Why did you decide to apply for this internship?

When I got the ini­tial email, I thought it would be a real­ly cool to work with the foun­da­tion that changed my entire col­lege expe­ri­ence and has had such a big impact on my life. I saw the intern­ship as a way to expand my skill set into a more pro­fes­sion­al set­ting, while also doing some­thing I enjoy. I have always been inter­est­ed in, and done some work in, con­tent cre­ation so for me it was a per­fect oppor­tu­ni­ty. Even though I am just a fresh­man, I knew it was an expe­ri­ence I did not want to miss out on, so I went for it.

What is your role as an intern?

My role as an intern is to use my expe­ri­ence, cre­ativ­i­ty, knowl­edge, and per­spec­tive to assist in ele­vat­ing the Bright Foundation’s dig­i­tal pres­ence. Using my expe­ri­ence and cre­ativ­i­ty, I help in mak­ing graph­ics for social media. While using my knowl­edge and per­spec­tive, I am work­ing on increas­ing engage­ment and con­nect­ing schol­ars like myself with resources and each oth­er. I am also try­ing to cre­ate new con­tent and ideas that are still rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Foun­da­tion.

How do you deal with stress or what helps?

One of the things that helps me the most with stress is exer­cise and going to the gym. I use it as an oppor­tu­ni­ty to spend time alone, lis­ten to music and stop think­ing about every­thing else going on. For me, tak­ing care of my body improves my over­all men­tal health and increas­es my gen­er­al atti­tude. I think it is a great way to take your mind off of things and is an impor­tant part of self-care.

What is your favorite way to waste time?

My favorite way to waste time is pho­tog­ra­phy. I run my own pho­tog­ra­phy busi­ness on the side and that is what I do in my free time. For me, it is a way to be cre­ative and social­ize with­in my com­mu­ni­ty while doing some­thing I love. I enjoy tak­ing por­traits, shoot­ing at events, and cap­tur­ing moments that peo­ple will remem­ber for a life­time.

What is some­thing you have learned out­side of class?

An impor­tant les­son I have learned is to find joy and hap­pi­ness in the small things. A lot of the time life can be super over­whelm­ing so it makes a big dif­fer­ence when you put mean­ing behind your actions, no mat­ter how impor­tant. I learned that when hav­ing a pos­i­tive mind­set behind every­thing you do, that mind­set stays around in times when it is needed.