INTERNSHIP STORIES

My experience as a Photography and Videography intern at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) was one I will never forget. The BSO is a non-profit organization that organizes orchestra concerts primarily in Baltimore. I found out about this opportunity through MICA’s photography department. More specifically, the former chair recommended I apply and connected me with the MICA Photo alumni who is the Art Director at the BSO. My time as an intern at BSO was centered around working closely with the art director  as my supervisor and her colleagues within the marketing and communications departments. As an intern, I was able to learn about the passion and commitment that goes into managing the art direction of a large organization. This showed me how important it is to market as an entrepreneur as marketing is crucial in getting an audience to engage with created works. Some of the projects I worked on included producing content that was used for the BSO’s social media. This included...

I had the honor of being the ArtTable fellow at the Studio Museum in Harlem. The opportunity was presented to me by my program director. ArtTable is a professional organization dedicated to advancing the leadership of women in the visual arts. Through this organization, I applied to the Studio Museum in Harlem. The Studio Museum is the nexus for artists of African descent, locally, nationally, and internationally, and for work that has been inspired and influenced by Black culture. It is a site for the dynamic exchange of ideas about art and society. The selection process was competitive and long. I had to submit a written application, and from there the committee at ArtTable decided whether to send my application through to the Studio Museum. Once my application was selected, I began the interview process. This entire process took 2 months. When working at the museum I worked on two major projects. My first project was supporting the Curatorial collections team in the ongoing maintena...

The DCSW (parent company of MSWS) is a leading luxury fashion show production company that specializes in innovative fashion concepts, production, and execution. Independent fashion designers present their collections to an international audience of press, retailers, stylists, industry influencers, and buyers at MSWS.  The Director of Creative Affairs for Miami Swim Week Shows (MSWS) reached out to me through LinkedIn after seeing that I directed the Benefit Fashion Show at MICA. She was my direct supervisor throughout my internship. Leading up to the show I was in charge of design and social media such as editing graphics for brands, designing booklets to be printed for the show, and planning / editing social media content. MSWS covered my flight and stay during the week of the show, where I was lead photographer for the sponsors and event. It was my first time doing commercial photography such as food, product, and events. My days were very long, every hour I would be moving to a...

Submersive Productions is an immersive experience company based in Baltimore. Artists, writers, dancers, and musicians collaborate to make site-specific immersive experience productions. In their work, audience participation is centered as an important role in unfolding the narrative of a show. I found this internship through a professor of mine who introduced Submersive Productions’ work in her class and helped me get connected. When I had an opportunity for an interview with Submersive, then after I secured the internship. I was able to experience various parts of Submersive Productions’ work—from idea devising, concept research, venue-searching, fabricating samples and props for an upcoming show, and material researching. I assisted in an idea for one of their projects, The Boundary, which is an immersive experience piece that deals with death and grief. My direct supervisor was one of the co-artistic directors. They participate in collaborative devising works for immersive experien...

Athletics is a mid-size independent creative studio based out of Brooklyn, NY. Their clients range from large companies, such as IBM and Square, to smaller companies like Turf, Galileo, and Tia. The Athletics teams work on everything from strategy to design to create incredible products for their clients. My supervisor was a Design Director who has been at the company for many years. I found out about this internship opportunity through one of my instructors at MICA. I asked him if he knew of any companies hiring summer interns, and he presented me to a colleague at Athletics. I went through the interview process in January and was hired. The main project I was involved in this summer was designing a website for 826NYC, a nonprofit in New York City that helps underprivileged students improve their writing skills. My job was to take the wireframes designed by the team and figure out the best way to organize all their information clearly, keeping in mind that their main audience is low-i...

I found out about this opportunity through a friend of a friend. I was asked to provide live visuals for a local musician. After their set, a friend recommended I talk to this one person who works at Splice because he was looking for a camera operator. I later met that person when that same friend’s car broke down near my house. We hit it off and the rest is history.  This person who became my supervisor works for his father at Splice as a managing editor. He writes regular reviews for a few different platforms (The Spectator, Counterpunch) and makes his own films independently. He has a strong work ethic and occupies himself completely with his work and, when he’s not working, he’s watching more movies. I’ve never met anyone so well-watched. My main responsibilities ended up being a camera operator and editor, with some content aggregation for Splice on slow days. I helped shoot and sort footage for You’re Going to Live and did some fine-tuning on Hasn’t Been Grounded (My supervis...

The place where I conducted the internship was a small company called J4D. Like other advertising companies, J4D was a company that designed advertisements for clients' specific needs or requests. We worked together as a team with one set of values called “We make big waves.” This means that the advertisements we make cause big waves and make a difference in the world. My direct supervisor was the CEO of J4D. He provided me with enough opportunities to learn the overall company flow and work so that I could adapt well to the company, and those efforts made me able to complete a successful internship thanks to him. During the internship, as a member of the design team, I participated in the process of designing and producing advertisements for various domestic and foreign client companies such as Nike, Porsche, Yuserin, Goose Island, and Innisfree. The company was separated into a planning team and a production team but often the work was carried out as one team. I worked on the pro...

I found out about this opportunity through an info session and through one of my professors at MICA. I sent in my resume and cover letter through their application form and a couple weeks later I was contacted by them for an interview, where we discussed the required roles and responsibilities of the intern in more detail, as well as confirming eligibility requirements and scheduling. About a week later I got an email confirming that they would like to hire me and my schedule. The Highlights Foundation is an organization under the Highlights children’s magazine, which runs a retreat and workshop center in Boyds Mills, PA. At this center and virtually, they organize workshops, talks, and retreats for both newcomers and professionals in the field of children’s literature, particularly writers and illustrators. There was another intern along with myself and our major responsibility was to oversee the day to day running of the workshops on campus. As part of this, we would assist guests wi...

This summer, I held a position as the design intern of an architecture and interior design firm called SSAT+. The firm is based in Bucharest, Romania and they work on various types of projects, both commercial and residential. They work on projects that involve creating buildings from scratch as well as ones that involve renovating existing structures. I learned about this internship through connection an acquaintance of mine had with one of the heads of SSAT+. During my internship, my direct supervisors were one of the heads of SSAT+, as well as an interior designer with whom I worked more closely with. Her and I met on a daily basis to discuss furniture design for an interior design project. We also participated in team meetings less frequently to discuss the project as a whole. The project that I worked on with my supervisors involved the renovation of an old historical building that is being adapted into mostly office spaces. The other part of the project was the creation of a new ...

I found LAIKA's internship opportunity through LinkedIn. I had a Zoom interview with three supervisors in the camera team and they shared a little about the practices of LAIKA and the expectations of me as an intern, and that was to learn as much as I can during the time that I am there. My direct supervisor was in charge of all things that happened on stage. There was another camera intern along with myself.  LAIKA specializes in stop motion feature films, and as a Camera Intern, my position was to assist the animators in getting the shots they needed. The program used the majority of the time was DragonFrame, a stop-motion animation program, and Kuper, a software that controls rigs for motion control. We helped in assisting animators in their testing units, taking images for puppets, props, and other landscape or miscellaneous items that were needed to be submitted for approval.  As the internship progressed, they also spent time teaching us how to use the software Kuper, wh...

After connecting with a fellow GDMFA colleague at MICA, he offered me an internship opportunity at Washingtonian Magazine. Publication and Editorial design were something I was interested in, so I decided to pursue this internship Washingtonian Magazine publishes monthly magazines highlighting information and events about and in D.C. My GDMFA colleague was my supervisor and is also the Creative Director at Washingtonian Magazine. As an art fellow/intern, I would report to him during our morning and end-of-day meetings, and he would give me feedback and critique the assignments and current projects. My responsibilities were to assist with design projects by creating and preparing mood boards, collecting swipes or images for research, researching typefaces, illustrations, and logo designs, and designing iterations and series of spread designs about the topics. I also had the opportunity to create spot illustrations for a project.  I am proud that I learned something new every day at ...

When searching for a summer internship in the United States, I knew I was going to be staying in North Carolina. I was looking to work for a marketing agency, so I found one in the area and applied to Wray Ward’s FORM internship. FORM is a paid, 10-week, full-time summer internship where you’ll work on real projects with eight other interns. I was accepted into the program and I had a great host family let me stay with them for the duration of the internship.  Wray Ward is a full-service agency creating inspired marketing solutions for brands in the home and building categories based in Charlotte, NC. My direct supervisor during my time there was a motion and design director at the agency. My responsibilities at the agency were to help with my assigned department’s projects. I created short logo animations and primarily created promotional videos for a non-profit visual arts organization called Charlotte Art League. For our campaign with Charlotte Art League, w e created a marke...

The company I interned for is called A—Company. It is a fashion brand based in New York City. My direct supervisor was the founder of the company and the creative supervisor. I found out about this internship through a professor at MICA and the company’s Instagram page where they were searching for interns. I secured the internship by speaking to the founder about the position and what I would be interested in learning from her and helping her do.  My responsibilities at A—Company varied. I mainly did digital work that revolved around fashion. In my first couple weeks at A—Company, I was editing and retouching eCommerce photos for the new season’s clothing items. After that, many of my weeks at A—Company I spent looking through footage and editing them into short video collages for the website's home page. I also did standard intern things like running errands and updating the email newsletter format. I occasionally created gifs out of the runway footage to add to the new season’s ...

Marine Lane is a NYC design+branding studio founded in 2012. It is a place composed of highly inspired women, bonded by a shared love of design and belief in the power it has to connect, inspire, sell and amuse. To secure this internship, I went on the company's website, found their email and wrote them a cover letter expressing my interest in the position and introducing myself. My supervisor was the Creative Director and responsible for giving me tasks as well as revising and troubleshooting them with me. Her role within the company is to coordinate all the design related things, making sure they are perfect to be sent to the client. My involvement in the projects depended on the demand that was needed that day. On Fridays, we had an overview meeting of what the next week would look like, but sometimes we had to play it by ear and change the plans a little. I worked on branding projects, social media, animations, website design, presentation decks, packaging, etc. I am proud of ...

Illumination Studios is an animation studio which specializes in kid-friendly feature films. Illumination Studios has two locations: Los Angeles and Paris. The Los Angeles studio does the script, voice acting, and marketing. The Paris office focuses on the creation of the film’s visuals. When exchanging emails with a previous teacher, I let her know my family was moving to Paris. She then offered to speak to her connection at Illumination Studios Mac Guff about securing me an interview for an internship. I agreed and after a phone call, a Zoom interview, and an in-person interview, I was all set to help out in the Art Department. Although I can’t say which movie I was involved in because of NDA, I can say that my role was to pitch prop designs, receive edits, and enact them effectively. Essentially, my supervisor would tell me that a villain needs a cane. I would look over the existing character design sheets and color schemes for the character, then research canes. I would draw severa...

  This summer I had the privilege of working with Around the World in 80 Fabrics. ATW80F is a non-profit organization centered around connecting people back to the planet through the fabrics we wear. While with ATW80F, I worked under the team Outreach Director who was also my connection for securing the internship. I had first met her at a previous internship and I was really excited when she told me about ATW80F.  My role with the organization consisted of research, project management and assistance, and graphic design work. When I started the internship, I began with natural dye research that went towards a TED Talk and pop-up event that the founders of the organization were holding. Later I was able to work with my supervisor partially in person on various small projects. Because of my prior natural dye research, I became the home base connection while the team went on a trip to Morocco to work with a small community of weavers and help them transition from synthetic dyes t...

Women and Their Work is a nonprofit organization and arts space in Austin, TX. The space was founded in 1978 with the purpose of uplifting and supporting female artists in Texas. Women and Their Work provides education programming, has events, and helps women artists have solo shows. I was interested in Women and Their Work because it feels like such a unique gallery space and has a great legacy in Austin.  Women and Their Work had a summer internship program listed that seemed really interesting to me and I thought it would teach me skills I wanted to learn, such as gallery installation, day-to-day, and what it’s like to run a nonprofit. I applied, was interviewed and then accepted for the Gallery Assistant intern position. My consistent responsibility was being the first point of contact for people visiting the gallery. I would answer any questions about the gallery, talk to guests, and survey the demographics of visitors of the gallery. My other responsibilities would vary. I as...