2019 Intern Spotlight: Database Management Intern

Database Management Intern Combines Love of Technology and the Environment
By Mykalena Sheldon, 2019 Database Management Intern, MBS

Amalia Akagi, Veronica James, Heidi Perkins and Mykalena Sheldon give presentations to Sealaska’s Seattle office. Mykalena is a computer science and environmental studies major at the University of Washington.

This summer I worked with Managed Business Solutions (MBS), a subsidiary of Sealaska, as their database management intern. MBS provides IT solutions to clients nationally for a wide range of topics. My summer was split into two sections, which gave me the ability to work with two entirely different teams within the company. Splitting my time this way allowed me to experience not only two teams within the company, but also two entirely different working environments and project types.

The first half of my summer, I worked remotely for MBS from Sealaska’s Seattle office and worked on multiple data migration projects. MBS is headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado, but the team that I worked with for the first four weeks of my internship was entirely remote. This meant that our main form of communication was over Skype and email. Before starting this internship, I was worried that I would feel lost without my manager a couple of desks away from me, or that communication would be difficult while tackling problems. Not only were my hesitations wrong, but I also ended up enjoying the style of work immensely. While working in Seattle, I still had a work environment that I could be a part of each day and other interns to share my experience with. I also had some freedom with where and when I chose to work.

The second half of my internship I moved to Fort Collins, Colorado, and worked with an entirely different part of MBS. This section of the company is a contractor of the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) within the bureau of the National Park Service (NPS). MBS does work for the Natural Resource Stewardship and Science Directorate (NRSS), whose purpose is to provide scientific information to the parks to improve the maintenance and protection of their natural resources. This was an amazing opportunity for me because without even knowing it, my passions for technology and the environment were combined within my internship. The work that I did included organizing and presenting information from the parks databases to better understand the data that is collected. I am leaving this internship knowing that what I did will help people within our parks, even if it is in a small way. This is a rewarding feeling and also an inspiration for the decisions that I will make in my career moving forward.

Find out more about Sealaska summer intern program for Sealaska shareholders and descendants: at this link.