My name is Ash Turner,
and I’m a Junior Interactive Arts major. During
the summer of 2016, I was
a CoderGirl Programming and Marketing Intern for LaunchCode, a nonprofit organization started and based in
St. Louis, Missouri. I originally was searching online
and through MICA’s
Career Development Office
for internships in nonprofit and socially active organizations that were connected to coding. While searching, a family member directed me toward a
meet-up in St. Louis called “CoderGirl,” which was LaunchCode’s weekly meet-up
for women interested in programming. After that, I looked into if they had any
internships open, but still
didn’t find an internship position
that fit quite
with what I wanted to do.
I applied online
to be an Education Intern,
and submitted a cover letter
and resume, explaining my interest in interactivity, code, and art, and how
these would be useful skills for developing educational programs at LaunchCode.
After I sent in my application, I was set up to do a Skype interview with
Crystal Martin, the CoderGirl Program Director
and National Candidate Engagement Manager at LaunchCode. She ended up interviewing me for a different
position that would allow me to do social media, graphic design, community
engagement, and program development for CoderGirl. It ended up being a less
specific position that was subject to more creativity and change. At the end of
the interview, I asked when she would get back to me on if I had the position,
and she told me that she had already decided and that she wanted me to work for
her. I was surprised that she had decided so quickly, but was extremely
excited.
During my internship at LaunchCode, Crystal
Martin ended up being my supervisor. By the time I started
my internship, she became more involved in doing interviews and
candidate engagement, but we both had a love of the potential crossovers
between tech and art. I ended up starting my internship with managing
CoderGirl’s social media
(Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram), which
was completely new territory for me.
That’s when I first learned
that LaunchCode, because
of its small staff and being a new startup
organization, was a place where all the staff had the motto of “learn as
you go,” which was comforting while in my new position. I created content for
CoderGirl’s social media, which included taking pictures during the weekly
CoderGirl meet-ups, interviewing and interacting with the members of CoderGirl,
and then creating graphic design, photo, and illustrated posts
through Adobe Photoshop and InDesign. It also included
doing research on what was
going on everyday in the tech world, especially when it came to women in tech
and St. Louis tech. I also did an “hour of learning” each day where I was able to explore new types of code and learn new programming languages online.
Throughout my time at LaunchCode, I was able to get a better
peek into the world of nonprofits and startup
companies, and what it takes to be in the tech world in general. It made me
realize that if I want to do computer programming, that I can learn it on my
own (as many of the staff members at LaunchCode had themselves) for free if I
put in the time and effort. It was inspiring to see so many programmers come
from non-programming backgrounds. Since my position
didn’t include doing
coding for LaunchCode (since I don’t have enough knowledge of coding yet),
I realized through
the absence of code in my job that I’m pretty sure I’ll only be satisfied if I go into
a career that includes coding. This
internship was my first look into what is out
there in the world of programming and tech, and what I still need to explore
before I know what I want to do. Being able to work for an
organization that gets people tech jobs was also immensely beneficial to
learning what it takes to be in the tech industry, and allowed me to make invaluable connections with people who have their hands in the tech industry
all across the country.