My name is Sara Klementovic and I am a rising Senior and transfer student at MICA. I completed an internship with the Baltimore Electric Vehicle Initiative in the Summer of 2015. This internship was not visual arts specific, but very much suits my aspirations of working in sustainability outreach. I found this internship listed on MICA Network and I emailed Hugh Pocock, who I was familiar with from a previous class and his connections to Students of Sustainability, the campus club I help lead. I was lucky I emailed him when I did, because Hugh asked me to come to a meeting for the already accepted interns and the BEVI supervisor the next day. I went and explained to Jill Sorensen my background, and how I could be an asset to the program. I waited to hear if Jill would be able to fund a third intern, and a week later I was accepted as a fellow paid intern.
I was also fortunate to know 2 S.O.S. members who had previously completed the internship and I asked them about their experiences before accepting the position. I was told the internship was rather unstructured and untraditional, but I decided it would be similar to my S.O.S. campaign work and goals.
The internship consisted of 9 interns and our supervisor, Jill, meeting 4 days a week for 8 weeks. Our goals were very lofty at first and had to be constantly adapted. I think self discipline and project management skills are the strongest pieces I am taking away with me after this experience. The group dynamic was great, and I enjoyed working alongside the engineer student interns much more than I expected. I found that my visual communication skills became very valuable in most projects, from conceptual mechanical drawings to logo designs for business proposals. I retaught myself adobe illustrator skills I had forgotten and I now feel more comfortable taking on graphic design projects. I also gained experience working with an unfamiliar print shop to have large vinyl decals printed.
Towards the middle of the internship, I found myself losing motivation as the group goals were pretty unclear. I found that immersing myself in visual projects that were useful to other professionals and other team members allowed me to have focus and purpose, even though BEVI’s purpose remained foggy.
I worked on such a wide variety of projects, that I now feel fairly confident in many areas of basic conceptual design and even more so in speaking to clients and professionals. This internship equipped me with media outreach skills I had never even considered before I applied. I now feel I can enter a non-profit atmosphere after graduation and juggle many tasks without becoming overwhelmed. I look forward to my last year at MICA as being a place to incorporate further marketability into my fine art illustration work, as well as bringing stronger leadership into Students of Sustainability’s campaigns.
