A Postcard From: Leslie Goloh ’19

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Name: Leslie Goloh
Class Year: 2019
Major: Computer Science
Hometown: Accra, Ghana

Internship Placement: Canaday Library
Job Title: Digital Curriculum Intern
Location: Bryn Mawr College

What’s happening at your internship?

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been learning Adobe Premiere Pro CC and Adobe Audition to edit video and audio presentations from the conference on Blended Learning in the Liberal Arts, which was hosted here on campus in May this year. Two other interns and I work on these videos together. We are also doing research and documentation on Moodle features that are meant to improve communication between the Dean’s Office and students on academic planning and advising. I also serve as a resource as well as gather resources for the development of the Bryn Mawr Digital Competencies Framework, which is designed to help students identify the digital skills required to excel and succeed in an increasingly digitized world, identify and participate in opportunities that will develop these skills and, finally, learn to express and demonstrate them as needed. Lastly, I also happen to be a test subject for the Virtual Reality interns working on the Microsoft Hololens, which is very exciting!!

Why did you apply for this internship?

As a computer science major, I explore technology from a very theoretical point of view with lots of coding and mathematics. So for me, this internship was a break from that to focus on and explore the user side of the technology from an educational standpoint. I was also interested in doing work that was user-oriented and focused on efficiency, convenience and usability.

What is something you have learned from your internship that you didn’t expect?

I have learned and am still learning a lot about what it means to truly work as a team since I work with two other Digital Curriculum interns in the same workspace. In the discourses about teamwork, I usually hear a lot of focus on the idea of “respecting your team member’s opinions and suggestions” but I know now that it is not enough to just respect their opinions. Their work must also be respected and their passions and interest should also be taken into consideration during interactions. That is, your own personal expectations about what your finished group work should look like, or how people should feel about the work you’re doing together, should be put on the back burner. Each team member should be given the space to do their work and their ability to do it should be trusted. This promotes an air of freedom and trust in the workplace which stimulates communication and keeps work flowing nicely.

I have also learned that I really do enjoy editing video and audio files. And I’ve discovered application software that I can use for this as well as for 3D design and animation and I’m very excited about trying them out.

What is most rewarding about your internship?

As a computer science major, I spend a lot of time coding and learning a lot about the mathematical theories surrounding the hidden digital world; however, much of my interactions with computers outside of school work consists of more simple actions like file backups, storage and organization, browsing for information, managing my social media accounts, etc. As simple as these tasks may seem, they take knowledge and some level of skill to perform effectively and efficiently. Unfortunately, the rushed space of my computer science classes does not give me the time to absorb or understand how I develop these skills. This is the point where this internship has been most rewarding. As I get more knowledgeable and develop these digital competencies, I envision myself as a well-rounded computer scientist who understands both sides of technology and who can adapt to the changes of the digital world.

A Postcard From: Victoria Berke ’19

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Name: Victoria Berke
Class Year: 2019
Major: Chemistry
Hometown: Exeter, N.H.

Internship Placement: Bryn Mawr Summer Science Research
Job Title: Laboratory Assistant
Location: Bryn Mawr College, Burgmayer Lab

What’s happening at your internship?

I am working in Dr. Sharon Burgmayer’s Bioinorganic Chemistry lab. We are a synthetic lab, doing small molecule modeling of the molybdenum cofactor, specifically the pyranopterin dithiolene ligand. My job is to synthesize starting materials for right now, although by the end of the summer I hope to be synthesizing the actual cofactor anologue, which is the molecule we study.

Why did you apply for this internship?

I have worked in this lab for three semesters, and am passionate about chemistry. I applied to stay for the summer because I want to improve my laboratory technique and advance to higher-level synthesis before the school year starts.

What has been your favorite part of this internship?

My favorite part of this internship has been building relationships with the graduate students in the Chemistry Department. During the school year, everyone is very busy with their own projects and classes, which makes it difficult to bridge the gap between the undergraduate and graduate experience. During the summer, we are all in the lab full time together, so there are many chances for mentorship and relationship building.

What is most rewarding about your internship?

It has been very rewarding to see my skills improve at a pace that would be impossible during the school year. For reference, during the school year I am in the lab only about 10 hours a week, and I am only able to get a fully purified product about once every 1.5 weeks, whereas I can complete these reactions in one or two days during the summer. This has enabled my technique to improve greatly, especially as it is easier to take and remember feedback about a reaction when you are doing the same reaction the next day as opposed to a week from when the feedback is given.

A Postcard From: Jamie DiDomenico ’18

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Name: Jamie DiDomenico
Class Year: 2018
Major: Psychology
Minor: Child and Family Studies
Hometown: Staten Island, N.Y.

Internship Placement: Summer Science Research Program
Job Title: Research Intern
Location: Bryn Mawr College

What’s happening at your internship?

For my last summer at Bryn Mawr College, I was accepted into Bryn Mawr’s Summer Science Research Program. Through this program, I am conducting cross-cultural psychological research with Dr. Heejung Park on how acculturation, or the process of adjusting to the host culture when multiple cultures come into contact, influences multiethnic families in South Korea. More specifically, I am examining the influence of acculturation on immigrant mothers’s behaviors and how those behaviors relate to their children’s behaviors and well-being in South Korea. Through conducting an in-depth literature review on multiethnic families, I have formed a hypothesis that suggests that adolescents will experience poorer well-being when mothers are less acculturated to Korean culture. Additionally, I hypothesize that this association would be explained by less acculturated mothers’s more negative parenting practices, which in turn would be associated with adolescents’ poorer well-being. As I continue my research, I will analyze data that was collected from 1,635 children and 1,625 of their mothers that allowed mothers to self-report their acculturation levels and parenting behaviors and adolescents to self-report their well-being.

Why did you apply for this internship?

I applied to the Summer Science Research Program to gain experience in conducting my own research. As a rising senior, I thought that this opportunity would be extremely helpful in teaching me the skills necessary to create my research-orientated thesis in the upcoming academic year. Additionally, I believe that this experience can help me decide whether or not research is a career path I would like to follow in the future.

Can you talk about the skills you are learning and why they are important to you?

I am gaining so many important skills from this program. Two of the most important skills that I feel I am gaining are patience and perseverance. Through conducting my own research, I am learning that researching any question is a slow and lengthy process, as there are many steps that need to be completed with precision and care. In consequence, I am learning how to think and conduct my research in an efficient manner that I believe is helping me consistently produce work related to my project and will help me develop my thesis in the future.

What is most rewarding about your internship?

I have found the potential for my research to shed knowledge on the implications of acculturation on a culturally unique and understudied population to be incredibly rewarding. Not only may my research provide information about immigrant mothers in South Korea, but it may also shed light on the implications of globalization. The ability for research to educate politicians, professionals, and the public on the implications of our changing society motivates me to continue my research now and in the upcoming years so positive and beneficial change can take place.

A Postcard From: Sasha Rogelberg ’19

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Name: Sasha Rogelberg
Class Year: 2019
Major: Psychology
Hometown: Charlotte, N.C.

Internship Placement: Arts and Science Council
Job Title: Just a humble intern!
Location: Charlotte

What’s happening at your internship?

The Arts and Science Council is a nonprofit organization in Charlotte, N.C., that basically exists in place of an office of cultural affairs and works to make cultural programming in Charlotte more accessible and sustainable. The organization acts as a liaison for cultural organizations and the greater community.  A couple of months ago, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Opportunity Task Force released a report on the continuing economic and racial segregation of Charlotte and its surrounding towns and outlined suggestions to help mitigate these problems. The Charlotte community and other organizations critiqued the report for remaining so abstract and not providing concrete solutions or initiatives that address the problems outlined in the report. By the end of the summer, I hope to curate documents and reports outlining the role ASC plays in working to mitigate these problems with more concrete solutions.

Why did you apply for this internship?

I originally connected with the VP of Programs and Services of ASC to potentially connect with a member of an organization ASC supports (like WFAE, our local NPR station) to see if I could get an internship position there. However, as I spoke more with members of ASC, I realized that my interest in curating narratives and information would also be of use to this organization. Additionally, and that because there was no formal internship position, I would have greater jurisdiction over how I spent my time at the organization. I also complain a lot about the atrocities of conservatism and discrimination that have transpired in North Carolina, and I think being part of an organization that values social justice is a way of putting my money where my mouth is, so to speak.

What is something you have learned from your internship that you didn’t expect?

Altthough I’ve lived in Charlotte for most of my life, I never really connected with the city.  The passing of HB2 and the murder of Keith Lamont Scott among other events last year made me resent and, in a way, demonize North Carolina, as those events marked how rampant homophobia, transphobia, and racism are in my home state.  ASC has been an organization that has acknowledged North Carolina’s shortcomings as a state that promotes equity. Now as a small part of the organization, I have learned not only more detailed accounts of Charlotte’s history with gentrification and racial segregation, but have also heard thoughts from community members and surrounding organizations on efforts to work against Charlotte’s continued racism.  Being a part of ASC has helped me not dismiss the atrocities that have happened in this state, but rather recognize North Carolina as a multifaceted and changing place. ASC has given me a different lens in which to view change in the place I live and to learn from the individuals trying to make positive and meaningful change here.

What has been the biggest challenge you have faced at your internship?

I think the excitement of starting an internship really motivates one to want to dive into a big project and work really hard, but I realized I had to pace myself and spend a lot of time meeting with folks inside and outside of the organization to make sure I fully understood many of the facets of ASC before making commentary on how the organization functions. Because I’m designing my own internship experience, I’ve had to be proactive in scheduling meetings and finding research, which is hard when you don’t always know what you’re looking for.  I’m learning how to strike a balance between how much time to spend just taking in information and time spent actually doing something with the information I’ve learned.

A Postcard From: Zhengyi Xu ’18

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Name: Zhengyi Xu
Class Year: 2018
Major: Math
Hometown: Hangzhou
Internship Placement: Shenwanhongyuan Securities, Hangzhou Branch
Job Title: Intern
Location: Hangzhou, China

What’s happening at your internship?

This summer, I am interning in the Investment Banking Department of Shenwanhongyuan Securities. Our team focuses on listing enterprises in NEEQ market (National Equities Exchange and Quotation). NEEQ market is China’s newest stock market. It is an over-the-counter (OTC) market that provides greater depth of financing options for Chinese Mainland small-to-medium enterprises.

In this internship, I have written a report briefing the situation of the gear manufacturing industry in China and analyzing the future development of one enterprise we are current taking charge of; I have finished a proposal for our new project of a clothing manufacture company I was following. Also I am responsible for collecting our previous costumers’ contact information and getting their feedback.

Why did you apply for this internship?

I hope this internship can contribute to my future career. I want to apply for financial mathematics for graduate school, therefore this internship offers me a chance to see what kind of work is done in the investment banking department, and what kind of skills I need to prepare for my future career.

Was there anything special about how you found this internship?

I had an internship in Hongyuan Securities in the summer of my freshman year. That internship was interesting and I had a good experience there communicating with people from the securities industry, so this year I applied for the internship in the Investment Banking Department in Hangzhou Branch. I always want to know about the jobs in finance, specially the job in IBD, and joining in a small group can provide me a chance to get close with my teammates and learn from them, and do more important work.

What has been your favorite part of this internship?

My favorite part of this internship is talking with people from banks, enterprises, and investment companies. From the conversations with those people we get to know what kind of service they need and how to cooperate in the future; from this process, I understand the financial market comprehensively and learn more information about other areas in the finance industry.

A Postcard From: Aisha Soumaoro ’20

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Name: Aisha Soumaoro
Class Year: 2020
Hometown: New York
Internship Placement: Dalun ICT Centre
Location: Dalun, Ghana

My name is Aisha Soumaoro. I am a rising sophomore at Bryn Mawr College, pursuing my computer science degree. I was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and for the first seven years of my life, I lived in Guinea, Conakry. Currently, my family and I live in New York.

In high school, I loved spending my free time volunteering and giving back to my community. In my high school career, I volunteered at Harlem Grown, where I dedicated my summer to clearing up vacated lots in order to plant healthy fruits and vegetables for Harlem residents. I also volunteered for Meals on Wheels, where every Sunday I would go door to door delivering meals to elderly people. In addition, I was a tutor at Democracy Prep Middle School, a translator at Sanctuary for Families, an office assistant, a babysitter, and a captain for my high school girls’ soccer team.

While these may sound as a recitation of my resume, I view these organizations or activities that I have partaken in as stepping stones needed for me to reach my optimal life. They have helped me build my character.

I believe that being involved with the Dalun ICT Centre will allow me to continue exercising my values for authenticity, empathy, and kindness. With these values and the mixture of my love for computer science, I will be able to share my knowledge of art, Java, Python, and other basic computer skills with my peers on this fellowship. Furthermore, I am looking forward to being immersed in a community where its member shares all of these values.

Ghana, here we come!

A Postcard From: Darby Andre ’18

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Name: Darby Andre
Class Year: 2018
Major: Sociology
Hometown: Fleetwood, Pa.
Internship Placement: The Franklin Institute
Job Title: Development Intern
Location: Philadelphia

What’s happening at your internship?

This summer I’m interning with The Franklin Institute’s External Affairs Department, dealing with fundraising, events, and membership. I’ve been learning about all the writing, planning, and management that go into successfully engaging and cultivating donors to the museum. So much goes on behind the scenes at The Franklin Institute that makes all the really cool programs possible. I’ve been writing donor proposals, prepping materials for our various fundraising events, and helping the team with all their office needs.

Why did you apply for this internship?

I applied for this internship at The Franklin Institute because I wanted to get experience in a fundraising department at a nonprofit. I’ve been thinking about working for a year or two before I go to grad school, so I wanted to explore some other career options related to sociology. While I had been interested in working for a nonprofit after graduation, I didn’t know a lot about how nonprofits operated. I thought interning with a really successful development department in the Philadelphia area would be a great learning experience in the city I hope to live in after graduation.

Can you talk about the skills you are learning and why they are important to you?

This might sound a little bland, but I’ve been learning a lot about the program Raiser’s Edge, which is a database used for fundraising in most nonprofits. It’s going to be something really important to put on my resume and have experience in for future nonprofit jobs!

What is most rewarding about your internship?

It’s been really cool to actually see the results of the work our department does. For example, I worked on prepping for an event that helped raise money to give all of our STEM scholars laptops before they go to college, and now I get to actually put the laptops in cases and write nametags for all the students. Next week, I’ll get to go to the event where each student receives their laptop. It’s been really rewarding to work for a department and a nonprofit that gives back to the community and be able to see that tangible progress.

A Postcard From: Madeleine Maier ’19

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Name: Madeleine Maier
Class Year: 2019
Major: International Studies in the Middle East, Francophone Studies
Hometown: Eugene, Ore.
Internship Placement: VITALS (Valley Immigration Training, Advocacy, and Legal Services)
Job Title: Extern
Location: Springfield, Ore.

What’s happening at your internship?

VITALS is a new nonprofit in the Eugene/Springfield area. They provide low-cost legal services to immigrants in the area, as well as clients all over the U.S. Another mission of the organization is the education of students in immigration law, so I have been very lucky to have an internship that is not centered around making copies or filing. Instead, I am getting the chance to experience many parts of the process: researching asylum cases, meeting with clients, filing out DACA and U-VISA paperwork, observing immigration court, and writing reports.

Why did you apply for this internship?

I was interested in doing some kind of work with immigrants or asylum seekers, so that I could understand the U.S. processes more and maybe have a chance to practice my Arabic, French, and Spanish. I also really appreciate the emphasis on learning for the student interns.

Was this internship what you expected it to be?

My internship has been really hands on. Even in my first morning I helped to interview a client for her asylum case, and later wrote up the report. I really love getting the chance to do so many different things in the office and I’m happy to have the chance to work directly with clients, which also helps with my language skills. I’ve also really enjoyed doing research for asylum cases, which require lots of documentation of human rights violations in the client’s home country. For this, I read through newspaper articles, government reports, NGO reports, and academic studies to support our clients’ claims. I am learning a lot about specific human rights issues in different countries, and although it can be hard to read about, it feels very important.

What has been the biggest challenge you have faced at your internship?

The most difficult part of my internship is how emotionally taxing it can be. Asking clients to relive the worst memories of their lives, sometimes for the first time, can feel like a huge responsibility. It’s also difficult to see how few of the cases are accepted by the court—so much of it seems to be down to chance and the mood of the judge that day. The system is unfair and broken, and it can be hard to watch our clients struggle through it. There are no guarantees, as much as we wish there were, and so empathy and compassion are a huge part of the work that I am doing.

A Postcard From: Aldercy Lam ’19

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Name: Aldercy Lam
Class Year: 2019
Major: Sociology
Hometown: Philadelphia
Internship Placement: Art-Reach
Job Title: Program Intern
Location: 1501 Cherry St., Philadelphia

What’s happening at your internship?

Art-Reach is a tiny team of five, so my everyday responsibilities require assisting any member of the team whenever I’m needed. Because we are in constant communication with human service agencies and art partners (museums, theaters, and cultural organizations), my duties usually fall within that line of correspondence. For example, I process the ticket requests that the agencies send us through a program, and then email our art partners to make it happen. I also mail out thank you letters from our members to Art Partners and donors. Additionally, I get out of the office and assist in adaptive art workshops. This past week I went on a touch tour at the Philadelphia Theatre Company with the Associated Services for the Blind (ASB), where we were able to get on stage and feel the different props.

Why did you apply for this internship?

The initial reason why I was attracted to Art-Reach was because I was passionate in assisting them with their mission. Taking sociology courses opened my eyes to the way systematic inequality has produced real consequences on underserved communities. After taking these courses and declaring a sociology major, I’ve decided that I want to pursue a career where I can support the individuals and families facing these challenges.
At Art-Reach, we accomplish this by bringing art to members of the low-income and disability communities. I was especially interested in this organization because they are based in Philadelphia, where there are an abundance of art programs that are unfortunately often only accessible to wealthy, able-bodied people. At Art-Reach, we bridge this gap by connecting underserved communities with art partners using support from public and private donations.

What is something you have learned from your internship that you didn’t expect?

By working at Art-Reach, I’ve learned to check my able-bodied privilege and make sure to be more inclusive by keeping in mind the different accommodations one may need. A common but harmful assumption people make is that a “normal” person is able-bodied. There are people with disabilities and they have to face barriers that those without disabilities do not even think about. I felt guilty when I first realized my ignorance, but now I’m learning how I can make things more accessible for everyone.

What is most rewarding about your internship?

The most rewarding part of my internship would be knowing that I have a direct positive role in supporting communities. Sometimes I can go on tours and live out these experiences with our members, but when I can’t I still know that I’ve helped in getting our members to the play or museum when I process the ticket requests from my cubicle.

A Postcard From: Francesca Agnello ’18

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Name: Francesca Agnello
Class Year: 2018
Major: Anthropology
Minor: Italian
Hometown: Livingston, N.J.
Internship Placement: Canaday Library
Job Title: Digital Curriculum Intern
Location: Bryn Mawr College

What’s happening at your internship?

I’ve been doing a lot of tech documentation recently (specifically for the new version of Moodle), which is something I’ve never tried before and sounds pretty dry but is something I actually really enjoy. I’ve also started using Adobe Premiere Pro CC to edit videos about blended learning in the liberal arts; I’ve never played around with audiovisual editing before, either. There are three of us Digital Curriculum Interns, so we’re all working together to solve problems, learn Premiere, and figure out BiONiC. We also work in the same room as the AR/VR Interns who are working with the HoloLens, so we DC interns are sometimes their guinea pigs for their apps, which is really fun (and also terrifying because my brain truly believes the holograms are real).

Why did you apply for this internship?

This past semester I was working with Alicia Peaker as one of her Digital Scholarship Research Assistants, and wanted to use this summer to continue honing my digital competencies. Alicia mentioned this internship to us RAs as the perfect way to do this. I was also really intrigued by the 9-to-5 work schedule, which is something I haven’t had experience with.

What is most rewarding about your internship?

Even though I’m not directly helping anyone with this internship, some of the projects we’re working on are meant to help future first-years make the transition into Bryn Mawr College by making educational tools (like Moodle and BiONiC) easier to understand and use. And since this internship is all about finding innovative new ways of teaching others, I’d like to think that some of our projects are going to help non-traditional learners succeed at Bryn Mawr as well as traditional learners. By advocating for blended learning, for example, we’re supporting potential tools and technologies that could help BMC students learn in their own unique ways.

I also think that by being the “guinea pigs” of the college’s efforts to bring digital competencies to the forefront of campus awareness, we can offer valuable insight into how these efforts can prove the most effective. And understanding these competencies is important not only because they’re great to vocalize on resumes and cover letters, but because they also help us recognize our own learning processes.

What is something you have learned from your internship that you didn’t expect?

So far, I’ve had two major “ah-ha” moments in this internship. My first occurred when I was on my lunch break running some errands for myself. I was walking back from Campus Safety (to get a parking permit for my car) and I suddenly realized that this was the first time where, during a work-laden week, I used my lunch break to do something for me instead of rushing around getting to class, frantically finishing up a reading, or printing an assignment. I was doing a chore that I needed to do, but it didn’t have the same sense of desperate urgency that my academic duties have. And I realized in the parking lot behind the Campus Center that I really, really enjoy having a 9-to-5 schedule, where my lunch breaks are my own and when I leave work at the end of the day, I actually have some time for myself.

My second epiphany came when I was learning how to use Premiere. I had never used such comprehensive video-editing software before, so suddenly having to edit video and audio with video overlays and face-blurring was quite daunting. To prepare, I watched an hour-long tutorial on Lynda.com and tried my best to follow along in the program. And after I watched around 40 minutes of it, I grew too frustrated to continue the tutorial. So, I just went for it. Luckily, my two other DC coworkers had also just learned the program a few days prior, so they were able to answer questions I had. And I’m proud to say I picked it up a lot quicker than I anticipated. When I was marveling how fast I had learned to use such a program, I realized that had I needed to learn the program to do an academic project with a strict, set deadline, I would have been too stressed and frustrated to actually learn the program. With these editing projects, however, there are flexible deadlines because we are also responsible for other projects at the same time. And because of this flexibility, I was able to begin learning without anxiety. Long story short, this epiphany taught me how I actually learn (and “Metacognition and Life-Long Learning” is one of those digital competencies I was talking about!). During the school year, I don’t have the time nor the energy to reflect upon my learning process, so this internship has already taught me about myself in under two weeks!