Friday, July 16, 2010

Week Eight

Week Eight
This week it was back to work, and back to business. The week started off with a meeting with Dr. Schulman, the developer of the public comment analysis toolkit (PCAT). I have been working with Dr. Schulman since the beginning of my internship with the USDA developing a video tutorial training module to reduce the time required to implement the software across the different government agencies. I have never witnessed someone so determined to see their software succeed to the highest level of acceptance, implementation into Microsoft. Schulman was amazing, not only is he a brilliant program designer, but he is an amazing salesman who is dedicated to improving his product through what he calls “the voice of the people” or the consumer’s needs. I was fascinated at how down to earth someone whom has received a several million dollar contract from the National Foundation of Science could be. After we finished the meeting Schulman arranged with the USDA he answered many of my personal questions and we went to lunch to discuss his years spent as an organic farmer before he became a college professor at UMASS and work programming software for the government. I am a organic farmer as mentioned in previous blogs and I was delighted to trade tips and secrets back and forth with a Master organic gardener. This experience is probably my most exciting and impressionable this summer, and I would like to end my blog with a giant THANK YOU DR. SCHULMAN, you have changed my opinion of what is possible in my own life and inspired me to continue down the long and winding road I currently find myself on. Schulman you ROCK!!!
Justin Patterson

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