This summer, Hastings College senior Shimar Gibson is providing effective solutions and elevating his customer service skills during an internship with Cooperative Producers, Inc. (CPI) in Hastings, Nebraska.
Gibson has been working as an information technology intern at CPI. The company’s main focus is offering a wide range of services and products that help farmers optimize their operations and improve yields.
His typical day as an IT intern involves helping with minor to major network and technology issues. Gibson is involved in operations such as setting up printers across locations to use their built-in document scanners to directly email employees using what is called a simple mail transfer protocol relay.
This protocol provides the scanners with email capability that makes it easier to scan and retrieve documents by allowing the user to scan directly to their email of choice. This method is quick and efficient in a way that is also user-friendly.
The project took four days to execute and Gibson faced challenges during the project.
“Although it took four days to complete, it required a lot of trial and error to individually get the printers working correctly for all employees and locations. Effective communication with each location’s employees was crucial in understanding the issues and finding a solution, ultimately making the process less time-consuming,” said Gibson, who is from Nassau, the Bahamas.
For Gibson, IT is just the starting point in his technology career. Understanding how certain software affects the people he helps is closely tied to the interpersonal skills he values highly.
“Connecting with people on a personal level and learning about their issues that need solving make the job easier to do. To me, communicating is a self-improving learning experience for developing soft skills, simply by meeting more people and being able to connect with them,” Gibson said.
Before starting his internship at CPI, Gibson wasn’t a stranger to communicating and helping others as he worked at the Hastings College IT helpdesk in Hazelrigg Student Union. He helped students and faculty with anything technology-related.
Once his internship began, the work environment shifted to constant interaction with coworkers throughout the CPI office where he works.
“I see these people every day. It’s an adjustment that I am not handling student and faculty concerns so the interpersonal skills mixed with the agricultural community are much different — it’s a bit more personal than I am used to,” he said.
Aside from strengthening his interpersonal skills at CPI, he said courses at Hastings College helped him continue his passion for IT. He said mathematics professors Dr. David Cooke, Dr. Bobbi Buchholz, and the now retired Dr. John Schneider showed him the ins and outs of database fundamentals and what data looks like with cyber security and monitoring.
Reflecting on the experiences gained at CPI, Gibson said he aims to continue providing excellent customer service to people he encounters. As he approaches his senior year, he looks forward to resuming his internship at CPI and, ultimately, hopes to work in IT at a firm or tech company.
By Cecilia Velarde, a senior marketing and communication studies double major from Loveland, Colorado
