Z WEP Archives – Page 122 – CA Work Experience Program

First Day at SAS

I received this pack of m&ms from SAS during orientation today

We start our day at 10 in a sort of “orientation”, where our intern manager, Christie gave us a sort of overview on what SAS is about, the company culture, and what SAS is involved in. Ranging from topics from elephants, to healthcare, to humanitarian crises, and to local police department projects, SAS seems to span multiple industries. The food in the cafeteria is nothing short of amazing, though I always get the same thing every time I visit- the sushi. It’s so good… 🍣

After lunch and watching some videos, we went to our various buildings; I’m in R for the entire WEP. (Did you know that it has a Starbucks on the bottom floor?) This week I am shadowing Mark Malek, who graduated from NC State with a bachelor’s degree in graphic design. We spent a little bit of time touring the design spaces and meeting his coworkers whom I’ll probably also be working with this summer. The rest of the day was geared towards learning Sketch, which is a wireframe tool used for designing UI. I personally think it has a very different feel from Figma (another competitor with Sketch), but Sketch is only on MacOS anyway. I’m sort of surprised that most of the keybinds and macros on Figma actually translate over to Sketch, and so do the ones from Photoshop Illustrator. I am excited to see what tomorrow will bring, and I hope to learn more new things.

Day 1

Upon our arrival at HQ Raleigh, Mr. Self and his pet dog welcomed us to our working space inside R!OT, the company that graciously provided us with a home base to conduct our work experience. HQ Raleigh provides an extraordinary Co-working space and we are very lucky to have the opportunity to spend time here for the next eight days.

We began our work by planning our first week out. We made a timeline and set ideas on the table for what we were going to accomplish today. In the morning we researched the potential available markets and similar products on our computers. We also drafted survey questions to send to potential customers and for sales attendants at stores. We decided tomorrow was going to be an “off-site” day where we will travel to various retail stores in the area to survey customers and search the stores for other similar products. During our midday lunch break we made a quick run to Cookout. In the afternoon we focused our research onto Permethrin, a semi-dangerous chemical that is in standard use as the main insect repellent in clothing. Vector Textiles would be a safer, chemical-free, option for insect repellent clothing.

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Day 1 – the basics

It’s my first day here at Curamericas, and boy has it been a long yet influential one. What is Curamericas you might ask? An organization that fights to save the lives of women and children in underprivileged communities. Simply put, Curamericas is a non-profit health organization.

This week here is supposed to be used as sort of an educational experience. When I arrived, with anxiety to spare, I walked in and was greeted by Andrew Herrera – the executive director of the organization. I was sat in a conference room, where I was surrounded by other interns – most of whom were college students. Once Kaela arrived, we were ready to start.

We were first brought to Mr. Herrera’s office where we were told what we would be doing with our time, and then we were off. Our task was to create some SMART goals for what we want to get done for the next two weeks, read the guidelines/policies and sign them, and most importantly, get to know Curamericas. We needed to scour the internet, through their social media and websites, to learn about their mission and familiarize ourselves. Mr. Herrera stated that this is the most important aspect because our main job is to spread awareness about Curamericas – and we can’t do that if we don’t know the company.

After about an hour, at 10:30, we had a meeting with the other interns and Mr. Herrera to discuss each of our goals. Obviously, the college students had more specific jobs to talk about, but myself and Kaela were able to join in on the meeting. This meeting lasted about 45 minutes, then we were off again. Like I said, our main task each day is just researching and learning. So we basically sit in the conference room and type on our computer for a total of 8 hours. Except we do get an hour for lunch, whenever we want and wherever we would like. Myself and Kaela decided to go to Happy + Hale in North Hills, to get a salad for me, and two quesadillas for Kaela. I can’t lie, this was a really great part of the day. It felt like too much freedom for a normal Tuesday school day – but obviously, it was great.

And most importantly, one of the main volunteers brought her dog.

That was my first Tuesday on the job.

Day 1

Today was my first day at Curamericas Global! Curamericas is a nonprofit organization working to save the lives of women and children in low-income countries around the world through improved health education and access to high-quality services. Since today was our first day, we mostly had orientation. We first met with the Executive Director Andrew Herrera to talk about the mission of Curamericas and why we chose to work there. Then I read through a bunch of orientation materials. After the pseudo-orientation we got to experience the daily team meeting where every member of the team who is working that day comes together for a big group meeting and discusses what they are currently working on and what they while be working on in the future. Andrew (everyone goes by their first name since its a small office) gives feedback and also talks about upcoming projects or events he needs people to work on. After the daily team meeting I started going through the youtube videos on the Curamericas channel and writing down comments for how I think some of the videos could be improved. After doing that for a little while Casey and I went to Happy + Hale to get lunch! It was hot outside but the food was good. After lunch we came back and I worked through some more videos. To close out the day I started working on my SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound) goals for what I wanted to do and get out of this internship. All in all today was somewhat slow but I’m excited to see what happens tomorrow!

Oh! And I met Jack. He’s a cute little black and white dog (kind of loud when he meets new people). One of the volunteers brought him to hang out after lunch. It took a little while (and a lot of petting), but after getting to know me he calmed down a bit.

Day One: Trailblazer Studios

Today was the first day of the work experience program! I started the day off with a tour of the studios – it’s so big, it’s like a maze.

Then I spent the day with Sydney Fedora, the head and sole member of the development department at Trailblazer studios. I spent the day learning about what she does in her department and helping her brainstorm for various show ideas. One method of brainstorming we used was to think of show titles and then the other person would think of what that show could be, ie. a show called mama bear could be about teen moms or celebrity moms.

We also discussed how different platforms can use different mediums and the role of a bunch of channels like NBC and PBS. At lunch, they ordered for me from a nearby restaurant – the same treatment that the clients at trailblazer receive! We ended the day with a conference call with the development teams in two other cities. Overall, it was an interesting way to see the beginning steps in the video production process.

Generate Design Day 1

Today was my first day at Generate Design. It is located in Six Forks, Raleigh, and up in a small office building. The person I shadowed is Tyler. He is one of a team of 5, who all take on design projects for their clients. He showed me around the office and explained the importance of certain aspects of a design factor, such as something as simple as the type and texture of the paper used. They use a website called Trello.com to help plan and organize their social media posts and their current projects.

Tyler explained that graphic design is all about culture and technology; you have to know your audience/client, and they best way to give what they want to them. From PowerPoints to business cards to logos, they meet with their client to establish an outline and clear goal, so they can start designing and putting together different drafts to be approved. He also explained the importance of making the buyer feel like their in charge, to always give them a design they’ll reject, so that they have a more satisfactory feeling of contribution to the process. He discussed my future interests for a bit, about what I hope to do in animation, and recommended a few tasks I could do to help add to my experience. He was familiar with animation and was able to give me advice on some aspects of art school applications.

Currently, one of the projects Tyler is working on is designing and formatting a PowerPoint for Governors Club. It is important to note the audience, which primarily consists of older, wealthier residents, and the aspects of their newsletter that they enjoy so he can implement those design factors into the PowerPoint itself. I’m pretty sure we will continue to work on this later this week, as well as look at some other things.

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Day 1

Today, I experienced something I had not yet. I wasn’t expecting it, but there I was, motionless. Stuck behind a red car. I was experiencing rush hour traffic for the first time. What could have been a 20 min drive was a 45 min drive. For the first time in my life, I realized who actually looked at billboard signs. It’s people in traffic. Corona? Orange Vanilla Coke? Those are the new drinks whose posters I enjoyed while taking a break from looking at that red car.

Despite all of this, I got to Durham early. I turned right into the parking lot, passing the bull statue. After I arrived, I walked down the stairs to the building. Passing the hotel, on the opposite side of the street, you see a clear door. Through the doors, you can spot a wooden staircase going up. I ring the doorbell like the sign told me to do, and was met with a friendly smile guiding me up to the couches. The couches became Cate and I’s workplace, as we each reviewed copies of super cool articles.

For lunch, Cate and I went to Neomonde and ate very good chicken kabobs! After we got back, we met with our host, Mr. Billman, and coordinated our plans for the rest of the week.