Internship Spotlight: Trevor Lee, Linc Housing

Trevor Lee is a MIS major graduating in the spring of 2023.  This summer he interned with Linc Housing as a Data Entry Operator in Long Beach California.

What was the process for getting this internship, job, or summer experience?

Over the last few weeks of the 2020-2021 school year, I worked with my aunt, who is the Associate Dean at Cal State Long Beach. She helps students get internships in the community, so she helped set me up for an internship with Linc Housing. This originally was supposed to be an unpaid summer internship, but because of the hours and California's labor laws, they decided to compensate me. After I got in touch with Maria Marquez, the Vice President of Resident Services, I sent her a letter of intent expressing my interest in interning over the summer. Once she accepted the letter, we set up a time to interview, and I had about a 20-minute interview with her where I reviewed the guidelines of my work and talked about why I wanted to work at Linc.

What was a typical day like?

My days at Linc were not all the same and there was never really a typical day. I worked on resident survey analysis, inputting attendance sheet data, helped do simple tasks around The Spark at Midtown, and helped out at their local food bank a few times. I really enjoyed the work I did their because I know it was helping people who are typically under-served. The photo above is me in The Spark test kitchen, where they host cooking lessons with residents.

If you worked on a big project, please describe it below:

The main project I worked on over the course of the summer was inputting and analyzing resident survey data from both The Spark at Midtown and Springhaven locations. I would collect resident surveys and input the information into Excel sheets. This information would include name, age, # of people in household, but also included data such as types of programs residents were interested in and what technology they had available to them. From there, I used Excel to analyze the data and put together PowerPoint presentations to visualize my findings. These findings will hopefully help resident programming in the future. Another project I worked on that was data related but not as big was helping with inputting attendance sheet data from resident programs at all Linc locations. I would create simple tables with the program title and the residents name with how many times they attended. This helped get all the information in one place and keep everything organized.

What did you learn?

I learned that when you start working somewhere new you need to put yourself out there and ask questions. You should not have much downtime during an internship/Summer Job.  It is good to be busy because the point of being there is to gain experience and help out the corporation/organization. As long as you are communicating with your supervisors and team members everything should run smoothly.

How did Eller prepare you for this experience?

Eller prepared me by teaching me about cover letters and how to write appropriate business level emails. Taking classes such as the BCOMS and the BNADs really did help me when it came to communicating with adults in a business type setting. 

Anything else you would like to share about your summer experience?

I just wanted to share Linc's about statement so you could have some background as to who they are:

Since 1984, Linc Housing has built a strong track record of creating communities for thousands of families and seniors throughout California. We're committed to building and preserving housing that is affordable, environmentally sustainable, and a catalyst for community improvement. Linc works hard to address the homelessness crisis by building supportive housing and addressing the affordable housing needs of our state's diverse population. Through our resident services, we're also providing life-enhancing programs that improve the quality of life for those who live in our communities.