected, often in other salons I saw stylists wearing yoga pants and shirts and open toed shoes. His behavior and communication style with his clients and colleagues are also more formal than I expected. This is something I admire about my internship sponsor, she has a quiet grace in her actions and always maintains her professionalism. Additionally, I expected his communication style and demeanor to be more relaxed and casual based on other salons I've been to. Based on these observations, one change I want to make to adapt to this environment is to interact with my sponsor in a way that is more formal and professional. At first it was difficult for me to adapt to this new type of interaction with my sponsor because I know her on a personal level. At the same time, it was easy to adapt because we both understand the broader implications of this project being an internship at the college. To achieve this, I dressed casually and arrived at our meeting ten to fifteen minutes early and we set a verbal agenda for our meetings in advance. At the end of each visit I provided a summary indicating where we are with the project, including what I need from her that week and what I will complete on my own. To further demonstrate my professionalism, I would like to outline the objectives of each meeting in advance. My internship experience allowed me to be able to observe behaviors that led to the development or underdevelopment of social capital in this context. The first example of social capital development that I observed in this internship is the relationship my sponsor has with the Mount Vernon Downtown Association. Terry works closely with the Mount Vernon Downtown Association, which sponsors events featuring its salons such as Ladies Night out Downtown Sip and Shop, Ladies Night Outdoor Award and Sidewalk Sale. The second example of social capital development that I observed was the relationship Terry has with Green Circle Salons. Terry has a reciprocal relationship with Green Circle Salons, a salesperson from the company comes and periodically collects salon waste from his salon. In exchange, Green Circle Salons features its salons in their Green Salon Directory. One example of underdevelopment of social capital that I observed was my internship sponsor's use of Instagram. In some of our meetings, Terry told me that he finds it less easy to use Instagram for his social media marketing and prefers Facebook. This is because Instagram sometimes resizes and crops photos, so it can be difficult to view images on the platform. To me, this is an example of undeveloped social capital because Instagram is a great tool when trying to build connections with other local businesses, and it isn't being used for this purpose, as much as it could. Strategies for Building Social CapitalI believe that the practices used by my internship sponsor to build social capital would be effective.