On Friday, August 22, students in the Master of Science in Digital Media program reported back to classmates and faculty on their summer internship experiences. A variety of host sites were represented. Many students kept their internships close to home, as close as the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts and Atlanta-based Cartoon Network, while others took their internship experiences as far as iLab in Monrovia, Liberia and Sparpweed in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
The types of work that students were engaged with were also all over the map. Beth Godfrey and Jennifer Teeter both took on web development projects, and AJ Kolenc and Marc Huet worked in game development. With The Mysterious Package Company, Kristjen Kjems took on work in narrative construction and product design. However, most mysterious were Tory Anderson’s and Jesse Shedd’s secret projects with the Navy Research Lab and Ericsson respectively.
Working in technology instruction with iLab, Michael Madaio explained that “getting the experience teaching several programming classes and a physical computing Arduino class was very beneficial to having a practical understanding of teaching tech classes.”
Despite the circumstances, students agreed that their summer experiences have contributed to their understandings of how they fit into a broader profession. A couple of students learned just what they don’t want in their futures, which will help point them in the directions that they do want. However, many of the students see their relationships with host sites continuing into their final year in the master’s program.
