MICA RCCE E/Studio Internship

I was thrilled when my advisor introduced me to the RCCE E/Studio Internship that aligned perfectly with my interests in business and entrepreneurship. I quickly began preparing my application and polishing my portfolio to showcase my skills and passion for the field. This internship is eligible for credit which was another aspect that made it an ideal fit for my academic goals. It also provides hands-on experience and knowledge that will undoubtedly shape my future career in the business world, and I was eager to seize this opportunity to learn and grow. 

The Executive Creative Director at Andre Bean Brand served as our internship director at the RCCE E/Studio Internship. Throughout my time under his guidance, I gained insights into the world of marketing, drawing from his wealth of real-life experiences. The knowledge and personal stories he shared with us proved to be incredibly valuable resources, as they are not typically accessible within the confines of a traditional school setting. I deeply appreciated our director’s adept leadership skills, as he skillfully directed our team, fostering a collaborative and productive environment. Thanks to his mentorship, we were able to successfully tackle tasks for our clients and I am grateful for the opportunity to have learned from such a seasoned professional. I will carry the lessons I learned from him throughout my career in business and entrepreneurship. 

During my internship, I had the opportunity to take on significant responsibilities for both Oopsduck and ORA the Brand website deliveries. As a lead, I devoted much of my time to crafting engaging and user-friendly UI/UX designs for both projects, ensuring a seamless online experience for their audiences. Additionally, I contributed my photography skills to enhance ORA the Brand's visual appeal. Moreover, I collaborated closely with others, offering my insights and ideas for the motion graphics used in Oopsduck's captivating intro video. Being involved in these diverse aspects of the projects allowed me to gain hands-on experience and strengthen my skill set, making this internship an incredibly fulfilling and enriching experience. I am grateful for having had the chance to begin my professional journey at RCCE E/Studio and am enthusiastic about continuing to grow and thrive in the business and entrepreneurship realm.

Athletics LLC

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-income families who oftentimes don’t speak English. This involved clarifying the system in which programs and workshops are displayed/filtered, figuring out how best to apply the brand’s visual identity, and organizing huge chunks of information to help the site communicate clearly.

My supervisor guided me through every step of the project yet gave me a lot of responsibility as time progressed. I was also involved in other projects, such as designing a booklet for Catskill Art Space, or assisting in creating brand guidelines for their clients Trace and XQ.

I’m proud of how much responsibility I was given as my internship progressed, as well as how quickly I learned a variety of new skills. I learned so much about how a real agency works, how projects are organized, and how much thought and work goes into a high-level design project. Most importantly, I created valuable connections with my co-workers and learned so much from them in terms of communication and presenting ideas.

At the midpoint of my internship, I was offered a full-time opportunity after my graduation. In the meantime, I was promoted to Associate Designer in a part-time, 24 hour/week capacity. I did a lot of UX work this summer, which solidified how much I love creating digital products. I hope to continue down this path, but what this internship has taught me is that new experiences will show me what path I need to go down.

Keypair

 

Keypair is a security company with blockchain technology and KCMVP-certified products. This internship was introduced to me when I visited Keypair with an artist who is planning to make NFT to ask about NFT. While I was asking some questions about NFT to the CEO, he offered me a design intern position. I thought it would be a great experience so I started my design internship at Keypair.

The main project of the company was to upgrade a crypto wallet app. Therefore, we were adding new functions and upgraded them. My direct supervisor is a UI/UX designer/developer and we discussed a lot of the UI/UX design of the app and what can be implemented through code.

I was honored to be part of designing the whole UI/UX and visual designs of the app. I am most proud to see my designs on an app that everyone can use. My biggest takeaway from this is that I learned more depth about software, such as Figma, Illustrator, and After Effects.

The most important thing that I learned from this internship is communication. Especially in a social group, clear communication is helpful to reach the success of projects. This experience definitely helped me get a sense of what I really am interested in, what I am good at, and what I dislike doing.

NASA

 

The NASA 3D modelling internship was introduced to me at the career fair online in the

spring. I was not able to sign up for an interview, but was able to go to the open session. Two supervisors were kind enough to stay after to allow me to talk to them, and I secured the internship through this interview. NASA is well known for space exploration and study, but I worked with my supervisors, a senior multimedia specialist, and a NASA engineer and archivist to model a previously undocumented soviet space craft NASA history archives. 

I was in charge of researching and recreating the Mars-1 Orbiter or 2MV-4 craft that was launched in 1962. It was intended to flyby Mars and send data back as well as surface images, but it’s course correction system was damaged 5 days into its mission. The model had to be created using reference images found from various sources, and the rest had to be recreated from descriptions and schematics.

I was incredibly proud of my result, as I had never used Blender before. It was a challenge to completely learn a software program as I went, but I am proud and confident that I could continue working with blender in the future. I have learned the requirements someone might need to be hired at an organization like NASA, and I know the path I should take and places I should apply to to continue my work with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Google UX Design

I applied to Google’s UX design internship online through their application portal. My New York office offer was finalized in early April. Although the hiring process is quite opaque, I assume that I stood out in the candidate pool because of the diverse design projects I worked on outside of class and my in-depth progress for my design challenge. During my interviews, I also spoke confidently and engagingly about my designs.

I lead the development of two UX projects for Google Docs and proposed new solutions that make it easier for users to work in Docs. Being the first to work on a new problem space at Google, I wasn’t given specific design instructions. Instead, I took it into my own hands to research the problem area and discover useful data to identify previously unthoughtful design directions. I also actively prepared and set up user studies to test my ideas and learn more about user behavior. Throughout the process, I kept my design on track through collaborative meetings with PMs, UX managers, and other designers. I’m proud of striking the balance between working independently and collaboratively and taking active steps to solve an intricate design challenge.

I have grown so much as a designer and person from this internship. My biggest take-aways are:

1. Don’t be afraid to talk with designers and other professionals about life, work, and everything else in between. At Google, I arranged countless coffee chats, lunches, and 1-on-1s with Googlers that I had never met before. Everyone I met had diverse expertise and plenty of inspiration, ideas, guidance to offer.

2. Learn to see and craft stories around your designs. The work you make never lives in a vacuum. I often thought of design as artifacts: type on a page, image, colors in an illustration, webpage on a screen. At Google, I learned to acutely examine UX design not just as interfaces but as products that people use in their daily life. By evaluating user journeys, I recognized how these digital touch points aren’t just static screens but react and depend on settings, actions, and conditions beyond the product itself.

I solidified my interest in designing for tech. I connected with designers of various seniority,

experience, and specialty. I plan to work in Tech for at least a couple of years before moving onto other fields.