Cybersecurity Internship

This course allows students to volunteer to work in an agency related to cybersecurity. Students must volunteer for 50 hours per course credit and complete course assignments.

Course Material

Final Reflection –

Summer 2025 Internship Final Essay

CYSE 368

Bobby Esfandiari

Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center

IS Desktop Support Intern

08/04/2025

Table Of Contents

1. Introduction                                                                                                               Pages 1 – 7
2. Management Environment                                                                                     Pages 7 – 8
3. Work Duties                                                                                                               Pages 8 – 10
4. Use of Cybersecurity Skills                                                                                     Pages 10 -10
5. Preparation from the ODU Curriculum                                                               Pages 10 – 11
6. Learning Outcomes Reflected Upon                                                                     Pages 11 – 11
7. Most Exciting Aspects                                                                                              Pages 11 – 12
8. Most Discouraging Aspects                                                                                     Pages 12 – 12
9. Most Challenging Aspects                                                                                       Pages 12 – 13
10. Recommendations for Future Interns                                                                  Pages 13 – 13
11. Conclusion                                                                                                                  Pages 13 – 14
12. Professional Impact                                                                                                  Pages 14 – 14

Why I chose to intern at DHMC

 I decided to apply to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center because I saw the unique opportunity to gain experience in healthcare IT.  After being offered the role of IS Desktop Support Intern at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, I was eager to complete my internship and gain valuable IT skills with the hospital. I knew that the opportunity to work at a walk-in help desk would provide me not only with technical experience but also with soft skills in interacting with end users and IT staff.

Learning Objectives

Before beginning the internship, I created three primary learning objectives:

1. Create and further develop technical support skills through hands-on troubleshooting with different software and hardware.
2. Further my understanding of cybersecurity tools and policies, and how they are used in the IT landscape.
3. Further improve my communication and collaboration skills through working face-to-face with the hospital staff and IT colleagues.

About Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center

Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) is the flagship hospital of Dartmouth Health and is located in Lebanon, New Hampshire. DHMC is a nationally recognized academic medical center and provides both primary and specialty care across Vermont and New Hampshire. Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center also operates in partnership with the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, which is also known for its patient care, research, and education. The IS department at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center is a vital component in maintaining the technology infrastructure used across the Dartmouth Health network to support patient services and administrative operations.

Orientation and Training

The first day began with a general orientation, which consisted mostly of healthcare professionals and provided an overview of what Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center expects from its employees and how to meet these requirements. Areas covered during general orientation included HIPAA compliance, safety procedures, an overview of internal systems, training requirements, badge setup, and other related information.

During IS Desktop Support-related training, I started by having an online Webex meeting with one of the ticketing system trainers. During this meeting, I received an overview of how to utilize the ticketing system used in the Help Desk. The ticketing system used by Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center’s IT team is called DHSM by Cherwell. It is a ticketing system that allows IT professionals to create tickets, as well as enables end users to do so themselves. DHSM consists of many features and functions, but some of the main points include the personal queue, team queue, knowledge articles, and problems. The personal queue is where tickets you create or tickets assigned to you are shown. If a user comes into the Help Desk with an issue and you create a ticket that has not yet been resolved, the personal queue is where this ticket will be stored. The team queue is where tickets created by end users will appear. Often, a designated member of the IS team is assigned to review the team queue and resolve tickets; the other team members typically assist during downtime. As part of my internship, I have spent lots of time resolving team queue tickets that I have experience with.

Knowledge Articles are the biggest part of DHSM and are something that the IT team takes very seriously. Knowledge Articles are to be attached to tickets that are related to the knowledge article. This is used so that when a Help Desk Analyst is unsure of the steps to take to resolve an issue, they can search for information on the issue in the knowledge articles. When searching for knowledge articles, users can view tickets that have been assigned to each knowledge article. This is an extremely valuable part of the ticketing system used at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, as it not only assists new analysts at the Help Desk but can also be useful to senior analysts who may not have encountered such an issue before. When a knowledge article is not created for a certain issue, the Help Desk Analyst will often create a knowledge article that relates to it.

Lastly, there are Problems, these are used in the scenario that there is a major issue affecting many users across the Dartmouth Health locations. Tickets will be assigned a problem number, and all tickets with that problem number will be filed under that problem. This allows the Help Desk to go back and review what similar scenarios users were facing during an outage or network access issue and take steps to mitigate that from recurring in the future.

The last area covered during my first day at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center is the use of IAM (Identity and Access Management). IAM is utilized by various departments in multiple ways at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. Specifically, IAM is used to manage user identities and their access to different resources. This ensures that each user has the correct access to necessary resources and allows analysts to review and edit this information. The Help Desk uses IAM to add and remove entitlements on users’ profiles, reset user passwords, set up RSA MFA, and review user accounts for Help Desk-related tasks.

Following the first day, Help Desk training began. As the only intern for the summer, I had the luxury of working one-on-one with a member of the IS Desktop Support team for the first four weeks. This period not only introduced me to many new systems and technologies but also allowed me to shadow my mentor for four weeks, gaining insight into what day-to-day operations for an experienced team member look like. During this four-week mentorship period, I gained experience with the various tools used by the Help Desk. While there were many systems and tools to review, I will provide a brief overview of some of the most commonly used tools. The Help Desk team uses Sophos to locate missing devices.

Another highly used software tool is Ivanti Portal Manager, which allows the Help Desk Analyst to remotely push software to a user’s device. This is extremely useful, as the Help Desk performs a significant amount of re-imaging on computers, which requires software to be reinstalled. Portal Manager allows an analyst to quickly push the software to the user’s device and initiate downloading of that software. Portal Manager is also an application that is installed on each user’s device, allowing them to download a handful of applications, such as Zoom, directly onto the device without needing to visit an external site. Another heavily used software at the Help Desk is Lenovo Commercial Vantage (LCV). LCV is used to update drivers and complete BIOS updates on end users’ devices. While this is a very simple tool, it is one that I mention because of its heavy usage. Many users will enter the Help Desk with some sort of abnormal software issue, and the simple solution will be to just update the drivers. An example of this that I was able to troubleshoot was a user who entered the help desk and stated that when the device is plugged into the docking station, the screen will not appear on the monitor. The simple fix for this issue was updating the graphics driver on the machine.

Management Environment

The IS Desktop Support team at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center is very well-organized, collaborative, and responsive. The team is led by an extremely knowledgeable supervisor who always aims to get the most out of his employees while also being extremely flexible with time, scheduling, and roles. While the Help Desk primarily consists of Help Desk analysts who resolve tickets in person, through the queue, and over the phone, the Help Desk collaborates closely with other teams at DHMC. These most closely knit teams include the Hardware team for any hardware-related device issues, software team, and the security team. These four teams work very closely, not only in proximity but also on work-related tasks; however, many other teams are also pinged and used daily.

Communication between the Help Desk is streamlined through Webex with multiple chats, both group-based and one-on-one. The Help Desk also has multiple meetings on a bi-weekly basis to discuss different topics. Some of the meetings from this past week that I had the opportunity to join include a knowledge article meeting, where different analysts are given two knowledge articles and make changes to them, which are then reviewed. The bi-weekly Help Desk meeting, which is also attended by many other teams, is another meeting I participated in.

Overall, I would say the work environment is very well-structured and has a flexible and close-knit feel. The team welcomed me during my arrival and made me feel at home. As someone who moved over eight hours for this internship, this was something I truly appreciated and made it worthwhile.

Work Duties

My work duties primarily consisted of time spent at the walk-in Help Desk, where I assisted clinical and administrative staff with any issues that arose. The majority of walk-in Help Desk tickets revolve around software installations, hardware issues, general troubleshooting, refreshing, and reimaging devices. An area I was tasked with quickly gaining proficiency in was the installation process of the mobile apps Secure Hub, SecureMail, Secure Web, and Haiku. Secure Hub is a Mobile Device Management application that allows for the use of SecureMail and Secure Web. During my first week, I was provided an overview on how to install these applications on my device and have since been working with all users who enter the Help Desk looking to download the software. SecureMail, which is downloaded through the MDM SecureHub, is used to protect PHI/PII access and the export of any PHI or PII. This allows DHMC to store information used by these applications in on-premises servers that are run by the hospital. Haiku is used by clinical staff to access a portion of patient data on their mobile device. This server is also stored on premises and managed by DHMC.

Other duties and tasks assigned to me during my internship included projects based around the bi-weekly nursing orientations and the total number of XenMobile users. Nursing orientation takes place every two weeks and can see anywhere from thirty to one hundred fifty new nurses. The IS Desktop Support team is responsible for ensuring that all users are properly set up to complete their work duties, which includes setting up passwords, MFA, access, and other necessary configurations. During the first orientation, I was tasked with going through over one hundred new nurses’ information in IAM and creating a report on the status of each user’s profile. During the second orientation, I completed the same process but also attended the nursing orientation, where I worked one-on-one with any users who had issues with the setup process.

The XenMobile project is something that I worked on for several weeks and required data analysis from multiple Dartmouth Health locations. DHMC uses XenMobile to send and create enrollment pins for users setting up Secure Hub and related applications on their device. As part of my internship, I will be tasked with working on any tickets related to our XenMobile upgrade in the future. This upgrade will involve introducing a new application and requiring all Android users to re-register their mobile devices. As part of this project, I was tasked with reviewing the mobile device status of each user at eight different Dartmouth Health locations and creating an Excel spreadsheet Pivot Table that showcased the locations of these devices. This required me to go through over 6,083 mobile devices that are currently linked to XenMobile, identifying the device type (iPhone, iPad, or Android) and locating its current location. I then presented this graphic I created at the bi-weekly Help Desk Webex meeting for other teams to see and understand the magnitude of the upgrade.

Use of Cybersecurity Skills

During my internship, I have applied many cybersecurity principles that I had gained knowledge and experience with at ODU, including access control, multi-factor authentication, endpoint security, and data privacy. Scenarios where these skills were applied included setting up RSA MFA, managing user permissions in IAM, and ensuring device encryption, all of which were directly related to the course materials. The internship also provided me with familiarity with the operational side of security. This included how policies are enforced in real-world settings, specifically a high-compliance environment such as healthcare. I also learned about many cybersecurity standards in the healthcare setting, such as the push back on cloud-supported software and systems. Having PHI in the cloud is something that the healthcare industry does not approve of. After seeing how DHMC goes out of its way to refuse the use of the cloud by having specific applications and its own server farm, I understood further this precaution.

Preparation from the ODU Curriculum

The courses I took at ODU during my undergraduate studies laid the groundwork for my internship and provided me with expertise in areas I use frequently. Having prior knowledge of the Windows OS and security practices allowed me to not feel overwhelmed when first entering the workforce and allowed for early success. An example of this was my previous experience with Active Directory, which allowed me to quickly grasp the use of IAM workflow and gain proficiency. While many tools did not relate to my experience at ODU, such as the ticketing system, the internship did allow me to realize the importance of soft skills, such as communication with non-technical users.

Learning Outcomes Reflected Upon

During my internship, each of my learning objectives was fulfilled. I gained significant hands-on technical support experience through the walk-in Help Desk. I was also able to witness how cybersecurity principles are integrated into the daily operation of IT tasks, specifically in account management and secure system configurations. Lastly, I was able to heavily develop my communication skills through constant interaction with hospital staff and IT colleagues. This allowed me to become comfortable explaining technical issues clearly, which is a skill that will be very beneficial in any IT or Cybersecurity role.

Most Exciting Aspects

The most exciting part of the internship was the opportunity to solve complex problems and see the immediate impact on the end user. Being able to resolve an issue that was causing trouble to someone as important as a clinical staff member and then seeing their face light up in happiness is something I truly enjoyed doing daily. As we all know, clinical staff have some of the most important roles in the world. Making their job as easy as possible is the least the IS team can do to show appreciation for a clinical staff member’s service.

Another exciting aspect was the opportunity to move and experience a new place. As someone who has spent my entire life in Virginia, it was truly amazing to see and live in such a scenic area in Vermont and New Hampshire. Being able to move for a short period and experience a new place is something I will always cherish. My time in the New England area and the people I met during this journey are something that I believe I will never forget, and it was a welcome change in scenery for me.

Most Discouraging Aspects

While there was nothing truly discouraging during my internship, I would say that the time it took me to secure the internship in the first place was the only discouraging aspect. The length of my internship despite strong academic performance, technical and soft skills was truly discouraging. Facing hundreds and hundreds of rejections made me feel as though I would never achieve my goal of entering the IT/Cybersecurity workforce. This made me question my abilities and the competitiveness of the field. Fortunately, my experience at DHMC proved that once again, if I was given the opportunity, I could thrive.

Most Challenging Aspects

While nothing about the internship was overly challenging, I would say learning multiple unfamiliar tools quickly was a bit of a challenge. Having to learn all these tools in such a short period and then apply them in the working environment was something I worried about a little, but it was not as challenging as I expected. I would say this was because of the repetitive nature of using the same tools daily. I would say the major challenge was actually relocating to the area and finding affordable housing to complete the internship.

Recommendations for future interns

If I could recommend anything to future interns, it would be to plan for the future. Looking back, I would have aimed to secure my internship after my freshman year at ODU. This would have allowed me to further prepare myself for interviews and have more experience on what to expect in the job search. I find it to be extremely beneficial to plan for the distant future, especially when it comes to this scenario.

Conclusion

Overall, the internship gave me invaluable experience that I will take with me for the rest of my life. This internship reinforced my decision to pursue a career in IT and Cybersecurity, and rekindled my motivation to achieve my goals. I truly enjoyed working with the many professionals at DHMC and the lessons and experience they have provided me with. I have been able to acquire new skills and further develop those I acquired during my time at ODU, and I am very grateful for my experience with the organization.

Professional Impact

The internship provided me with the necessary introduction to the world of IT. I view this as a foundational starting point for my career goals in Cybersecurity. Understanding the systems and users you protect is essential in building strong security solutions. Knowing how the process and policies you create as a cybersecurity professional are used in the work environment also allows you to further develop your policy creation for real-world use. My experience at DHMC taught me that I can thrive in environments where I am helping others, troubleshooting issues, and continuously learn. I am happy to say that this internship confirmed that I am on the right path and has motivated me more than ever to keep going.

Summer 2025 Internship Final Essay

CYSE 368

Bobby Esfandiari

Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center

IS Desktop Support Intern

08/04/2025

Table Of Contents

1. Introduction                                                                        Pages 1 – 7
2. Management Environment                                              Pages 7 – 8
3. Work Duties and Business Value                                    Pages 8 – 10
4. Use of Cybersecurity Skills                                               Pages 10 -10
5. Preparation from the ODU Curriculum                        Pages 10 – 11
6. Learning Outcomes Reflected Upon                              Pages 11 – 11
7. Most Exciting Aspects                                                       Pages 11 – 12
8. Most Discouraging Aspects                                              Pages 12 – 12
9. Most Challenging Aspects                                                Pages 12 – 13
10. Recommendations for Future Interns                           Pages 13 – 13
11. Conclusion                                                                           Pages 13 – 14
12. Professional Impact                                                           Pages 14 – 14

 

 

 

 

Why I chose to intern at DHMC

 I decided to apply to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center because I saw the unique opportunity to gain experience in healthcare IT.  After being offered the role of IS Desktop Support Intern at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, I was eager to complete my internship and gain valuable IT skills with the hospital. I knew that the opportunity to work at a walk-in help desk would provide me not only with technical experience but also with soft skills in interacting with end users and IT staff.

Learning Objectives

Before beginning the internship, I created three primary learning objectives:

1. Create and further develop technical support skills through hands-on troubleshooting with different software and hardware.
2. Further my understanding of cybersecurity tools and policies, and how they are used in the IT landscape.
3. Further improve my communication and collaboration skills through working face-to-face with the hospital staff and IT colleagues.

About Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center

Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) is the flagship hospital of Dartmouth Health and is located in Lebanon, New Hampshire. DHMC is a nationally recognized academic medical center and provides both primary and specialty care across Vermont and New Hampshire. Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center also operates in partnership with the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, which is also known for its patient care, research, and education. The IS department at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center is a vital component in maintaining the technology infrastructure used across the Dartmouth Health network to support patient services and administrative operations.

Orientation and Training

The first day began with a general orientation, which consisted mostly of healthcare professionals and provided an overview of what Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center expects from its employees and how to meet these requirements. Areas covered during general orientation included HIPAA compliance, safety procedures, an overview of internal systems, training requirements, badge setup, and other related information.

During IS Desktop Support-related training, I started by having an online Webex meeting with one of the ticketing system trainers. During this meeting, I received an overview of how to utilize the ticketing system used in the Help Desk. The ticketing system used by Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center’s IT team is called DHSM by Cherwell. It is a ticketing system that allows IT professionals to create tickets, as well as enables end users to do so themselves. DHSM consists of many features and functions, but some of the main points include the personal queue, team queue, knowledge articles, and problems. The personal queue is where tickets you create or tickets assigned to you are shown. If a user comes into the Help Desk with an issue and you create a ticket that has not yet been resolved, the personal queue is where this ticket will be stored. The team queue is where tickets created by end users will appear. Often, a designated member of the IS team is assigned to review the team queue and resolve tickets; the other team members typically assist during downtime. As part of my internship, I have spent lots of time resolving team queue tickets that I have experience with.

Knowledge Articles are the biggest part of DHSM and are something that the IT team takes very seriously. Knowledge Articles are to be attached to tickets that are related to the knowledge article. This is used so that when a Help Desk Analyst is unsure of the steps to take to resolve an issue, they can search for information on the issue in the knowledge articles. When searching for knowledge articles, users can view tickets that have been assigned to each knowledge article. This is an extremely valuable part of the ticketing system used at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, as it not only assists new analysts at the Help Desk but can also be useful to senior analysts who may not have encountered such an issue before. When a knowledge article is not created for a certain issue, the Help Desk Analyst will often create a knowledge article that relates to it.

Lastly, there are Problems, these are used in the scenario that there is a major issue affecting many users across the Dartmouth Health locations. Tickets will be assigned a problem number, and all tickets with that problem number will be filed under that problem. This allows the Help Desk to go back and review what similar scenarios users were facing during an outage or network access issue and take steps to mitigate that from recurring in the future.

The last area covered during my first day at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center is the use of IAM (Identity and Access Management). IAM is utilized by various departments in multiple ways at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. Specifically, IAM is used to manage user identities and their access to different resources. This ensures that each user has the correct access to necessary resources and allows analysts to review and edit this information. The Help Desk uses IAM to add and remove entitlements on users’ profiles, reset user passwords, set up RSA MFA, and review user accounts for Help Desk-related tasks.

Following the first day, Help Desk training began. As the only intern for the summer, I had the luxury of working one-on-one with a member of the IS Desktop Support team for the first four weeks. This period not only introduced me to many new systems and technologies but also allowed me to shadow my mentor for four weeks, gaining insight into what day-to-day operations for an experienced team member look like. During this four-week mentorship period, I gained experience with the various tools used by the Help Desk. While there were many systems and tools to review, I will provide a brief overview of some of the most commonly used tools. The Help Desk team uses Sophos to locate missing devices.

Another highly used software tool is Ivanti Portal Manager, which allows the Help Desk Analyst to remotely push software to a user’s device. This is extremely useful, as the Help Desk performs a significant amount of re-imaging on computers, which requires software to be reinstalled. Portal Manager allows an analyst to quickly push the software to the user’s device and initiate downloading of that software. Portal Manager is also an application that is installed on each user’s device, allowing them to download a handful of applications, such as Zoom, directly onto the device without needing to visit an external site. Another heavily used software at the Help Desk is Lenovo Commercial Vantage (LCV). LCV is used to update drivers and complete BIOS updates on end users’ devices. While this is a very simple tool, it is one that I mention because of its heavy usage. Many users will enter the Help Desk with some sort of abnormal software issue, and the simple solution will be to just update the drivers. An example of this that I was able to troubleshoot was a user who entered the help desk and stated that when the device is plugged into the docking station, the screen will not appear on the monitor. The simple fix for this issue was updating the graphics driver on the machine.

Management Environment

The IS Desktop Support team at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center is very well-organized, collaborative, and responsive. The team is led by an extremely knowledgeable supervisor who always aims to get the most out of his employees while also being extremely flexible with time, scheduling, and roles. While the Help Desk primarily consists of Help Desk analysts who resolve tickets in person, through the queue, and over the phone, the Help Desk collaborates closely with other teams at DHMC. These most closely knit teams include the Hardware team for any hardware-related device issues, software team, and the security team. These four teams work very closely, not only in proximity but also on work-related tasks; however, many other teams are also pinged and used daily.

Communication between the Help Desk is streamlined through Webex with multiple chats, both group-based and one-on-one. The Help Desk also has multiple meetings on a bi-weekly basis to discuss different topics. Some of the meetings from this past week that I had the opportunity to join include a knowledge article meeting, where different analysts are given two knowledge articles and make changes to them, which are then reviewed. The bi-weekly Help Desk meeting, which is also attended by many other teams, is another meeting I participated in.

Overall, I would say the work environment is very well-structured and has a flexible and close-knit feel. The team welcomed me during my arrival and made me feel at home. As someone who moved over eight hours for this internship, this was something I truly appreciated and made it worthwhile.

Work Duties

My work duties primarily consisted of time spent at the walk-in Help Desk, where I assisted clinical and administrative staff with any issues that arose. The majority of walk-in Help Desk tickets revolve around software installations, hardware issues, general troubleshooting, refreshing, and reimaging devices. An area I was tasked with quickly gaining proficiency in was the installation process of the mobile apps Secure Hub, SecureMail, Secure Web, and Haiku. Secure Hub is a Mobile Device Management application that allows for the use of SecureMail and Secure Web. During my first week, I was provided an overview on how to install these applications on my device and have since been working with all users who enter the Help Desk looking to download the software. SecureMail, which is downloaded through the MDM SecureHub, is used to protect PHI/PII access and the export of any PHI or PII. This allows DHMC to store information used by these applications in on-premises servers that are run by the hospital. Haiku is used by clinical staff to access a portion of patient data on their mobile device. This server is also stored on premises and managed by DHMC.

Other duties and tasks assigned to me during my internship included projects based around the bi-weekly nursing orientations and the total number of XenMobile users. Nursing orientation takes place every two weeks and can see anywhere from thirty to one hundred fifty new nurses. The IS Desktop Support team is responsible for ensuring that all users are properly set up to complete their work duties, which includes setting up passwords, MFA, access, and other necessary configurations. During the first orientation, I was tasked with going through over one hundred new nurses’ information in IAM and creating a report on the status of each user’s profile. During the second orientation, I completed the same process but also attended the nursing orientation, where I worked one-on-one with any users who had issues with the setup process.

The XenMobile project is something that I worked on for several weeks and required data analysis from multiple Dartmouth Health locations. DHMC uses XenMobile to send and create enrollment pins for users setting up Secure Hub and related applications on their device. As part of my internship, I will be tasked with working on any tickets related to our XenMobile upgrade in the future. This upgrade will involve introducing a new application and requiring all Android users to re-register their mobile devices. As part of this project, I was tasked with reviewing the mobile device status of each user at eight different Dartmouth Health locations and creating an Excel spreadsheet Pivot Table that showcased the locations of these devices. This required me to go through over 6,083 mobile devices that are currently linked to XenMobile, identifying the device type (iPhone, iPad, or Android) and locating its current location. I then presented this graphic I created at the bi-weekly Help Desk Webex meeting for other teams to see and understand the magnitude of the upgrade.

Use of Cybersecurity Skills

During my internship, I have applied many cybersecurity principles that I had gained knowledge and experience with at ODU, including access control, multi-factor authentication, endpoint security, and data privacy. Scenarios where these skills were applied included setting up RSA MFA, managing user permissions in IAM, and ensuring device encryption, all of which were directly related to the course materials. The internship also provided me with familiarity with the operational side of security. This included how policies are enforced in real-world settings, specifically a high-compliance environment such as healthcare. I also learned about many cybersecurity standards in the healthcare setting, such as the push back on cloud-supported software and systems. Having PHI in the cloud is something that the healthcare industry does not approve of. After seeing how DHMC goes out of its way to refuse the use of the cloud by having specific applications and its own server farm, I understood further this precaution.

Preparation from the ODU Curriculum

The courses I took at ODU during my undergraduate studies laid the groundwork for my internship and provided me with expertise in areas I use frequently. Having prior knowledge of the Windows OS and security practices allowed me to not feel overwhelmed when first entering the workforce and allowed for early success. An example of this was my previous experience with Active Directory, which allowed me to quickly grasp the use of IAM workflow and gain proficiency. While many tools did not relate to my experience at ODU, such as the ticketing system, the internship did allow me to realize the importance of soft skills, such as communication with non-technical users.

Learning Outcomes Reflected Upon

During my internship, each of my learning objectives was fulfilled. I gained significant hands-on technical support experience through the walk-in Help Desk. I was also able to witness how cybersecurity principles are integrated into the daily operation of IT tasks, specifically in account management and secure system configurations. Lastly, I was able to heavily develop my communication skills through constant interaction with hospital staff and IT colleagues. This allowed me to become comfortable explaining technical issues clearly, which is a skill that will be very beneficial in any IT or Cybersecurity role.

Most Exciting Aspects

The most exciting part of the internship was the opportunity to solve complex problems and see the immediate impact on the end user. Being able to resolve an issue that was causing trouble to someone as important as a clinical staff member and then seeing their face light up in happiness is something I truly enjoyed doing daily. As we all know, clinical staff have some of the most important roles in the world. Making their job as easy as possible is the least the IS team can do to show appreciation for a clinical staff member’s service.

Another exciting aspect was the opportunity to move and experience a new place. As someone who has spent my entire life in Virginia, it was truly amazing to see and live in such a scenic area in Vermont and New Hampshire. Being able to move for a short period and experience a new place is something I will always cherish. My time in the New England area and the people I met during this journey are something that I believe I will never forget, and it was a welcome change in scenery for me.

Most Discouraging Aspects

While there was nothing truly discouraging during my internship, I would say that the time it took me to secure the internship in the first place was the only discouraging aspect. The length of my internship despite strong academic performance, technical and soft skills was truly discouraging. Facing hundreds and hundreds of rejections made me feel as though I would never achieve my goal of entering the IT/Cybersecurity workforce. This made me question my abilities and the competitiveness of the field. Fortunately, my experience at DHMC proved that once again, if I was given the opportunity, I could thrive.

Most Challenging Aspects

While nothing about the internship was overly challenging, I would say learning multiple unfamiliar tools quickly was a bit of a challenge. Having to learn all these tools in such a short period and then apply them in the working environment was something I worried about a little, but it was not as challenging as I expected. I would say this was because of the repetitive nature of using the same tools daily. I would say the major challenge was actually relocating to the area and finding affordable housing to complete the internship.

Recommendations for future interns

If I could recommend anything to future interns, it would be to plan for the future. Looking back, I would have aimed to secure my internship after my freshman year at ODU. This would have allowed me to further prepare myself for interviews and have more experience on what to expect in the job search. I find it to be extremely beneficial to plan for the distant future, especially when it comes to this scenario.

Conclusion

Overall, the internship gave me invaluable experience that I will take with me for the rest of my life. This internship reinforced my decision to pursue a career in IT and Cybersecurity, and rekindled my motivation to achieve my goals. I truly enjoyed working with the many professionals at DHMC and the lessons and experience they have provided me with. I have been able to acquire new skills and further develop those I acquired during my time at ODU, and I am very grateful for my experience with the organization.

Professional Impact

The internship provided me with the necessary introduction to the world of IT. I view this as a foundational starting point for my career goals in Cybersecurity. Understanding the systems and users you protect is essential in building strong security solutions. Knowing how the process and policies you create as a cybersecurity professional are used in the work environment also allows you to further develop your policy creation for real-world use. My experience at DHMC taught me that I can thrive in environments where I am helping others, troubleshooting issues, and continuously learn. I am happy to say that this internship confirmed that I am on the right path and has motivated me more than ever to keep going.