Name: Clara Zhang
Class Year: 2022
Major: Economics and History of Art
Hometown: Guangzhou, China
Internship Organization: LITS Department
Job Title: LITS Digital Technology Summer Interns
Location: Â鶹ÊÓƵ, Pa.
Award: Â鶹ÊÓƵ Internship Fund
What’s happening at your internship?
We’re assigned to several projects including creating databases, building websites, learning web accessibility, and coding using HTML. One of our projects is to collect funding data from various sources and exhibit them in a searchable way on a website. Another is to increase web accessibility of the Â鶹ÊÓƵ website, which includes writing tech documents and trying user testing.
Why did you apply for this internship?
Because I decided to change my career path into computer science and will be getting my master's in computer and information technology, this summer internship is a perfect place for me to dive into this career at a beginner level. I would like to explore technology and develop my practical skills in a business environment.
What has been your favorite part of this internship?
I love that this internship is project-based, which gives us lots of freedom and allows us to explore on our own. In order to achieve a goal in the project, we are encouraged to do research and gain skills on our own. In the meantime, we applied the project management knowledge onto real-life scenarios and learned how to cooperate with teammates to work more efficiently.
Can you talk about the skills you are learning and why they are important to you?
We learned about data collection, labeling, and organizing; developed tools like searchable tables; and worked on documentation and maintenance. During the program, we had several workshops about HTML/CSS, digital competency, project management, and other technology-related fields. I learned a lot about working with Excel, Airtable, and importing data onto a website, and I found the process of expanding skills very exciting and satisfying.
Visit the Summer Internship Stories page to read more about student internship experiences.