Month: September 2025

Deliverable: Reflect in a blog post on your portfolio site on the feedback you have on the training you selected: do you recommend any edits, additions, or subtractions to the training? What tasks and/or features would you recommend future Fellows focus on to “level up” their skills?

The training that I would be reviewing is Documentation. The reason for my decision is because I’m working on creating a users guide for my Project Leads site and I thought this would be perfect timing to do that. Just to get a refresher and at the same time trying to get started with my project. I overall do think the main points are there on what a good documentation should have, and then we have a reference on what a good vs. bad documentation looks like and how you can differ between the two. I like the images with the examples provided and the pictures are something I think is really important to have. If I were to recommend any features to do for the future fellows is to add pictures, it just helps the visual learner. Other than that I think the instructions are pretty straightforward, I think just to mention for Vivero Fellows (depending which project they have) to have a clear mindset of someone who’s not familiar with it and give a detailed explanation about the site. Under Basic Project Documentation just emphasizing that you’re recording all the details necessary and needed in order to create proper documentation so when the new person takes over they know what to do. 

• What is the biggest area of growth you have experienced so far as a Vivero Fellow?

One area of growth I feel that I have experienced as a Vivero Fellow is the concept of trial and error, how this job is going to be a learning process, you might not everything but that’s okay. I feel like I learned so much through my errors, as well as working and communicating. This job is all about communicating, staying in touch with your peers and project lead. Even though the majority is done on-line and we’re not seeing each other as much, we’re still staying connected with how well we communicate. If we’re talking more on the technical side I would just say familiarizing myself with the tool and different software’s used.

• Are there any areas (technical, methodological, practical) that you feel are areas of weakness for you as a Fellow?

I think my areas of weakness for Vivero would be technical, specifically ArcGIS. For me using that software is very difficult even when I rewatched the video. I still had some trouble working with the program, but I think I just need to practice more and more of an objective. More of a purpose/mission on making the project come to life. 

• What has been your favorite thing to learn as a Vivero Fellow so far?

I really enjoy working with WordPress. I think it’s super fun creating a site however you want and learning the process of adding different elements.

• Considering these three areas (things you have gotten good at, things you would like to be better at, things you have enjoyed learning), which area would you most like to focus on in your training and professional development going forward? This could be a specific tool or method (eg mapping, ArcGIS Online), a skill area (mentoring/teaching, project planning), or anything else related to your work as a Fellow and your interests in digital scholarship.

I’m in between things that I would like to be better at and things I have enjoyed learning. Overall, getting better at things is still a process of trying to learn and I get some enjoyment from that. I want to really get better at ArcGIS because my project is around that tool and I really want to make sure I know how to use it as best as I can.

• What are some specific things you would like to achieve in this area (ie, master Elementor if you want to become a better web developer)?

I want to master Elementor, become a better web developer, but also just be able to navigate through ArcGIS and story maps without a hassle. Knowing what each function does and being able to envision my project and making it happen through the software. As well as with my project I want to make sure I can make her visions come through as best as possible.

• Which of these things do you want to do first, and what is the first step to doing that thing?

Definitely ArcGIS is one of things I want to get better at, as well as Story Map, but more so ArcGIS.

My steps in making sure I can accomplish this goal is

1. Look into ArcGIS tutorial
2. Look into StoryMap tutorial
3. Watch YouTube videos and other people work to see what they did
4. Get hands on my project
5. Work more and more on it every week 
6. Ta-da! Hope you improved using the tools

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Deliverable: Reflect in a blog post on your portfolio site on the feedback you have on the training you selected: do you recommend any edits, additions, or subtractions to the training? What tasks and/or features would you recommend future Fellows focus on to “level up” their skills?

I selected in doing the ArcGIS because I forgot on how it works. I would definitely recommend future fellows to play around with the feature “pop-ups” seeing if they can make any changes and improve the data demonstrating on the map. I will also recommend just doing the step-by-step instructions with playing with the data so they can remember how it’s done and show them what each function of the tool does.

Reflect in a blog post on your portfolio site: with a year of Vivero experience under your belts, what advice do you have for new Fellows about the idea that this job involves learning how to do your job on the fly?

I would like to say with the one semester I have under my belt, my advice to the new Fellows with the idea on learning how to do your job on the fly is to take notes, or know where to turn to for help. With the job, you may be pushed into doing a project that might be new to you and your project lead, with that being said Vivero has the tools and help you may need in order for you to do your job on the fly. Know where to look to, take notes and don’t be afraid to ask for help either with your project lead, Tierney/Liz or other fellows. It’s all about being able to communicate with your peers, because that can get the job done faster then waiting to find the answer when someone already has it.

I would also like to say to the new Fellows not to be intimidate with the amount of work you might see on your Training schedule, with the different types of software, tool and technology you’ll be introduce you can learn how to do all that. You don’t have to have everything perfectly memorize, but as long as your interested, passionate, and eager to learn that’s what truly matters.