INTERNSHIP STORIES

My name is Lynn Hunter and I am a senior Photography major. During the summer of 2016, I was an Exhibitions Work Scholar for the Aperture Foundation based in New York City. The Aperture Foundation is a nonprofit organization that provides photo books, exhibitions, and educational programming as well as being one of the leading photography publishers in the world. The MICA Photography department has an internship program connected with Aperture that elects one student each year to complete an eight week, paid internship with the company. In order to obtain the internship, I researched the company further then applied to the MICA Selections committee with a resume and cover letter. I, long with two other students, were selected to have online interviews with two Aperture administrators, who would then choose which of us would fill the internship position. My supervisor was Annette Booth, the Director of Exhibitions Management. She's in charge of Aperture’s gallery, meaning...

My name is Margaret Huey. I'm a rising senior illustration major with a Culture and Politics minor. For the summer of 2016, I interned at the Office of Public Programs at the Freer and Sackler Galleries in Washington, D.C., a subset of the Smithsonian specializing in Asian art. I've had an interest in museum work and dreamed of working for the Smithsonian for most of my life. I've also been working increasingly more with Asian diaspora in my illustrative work, so applying to Freer-Sackler for an internship was an exciting prospect.  The application process was rather straightforward through the Smithsonian's SOLAA system which enables users to also browse and apply for a myriad of other internships within the Smithsonian Institution. I was eventually contacted by Grace Murray and Matthew Lasnoski who became my supervisors during my internship when they noticed my application and thought I would be a good fit for the Office of Public Programs.  I p...

My name is Linka Lin. I am from Graphic Design MFA program. During this summer, I worked as a Graphic Design Intern for Opto Design, a design company based in New York City. I started looking for an internship opportunity in March of this year, and sent about thirty applications to different organizations. I got the position of Opto Design from our Graphic Design department’s weekly news email. I did a research about Opto Design and found out that this is a design company mostly focusing on branding and editorial design. I’m very interested in branding, and hope to learn more about practical typography so interning at this company would be a nice choice. I visited New York City two years ago was very impressed by the city so I felt really excited about this summer.  My supervisors, John Klotnia and Ron Louie, began Opto Design together where they work as not only directors but also administrators. Usually, they work on separate projects and, although I worked with John...

Game design is something that I have been passionate about for the last few years. This past semester I did an independent study where I joined the Project Studio IA class and made a game with student Nick Clinkscales. I was curious to see what working on a big game with an actual development team was like, and what things I could learn to be more marketable to people in that area. Luckily enough, I was contacted by Braden League, a former graduate of MICA, who was given my contact information by Mark Sanders. He put me in contact with Dave Inscore, Art Director at Sparkypants, who I talked to to secure my internship.  Sparkypants is a AAA game development studio located here in Baltimore. It has a moderate team of about 35 people on site (with many more offsite) who are creating a RTS/MOBA game called Dropzone. The game takes place in a sci-fi setting and asks the player to control 3 pilots in a 1v1 battle to upload ‘cores’. Whoever uploads the most cores at the e...

My name is Sarah Middleton and I am a second semester senior, General Fine Arts major with a double concentration in both experimental fashion and theatre. During this past summer I interned in Newark, NJ at Gallery Aferro. At the fine arts reviews this past spring, I met Evonne and Emma. It seemed like fate, because all of my appointments got cancelled due to confusion over my status as a senior, and I otherwise would not have chosen to meet with them. Immediately, I felt a connection with both Evonne and Emma and the very next day I saw the internship listing on the MICANetwork. While the idea of moving to the NY/NJ area for the summer was a bit terrifying, I knew this was an opportunity I didn’t want to miss out on. Right from the start, this amazing non-profit arts space welcomed me with open arms and instantly I felt like part of the team. Jacob, the gallery manager, and Alex the exhibition designer were absolutely amazing. Jacob taught me how to contact artists and how to in...

My name is Akea Brown and I am junior Photography and Humanistic Studies major. I spent this past summer interning at Art With A Heart, as a community service intern. I found out about the internship while looking through the MICA Network and applied for an interview. I interviewed about a week later and was given the internship the same day. Art With A Heart, is a non-profit organization, here in Baltimore. Their main focus is to positively impact the community through the creation of art. There are many branches of the organization, including the Job Program, which helps homeless and underprivileged youth learn to be professional and market themselves as artists. The youth program, brings together high school students from public and private schools, who otherwise wouldn’t have met, and have them tackle issues about race, politics, and gender, utilizing their different perspectives. The Public Art branch acts as the face of the organization and handles all of the projects out in...

My name is Tania Garcia and I am senior Photography major. This summer, I was an intern at the No Pins Framing shop. I’d always been curious but not very informed about the framing aspect of photography. I wanted to gain a more in-depth understanding of the process and be able to understand it from both the production perspective and as a client. During the spring semester when I was on the lookout for an interesting internship and also developing my thesis project, I decided to reach out and see if interning would be a possibility at the shop. I then submitted a resume and application, had a face to face meeting with Alex Curtis, the owner, and subsequently began my internship. The No Pins shop covers various methods of presentation and works with clients from the initial design process all the way through the fabrication of the finished pieces. Due to it being a small business, I got to learn directly with the owner and shadow him through the different responsibilities involv...

My name is Christina Hyrkas and I am a junior Graphic Design major at MICA. This past summer I interned as a graphic designer at iStrategyLabs (ISL) in Shaw, Washington, D.C. ISL invents digital & physical experiences for the world’s biggest brands. The designers, developers, marketers, and makers build everything from apps to connected devices to wildly creative campaigns that reach audiences globally. The design team i nterprets creative direction from clients and builds brands to display over social media . I heard about the company through a MICA Post-Bac student and further researched it looking for an internship. I reached out to the Graphic Design department chair, Brockett Horne, who happened to know someone working there. Later, I followed up with her friend at the company and scheduled an informational interview and tour of the office. After that I was offered a summer internship position during which I worked under many different people. The head director of the des...

My name is Jane Yeon and I am a senior Animation major.  During the summer of 2016, I was an intern —or "Nicktern" — at the Nickelodeon Animation Studio in Burbank, California.  Growing up watching several of their shows, I was extremely excited and interested in applying for this internship program.  My interest only grew through research on the Nick Internship page of their website where I read their mission statement and applicant requirements.  I also had the opportunity to ask a MICA Illustration major, who interned at Nickelodeon the previous summer, a couple of questions regarding the program.  I then applied during the spring semester of 2016 after spending some hours tailoring my r ésum é and cover letter. Once school had wrapped up for the semester, I received a response and interviewed over the phone with the Nickelodeon Internship Program Manager.  I was informed my  r ésum é would be passed onto the Archive and Resource Library Depa...