My time at ACADIA has been rewarding. I’ve learned that there are so many personalities within a company that ultimately make it successful. I’ve learned about leadership and the importance of having a leader that you like. There are so many inspiring people that I have met here that have each given me a piece of advice. My mentor Shannon is amazing. She is such an empowered and happy person that it made me excited to come to internship every day. She wasn't just a mentor for work, but also for life because we were able to connect on a personal level. We bonded over coffee and Netflix shows, as well as politics and people. I definitely will keep in contact with everyone on my team here because I’ve been able to connect with them too. This internship has proven to me that you get out what you put in. Everyone that I've come across works so hard, with so much passion, and feel like their outcomes are rewarding. I saw that from day one, which empowered me to want to work hard and push myself to get a successful outcome with my projects. I have such big goals in mind for my future, some that are going to be hard. Getting into some of the colleges I want to and studying medicine is going to be one of the biggest challenges of my life. I’ve learned to push through the hard patches, and build a good support system to keep going. At ACADIA, there have been rough patches, but Rob hosts team huddles to ensure that everyone is doing well and staying on track with their work, but also to give support or extra help when needed. That's something that is extremely valuable at a company and inspiring coming from a leader. I hope one day that I can be as big an influence on someone as everyone at ACADIA has been to me.
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My internship project, Woman Up, was very successful. I created a logo that is based off the ACADIA People and Performance logo. Initially, I sent out a survey to all the female employees of ACADIA, asking them to agree or disagree with general workplace statements such as : I have a community of support at ACADIA and I have had opportunities to work and collaborate in diverse and inclusive setting. I got some really interesting results that helped me further my research. I used the data to really identify the needs and wants of female workers. The results showed that women were most interested in workshops around confidence, empowerment, and challenges. For workshops, I concluded from the feedback that there was a high interest in women wanting speakers, videos, and group discussions focusing on those topics. After extensive research, I can say that women struggle with leadership roles in businesses around the world. My mentor has said that she wants to continue this project even after I’m gone because she feels like it something very important and relevant to ACADIA. Together, my mentor and I have agreed that creating an environment that enforces woman power can help with confidence and leadership. As part of my POL, I presented the survey results to my team in order to help them get a better and closer look into what women want. Everyone was thoroughly impressed with the way I was able to kickoff a project that will be ongoing for ACADIA after my time. I am very proud that I was able to create something that is meaningful for the company because my biggest fear was that my work would be irrelevant. There is not a physical product for my project but below there is work that went into creating this project.
It started on day one. My mentor, a whiteboard, and I all in one space jotting down idea after idea on how to build up a Women in Leadership project. She gave me a backbone of what the expectations were, but told me to run with my ideas. I came up with a project pitch that we then took to the VP of the department. He loved the idea and I was approved to get working. I sent out my survey and used that data to tailor a workshop outline for building confidence and trust etc. among the female workers of ACADIA. I learned that patience is key and feedback really helps pull all of your ideas together. I think that it took some self advocacy to ask for help and be open to any critique from my mentor and the VP. There is a newfound appreciation for independence and not having your ideas limited. It was also rewarding to be working in an environment where co workers are able to balance work and fun. Of course, everyone has a crazy schedule and a million projects, but there is always fun to be found in the midst of the business. I hope that I can become better at learning how to have fun while I am working. I think that I did have a lot of fun because the project was so engaging and inspiring to me. I felt very welcomed everywhere I went, (for interviews, workshops, etc.) Life outside of high school is so much bigger than life in high school. You don't always see the same faces every day, no one cares about what “she” wore, and people have a genuine liking for another. Office gossip consists of, “She took the last cinnamon bagel”, and “Who took the last box of staples?!” I never really got any negative vibes from coworker to coworker because no one really cares about the baggage, because everyone has baggage and it's just a part of life.
Self AdvocacyAs part of my internship project, I am interviewing different employees from different departments all around the company. In these interviews, I have to explain the HTH internship program, as well as why I am here and what my future goals are. I think it takes a lot to be able to open up about what my future plans are because it’s something that is kind of scary for me. In every interview, they ask me where I want to go for college and what I want to study. After the interviews, my respondents tell me that I am very capable of achieving the goals that I talked about in the beginning. This has made me feel more confident for my future. It has been shocking to me how much I can relate to some of the people I am interviewing with personal stories and political views. Initially, I don't talk about politics until they bring them up. I have set up all of my interviews alone, learning how to use things like Microsoft Calendar and Outlook. I have learned the value in flexibility. Everyone has a busy schedule and sometimes things just don't work out. It was hard for me to schedule 10+ interviews because looking at everyone's individual schedule and trying to get a moment of their time is almost impossible. Everyone here is always on the move and they're all being productive. I have learned a lot about different positions in ACADIA, helping me get a better universal understanding of how a pharma company works. I think that I am following the advice because I am making an impact with my Women in Leadership project. The results from my survey are still coming in, but I am getting inside information about how women really feel who work here. It’s been a very busy week and I really like not having down time. It's been fun to be working on my project because it is something that I am so passionate about. I have had several emails after the survey was sent out from women who want to hold interviews with me, just so they get to meet me. This boosted my confidence and comfort for working here. Everything is going really well and I am really enjoying my project!
My project is around Women in Leadership. I have called this project “Woman Up”. You always hear the saying “Man up,” when someone is acting weak. It is said to woman all the time when they're emotional. I don't like that term because it has a tone that promotes male dominance. I want to promote female dominance in a work environment and bring women so they can “Woman Up” together. I created a logo that is based off the ACADIA People and Performance logo. (see below) To start, I have sent out a survey to all the female employees of ACADIA, both here in San Diego and in Princeton, New Jersey, asking them to agree or disagree with general workplace statements such as : I have a community of support at ACADIA and I have had opportunities to work and collaborate in diverse and inclusive setting. I am currently waiting for results. . I will then use the data to create a proposal that includes a structure and content identified during the needs assessment. Additionally, I would like to create workshops specifically designed for the needs of female workers within ACADIA. Workshops can include videos, article analysis, group discussion, and exercises that can help with confidence, support, trust, etc. Women struggle with leadership roles in businesses around the world. By creating an environment that is open to establishing woman power, I hope that I can create a more secure environment for women at ACADIA, helping with confidence and leadership, showing that women are just as amazing as men, (especially in the workforce). As part of my POL, I will present some of the survey results to employees and help them understand some of the demographics behind my research. Another aspect to my project is conducting interviews around the entire company. This is to help me better understand different positions within ACADIA and hear employees stories of how they came to work at ACADIA. For this, I created an interview guide, with critique from my mentor. I’m excited to meet more people from ACADIA and hear their stories and what they find to be rewarding. My mentor has been extremely supportive in helping me with both of these projects. She offers critique and we have a big whiteboard with drafts of ideas. I’m keeping a folder with all my work starting with the initial drafts to put together into a portfolio at the end of my internship to see where I started and where I ended up. I have had to stay extremely organized and flexible with scheduling these interviews. ACADIA is a very busy company with very busy employees. I’ve learned how to schedule, reschedule, and cancel meetings due to conflicts and availability of people that I want to interview. For a mini project, I am organizing a mini resource library in the copy room. There are a ton of books, videos, and papers that are in a big cabinet that need to be organized. I want to develop some type of checkout process that employees will be able to see what sources are available and how they can be accessed. Overall, I am excited to do this project because I have a lot of passion for it. It will be rewarding for me because I think that it can have an impact on the company. I’m learning the value of patience. It's taking a little while to get results, but in the end it will be worth the wait. Mentor Interview | Part 1
At ACADIA, I have a wonderful mentor, Shannon Wellman. She is the Director of Corporate Training and Leadership Development in the People and Performance department. In the Corporate Training, Shannon highly values the importance of Emotional Intelligence (EQ), individual strengths, and how to utilize all of those skills. Through programs like DiSC, Gallup Strengths, and Lynda, she is able to analyze employees individual skills and strengths. This helps to create a more productive project team. In the DiSC program, there are four main categories that people who take the assessment get placed into: Dominance, influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness, aka DiSC. DiSC styles are all equally valuable, and helps people understand themselves in the work environment. Based off of DiSC results, Shannon is able to create workshops and seminars that discuss your core values based off the assessment. Shannon also oversees new onboarding workshops for new employees. She helps with employee recognition and engagement, making sure projects are on the right track and project leaders are getting recognition they deserve. Shannon is the backbone of culture and diversity within the People and Performance department. Shannon majored in Communications at UC Santa Barbara. Shortly after graduating, she became a marketing coordinator with training in talent development. This helped with her talent management experience. Shannon came to ACADIA in May of 2017. She knew Rob Ackles, who is the Vice President of People and Performance from another company. The Director of Corporate Training and Leadership Development was a newly created position, meaning that there was a lot of flexibility with what she could and couldn't do. Having an open ended position is what drew Shannon to work at ACADIA. Her background and experienced aligned with the qualifications for the position. In the People and Performance department, Shannon considers her position to be the fun aspect. She gets to work with people from all departments and gets to meet new hires. The skills that are important for her job: the ability to analyze emotional intelligence, cognitive ability, collaboration, professionalism, communication, and an open personality. Her job entails of talking to people every day, so it's important and valuable to be open to new skills and personalities from different people who work at ACADIA. She finds her job to be rewarding because it's not tedious. New people bring new stories that she gets to learn about and create workshops for. She wishes she knew how Corporate America worked when she was in high school. ACADIA has over 400 employees, with two main sites in San Diego, CA, and Princeton, NJ. Steve Davis is the CEO of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals and works on the San Diego site. Under the CEO, are the CCO, CFO, and CMO, that are all the heads of their departments. They all have Vice Presidents in their departments who report to them, and directors, administrators, and managers who report to the VP’s. This structure is important to ensure organization with ACADIA, meaning that one person is not in charge of too many people. The most a person directly manages is 8 people. This also helps build solid relationships for heads to know their people. Shannon advised me that the most important in a work environment is to like your boss, otherwise it will make work life miserable. She also told me that you should genuinely like your job, because she's seen people that don't like their job underperform in areas, tasks, and projects. I think that is super important because your happiness should play a role in your career, and if you don't like what you're doing, change something. Internship Reflection | Part 2 Week 1 was a success. Shannon and I finalized plans for my project. My project is called Woman Up. It is a project that will help create workshops and seminars to develop a Woman in Leadership program for ACADIA. I am sending out a survey to women employees at both the San Diego and Princeton sites asking them questions about how they feel in the ACADIA work environment. That will be sent out on Friday, so hopefully by Monday I can analyze the results. I will then take the results and create workshops and seminars tailored to specific wants and needs of women workers. I’m excited to see the results. It will be very interesting to see how workers feel here at ACADIA. My mentor and I have developed a great relationship, and I feel like she's taught me quite a bit about the importance of personalities within the work environment. This can help at HTH, because we are a project based school, and I can better collaborate with my peers on tasks and projects. On Thursday for lunch, I went on a power walk around one of the neighborhoods nearby with 6 people who work in People and Performance. I was able to talk to someone who works one cube over from me. Her name is Rochelle and she works with AD, Sales Training & Development, Commercial. She told me a lot about her college experience and how she chose her major. She attended the University of Nevada, Reno and majored in Journalism. This has helped her at ACADIA because she does a lot of writing and template and resource making, I liked talking to her because she gave me some advice about college, saying that if I don't get in somewhere not to take it personally, because it just means it wasn't the right school for me. I am driving on the lovely 5 freeway every morning. The traffic is awful, and takes me about an hour to get to Carmel Valley. I’ve been listening to books on tape to pass the time, because some mornings it takes forever. I think when I am in a career, I would like to be in a city, where there is a good public transportation system, because driving and sitting in traffic is not fun. Overall, I am having a really great time. The environment is still super friendly and welcoming. I'm looking forward to getting those survey results! Acadia has been an extremely welcoming workplace. All the people that work here are friendly and have made me feel comfortable working here. I was surprised that they were all excited to have a high school intern on site. They welcomed me with signs in my cubical and a lunch from Champagne Bakery. My mentor and I discussed some projects that I will be doing during my internship. I'm very excited to start them. There is a lot of partner and trio team collaboration within the People and Performance department. Once a week, there is a meeting that all P&P employees attend to discuss things that are happening within the department, goals for the week, and any highlights from the previous week. This helps build a community within the department and keep everyone updated.
Aliza Bos
ACADIA Pharmaceuticals | Shannon Wellman | [email protected] Teodora Nikolova What do you think the business's general work policies are ? At ACADIAPharmaceuticals, employees get 24 paid vacation days per year. They are allowed 1 hour for lunch per day. Typically, people work 40 hour weeks. My mentor works 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, Monday - Friday. Describe the dress code. What does that mean to you? The dress code is business casual. There are always workshops, meetings, and presentations going on throughout the company grounds, so it is important to look professional. I think that it is a bit more professional than the HTH dress code. I don't mind it, as I have a lot of other clothes from my closet to wear at this internship. Please write a reflection about your Career Day experience. What do you expect the professional world there to be like? I met with the HR VP, Rob Ackles, and the Manager of Training and Development, Carla Fischenich. I had a meeting with Rob about expectations and goals for my internship, as well as going over some of the projects that I will be doing in my time there. We talked about college and plans for my future. Carla gave me a tour of the floors where ACADIA has employees. She introduced me to some other people who I might be working with during the four weeks. It seems like a very welcoming environment. I am very excited to start working there. Rob assured me that during the hard working hours, there would of course be some fun involved. I think that it is very important to establish such a welcoming work place. I am a little nervous, being the youngest one there, but I'm sure that I will find comfort within that setting. In what ways do you expect your high school classes and the skills you have learned to apply to this profession? Humanities | Perspective Taking | Use in situations when there are presentations happening and the speaker is presenting about new ideas or findings that I might not have thought about or understood previously Biology | Lab Notes | Use when I am doing research on Parkinson's Disease in order to better my understanding of the disease and enhance my knowledge for the presentation at the end of my internship Math | Organization of Data | Use when there are lots of notes from my research being analyzed, keeping everything in an order can prevent mistakes and have a more precise analysis of what I am collecting |
Aliza Bos[email protected] |