SciCommInternship
Monday, April 27, 2026 • 1 min read
It’s been a while since I wrote one of these. At the time of writing, I’ve posted the first part of my Sci. Comm. Internship post-mortem and finished editing the second part today.
I thought I had to submit my internship portfolio last week but it seems I got the date wrong. I’m working towards writing the postmortem and submit it as part of my portfolio. Apart from that, I have to update my internship journal and get it signed by my supervisor before submitting it. With that, this internship experience will end. Thursday is the deadline. I’m confident I can make it.
Friday, April 24, 2026 →
Wow, I drafted part two! Crazy! Seems there’s going to be a part three.
This project is so silly. WIll anyone be interested in this? There’s so little mentions of science. But to do this I had to understand the science. I should emphasize more on the science…
Wednesday, April 22, 2026 →
I just recalled a tip to curve procrastination. If the task seems daunting, divide it into several tasks.
As to how this relates to writing, it could be said that I finished the first part of the blog.
Yes yes, this project spans a whole month. I should divide it into different posts.
I wonder what’s the word count of that post 🤔. Didn’t even check.
Wednesday, April 22, 2026 • 1 min read
I finished my internship portfolio! Woke up real worried about it because tomorrow is the deadline. But when I looked at it, most of the pieces were already done. I just had to put all the pieces together. Add all the work samples, double check the alt-text, and add the whole full draft to the larger portfolio.
I hope it's okay to have uploaded the whole site. I thought they would accept links so I was going to submit the link to the portfolio in the same Canvas LMS but they were just accepting files. I did check the export and it was intuitive enough. The internship page looked fine.
Now post assignments concerns include the writing portion of my internship. I'm. Procrastinating. Hard. On it. AGAIN. It feels so daunting recalling the whole experience.
I'll wait for my laptop battery to run out before journaling some more.
Monday, April 20, 2026 →
Time to rereading what I wrote last week for my internship. Let’s do this!!!🎉
Thursday, April 16, 2026 • 0 min read
Thursday, April 16, 2026 • 1 min read
I just finished rereading and doing some light editing to yesterday’s posts. The power of writing is truly boundless. I feel like a stream whose water was liberated from blockage. I feel peaceful. The words are flowing and they are kind.
I did some thinking about my internship as well. I realized that I was forcing myself to write something that didn’t spark joy. It was clear when I found a topic that truly did, a post-mortem of sorts about how I did a website refresh of the Living Agroecology Lab. Thinking about it got me so excited I couldn’t stop thinking about it when I got to bed. Now, my current hurdle is getting started. For that, I do think that I am putting a lot of unneeded pressure on myself. This post-mortem will go on my blog, the lab’s news/blog, and anywhere else I try to.
The biggest advice I need right now is JUST WRITE!
Thursday, April 16, 2026 • 1 min read
Accomplishments
One of my first accomplishments in this internship is refreshing a website that wasn’t my own. I condensed the site’s header and footer, redesigned the News and People sections, and did slight touch-ups to the rest of the pages. To image heavy-pages, I identified the lack of alt-text and encouraged my supervisor to describe context-heavy pictures by explaining the importance of accessibility.
Challenges
One of my biggest challenges during this internship has been overcoming writer’s block. While I have no problem writing anecdotal stories, factual stories using a report-style has been a struggle for years. I worried that what I had to say had no value and feared judgement. I was able to overcome it by reading the words of people who shared opinions I heavily disagree with, people who write for a living or hold personal blogs. If they could speak their convictions so loud, then why me, who is so confident about the morality of their beliefs, couldn’t I do it? It’s not that I was encouraged to speak against them but encouraged to share my experience and beliefs with my voice just like them.
Thursday, April 16, 2026 • 2 min read
The skills I developed during this internship experience include communication, time management, and independence. Communication with my supervisor and co-workers depended entirely through email and video calls. To my supervisor, I sent weekly reports, sharing what I had done, future plans, and questions. Because I tend to either bulldoze through tasks or ruminate on the details, remembering to take a step back, reflect, and move forward was an experience I’m thankful for.
While I have been tracking my time for a few years, designating time that qualified as part of my internship was challenging. Unlike STEM coursework, an assignment with a creative writing component requires patience. Inspiration may strike at any time and ideas need to be cultivated in one’s mind with time and attention. Thus, I had to be conscientious and liberal about focusing on the writing aspects of my internship outside the initial designated hours.
Because of the remote nature of this internship, I was given the flexibility to decide my day-to-day tasks and goals. For example, I could brainstorm and design ideas for the website under loose constraints, making full use of my web development experience till then. Similarly, I was able to shift my attention into the website refresh, a project which I had already taken several notes on before the official start of the internship.
Wednesday, April 15, 2026 • 5 min read
I wonder if these unpleasant feelings are in any way related to my latest tendency of lurking in social media. I don’t feel like interacting with anyone. Perhaps I have been scarred from interacting because of those days of getting too many follow requests for my comfort back in planetearth.social at the beginning of the year.
It… it was a really scary experience. I am not used to getting that much attention online so when I kept getting notifications of follow requests from a bunch of people whom I had never interacted with, I was terrified because I didn’t understand what had prompted this reaction.
I don’t really consider myself as particularly inexperienced with social media. I spent some time in X before the Musk takeover before deleting it in 2025 after years of disuse and joined Mastodon a sometime later.
I really wasn’t expecting that kind of reaction to an intro post. I don’t know if I would call it rude but it was certainly unnerving. I made an effort to consider why would someone send a follow request on Mastodon to a relatively new user. I had my account locked for privacy reasons and the large majority of the people who sent follow requests hadn’t even replied to my intro post. To me, it felt like an intrusion. Like I had moved to a new city and random strangers were knocking at my door for entry without introducing themselves first.
I gave close consideration to the first few batches of follow requests but as the hours passed and they kept coming, I became anxious. I estimated I got more than a hundred requests in total. That’s… that’s TOO much! Hundred plus requests of random strangers to see followers-only posts? What was wrong with those people?! What was wrong with social media? This wasn’t the experience I had with Mastodon till then. I was creeper out, terrified out of my WITS!
I think what’s worse is that the follow requests just kept coming. The first twenty fours was the largest flux but after sifting through all of them, I didn’t want anything to do with internet randos nor my account. Plus, the character limit was a mere 500 words. Way too little for my liking.
Those are the two largest reasons why I lasted less than a week in my second Mastodon instance. I decided to look deeper into scicomm.xyz and liked it’s strict regulations. The instance owners were very kind to accept my application despite the very clear message that they weren’t open to new users. My bad.
I can’t help but bestow myself the innocent victim status for that atrocious experience. I despise being the center of attention and the impression of being in the spotlight was nothing short of living nightmare. My anxious tendencies didn’t do any favors either. It really was an all-round bad time.
I wish my account in the new instance was a less stressful experience. I think it is connect to what I call “mainstream Mastodon” where trending topics are politics, breaking news, and all-around negative toots. A lot of the people I decided to follow from the mountains of follow requests either reblogged or tooted emotionally charged statements. It didn’t feel like being in an alternative social media at all.
I know that X is way worse than mainstream Mastodon so I sought for a quieter place focused on microblogging. That’s how i ended up finding my current blog host and why I spend most of my time writing on micro.blog instead of Mastodon.
I have been thinking of allowing posts on micro.blog to federate to Mastodon but knowing the latter’s chaotic quality makes me reconsider. In other words, I don’t feel safe there.
Ah yes, I actually forgot to add that I spent some time at hol.gra.ph, a Sharkey instance before moving to micro.blog. Still can’t get my notes to import to micro.blog shakes head.
Anyways, I think this is where I sign off. I feel a small weight off my chest after writing about what brought me here. I could have written this in the privacy of my journal but seeming as to how it pertained to social media, it made little sense to keep something that happened in a public space private.
This in a check-in because my ability to write (or lack thereof) is directly related to my perception of the audience which it still that of angry and depressed mob that makes me want to run away, hide, and have nothing to do with.
I genuinely love the internet, science, and writing but that negative experience has etched into my mind and affected me in ways I cannot begin to understand. If I do become a science writer and if some sort of trick of fate I find moderate success, will I be on the spotlight once again? That’s probably the future that scares me the most. But that just isn’t it? Is it? There’s a bigger fear behind it, so big I cannot see it. Or perhaps it’s fear itself that’s clouding my judgement. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time.
Tuesday, April 14, 2026 • 1 min read
What?
Designed a boardgame.
Who?
Scientists Ashmita Das, Julie Capito and Esteli Jimenez-Soto.
When?
In 2023.
Where?
at Syracuse University.
Why?
To teach undergraduate students the ecological principle of companion planting.
In 2023, scientists at Syracuse University Ashmita Das, Julie Capito and Esteli Jimenez-Soto designed a boardgame to teach undergraduate students the ecological principle of companion planting.
Friday, April 10, 2026 • 1 min read
Ah yes, talking about my internship, today I worked on catching up with the internship journal entries.
I also wanted to update the Samples of Work post but Dad found an interesting YT channel, Lock Smth Financing about economics and geopolitics so I spent some time watching their videos. It was really informative!
Anyways, I should at least update my work samples. It’s just adding some figure descriptions and the corresponding altar text! I just never know where my energy will be tomorrow and even less on a weekend shrugs.
Tuesday, April 7, 2026 • 5 min read
- reflect on accomplishments, challenges, skills gained, relationships developed, observations, applied coursework.
- career skills enhancement goals for the rest of the year.
I am working as an intern at Dr. Jimenez-Soto’s Living Agroecology Lab. During these three months, I have faced several challenges, learned new skills, and developed professional relationships. This essay is a full reflection of my internship experience so far and a look at what I want to accomplish in the remaining of the year.
My goals for this internship were to write one to two blog posts and interviews with the laboratory staff respectively with the option of creating a visual explainer for one of the lab’s research questions. Overall, my objective is to improve and create communication materials for the lab and improve current web communication channels, mainly the official website.
Accomplishments
One of my first accomplishments in this internship is refreshing a website that wasn’t my own. The first project I tackled was updating the Living Agroecology lab’s website. I condensed the site’s header and footer, redesigned the News and People sections, and did slight touch-ups to the rest of the pages. To image heavy-pages, I identified the lack of alt text and encouraged my supervisor to describe context-heavy pictures.
Challenges
One of my biggest challenges during this internship has been overcoming writer’s block. While I have no problem writing anecdotal stories, factual stories using a report-style has been a struggle for years. I worried that what I had to day had no value or was scared of judgement. I was able to overcome it by reading the words of people whom I heavily disagree, people who write for a living or hold personal blogs. If they could speak their convictions so loud, then why me, who is so confident about the morality of their beliefs, couldn’t do it? It’s not that I was encouraged to speak against them but encouraged to share my experience and beliefs with my voice just like them.
Skills Gained
The skills I gained fall into the web development and creative writing areas. I want to highlight five skills I have gained or developed during this internship experience, communication, time management, problem solving, independence, and willingness to learn.
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Communication
Most of my communication between my supervisor and co-workers was through email or video calls. Of both, I think the most challenging was writing weekly reports to my supervisor. Not only I had to keep track of what I had done each given week but also my plans and questions. I tend to either just bulldoze through life or ruminate on the details so remembering to taking a step back, reflect, and move forward was a challenge I appreciate.
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Time management
While I have been tracking my time for a few years, designating what was internship time in a remote experience was harder than I thought. Because unlike coursework where I had clear deliverables and start and end times, the hours tracked for an internship with a heavy writing component don’t work like that. Inspiration may strike anytime and my thoughts are furtive. It was an exercise in conscientiousness and patience to be open-minded about what I should accept as time spent on the internship. It was also difficult because there are no physical barriers. Unlike in-person work, being in work and out of work isn’t limited to a physical location.
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Problem solving
During this internship, I really wanted to challenge myself and face my writer’s block. While at the time of writing this essay I cannot say for a fact that I have done so, I believe I have made a lot of progress.
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Independence
Because of the remote nature of this internship and the hands-off approach of my supervisor, I was free to decided on my day to day tasks and goals. Of course, this internship experience has a set of clear objectives and deliverables that were agreed beforehand between my supervisor and me which I wanted to fulfill. Nevertheless, I had a lot of freedom. For example, I could brainstorm and design ideas for the website under loose constraints, and you bet I made full use of my web development experience. Similarly, as I struggled at the beginning of the internship to focus on the writing component, I was able to shift my attention into the website refresh, a project which I had already taken several notes before the official start of the internship.
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Willingness to Learn
Last but not least, my biggest hurdle was facing and overcoming my writer’s block. I had to be willing to learn about myself and face my fears head on. On many occasions, I was uncomfortable and terrified. Like I mentioned in the challenges section, I also had to be willing to learn perspectives that made me uncomfortable to see the value of my voice.
Relationships Developed
The two professional relationships I developed during this internship are with my supervisor and one of my co-workers, Victoria Brown.
Applied Course work
I think the course I consistently recalled during this internship was Introduction to Environmental Science and my Science Communication course at St. Pete College. In both courses, I designed a pamphlet about the benefits of a green activity, recycling and composting respectively. In the former course, I was part of a group while in the latter I was by myself. I recalled these activities because of their science communication and visual components which I have been struggling with in this internship experience.
Career/Skill-Enhancement Goals
- Code my portfolio!
Apart from my creations during this internship experience and the internship seminar, I want to share all the cool coursework I have created across my college experience. I wrote some categories which they will fall into.
- Text
- Multimedia
- Videos
- Graphics
My final internship portfolio submission will likely not have other coursework included.
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Finish CSS course from Code Academy
I started this course last year and I have a few section to go. It’s been an
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Finish setting up my blog
Monday, April 6, 2026 • 4 min read
Today I looked up some Youtube videos on script writing. Quickly found that what I want to write is in fact a voice over script (or something like that).
I found @findyourvoice_vb on YT and found some really good advice on several videos (except the one that was written with AI, that one was generic and a waste of time except the last tip which was actually written by the script writer. Truly an encapsulation of all that makes AI useless!). These are the tips that I found useful, paraphrased:
- Let the story stew in your head.
- This one was validating. An unknown amount of work into writing a stories happens in my head, without visible output. If I had to make a comparison, it’s like a pre-Big Bang state. Unstable atoms are bouncing around, grazing against each other. The world that doesn’t exists observes with anticipating for the moment of collision, inevitable but not happening yet. Even if they know how the story ends, their lives depends on the moment of the beginning. And that anxiety is what I feel right now. I’m not writing and my internship requires that I do because I have to write an journal entry every time. But how can I do that when the creative process of writing is stirring the pot, waiting, living. I can’t track the time like that. Should I? I was a bit more conscious about the moments I think about my internship after watching these videos. I am genuinely scare of not being able to pass the minimum number of hours required when I am the one who chooses how I spent my time qualities as “internship time” and what doesn’t, so I think to scale down. I don’t like it!
- Storytelling over facts
- This is some really good advice. In science communication, perhaps one of the most relevant. Facts at least needs context and context needs an emotional dimension. The voice over actor used the example of Hemingway’s six letter story: For Sale: Baby’s Shoes, Never Worn. I am deeply aware that scientific data is meaningless to the general public without grounding it in everyday reality. So often do I recall the little that I know about science communicators in the U.S. before Carl Sagan. The researchers cooped up in their labs who had very little experience with being on camera and public relations. I forget that name of the movie but it really sparked my interest in the history of science communication, the public relations part. It was television and radio back then.
- Use connectors.
- The channel has a couple of videos on how connectors make a huge difference between the spoke work and the written word. I will definitely take this into account (by point out that this post wasn’t written with connectors in mind, very bullet point-like)!
- Just Do It!
- Honestly, when I started looking for videos… I thought I was wasting my time. My first results were the scammy videos on how to tips on how to write better scripts, except it was written in this absolutist language that doesn’t sit well with me. And this one video that pushed for using AI to write scripts but “you’re using generic prompts and not this AI tool so your scripts are coming out WRONG” something like that, shakes head disappointingly. Anyways, the advice has always been helpful to me and genuinely use it quite often to motivate myself to Doing The Thing. My brain keeps making up these scenarios that have nothing to with the actual writing which cause me to feel anxiety and dread and I end up unable to write a single word. It’s incredibly frustrating when I love writing so much!
A lot of them are general writing advice but I found them useful because it’s been a while since I’ve dipped my toes in creative writing. Going back to basics and hearing the advice that I know by heart helped me get motivated.
Talking about motivation, this was the only thing I’ve done (apart from writing this post). I’m meeting with my professor tomorrow so I hope to share some of my worried and ask for advice. Things are still pretty tough but having worked on my website, I feel a bit more grounded today compared to the last time. There’s a whole month to go and anything can happen!
Thursday, April 2, 2026 • 2 min read
Trying something new. Writing some public journal entries about my internship experience.
Struggling really bad with writing a blog post for my internship. I know I want to be about the board game they designed but I don’t know how approach it.
Asked my professor for a meeting to bounce off ideas. Tomorrow the holidays start in my region but if I do get to have that meeting, I would really like it to happen as soon as possible.
I’m not really sure why I’m struggling. Well, apart from the general perfectionism streak. I considered making a blog for my website to publish it but that won’t really solve the issue. I did work on the blog post yesterday but when I saw it today, it sounded too technical/formal/science-y. That’s not the kind of time I want it to have. But then, perhaps I should just focus on getting the words out. But but, I don’t know what to say. I played the board game twice. Should I write it as anecdote?
Sometimes, I can seriously get bogged down into the details like tone and audience and message when I should just write. the damn. thing! I can’t help but think about the professional details of the whole thing and I end up being unable to write anything. It’s such an unpleasant experience.
I know it’s hard enough to write for a living for anybody. I keep thinking of things that have nothing to do with what I’m doing and I wish I knew a way to just stop.
Monday, March 30, 2026 • 4 min read
Okay, I need a plan. I have put off my internship for an embarrassingly amount of time. What do I need to do? What do I need to do?
First, let's see how many hours I have left to complete. Fortunately, I'm tracking my time with ToggleTrack. After doing the math, I can work for about 2.5 hours a day for the next fifteen (15) workdays to reach the 120hour minimum. I think I can do that if I add brainstorming time like this.
Next, what do I want to accomplish for the remaining 34.5hours I got left? Well, I really do want to add my supervisor's ORCHID profile link to her profile in the website. I think it would be an easy way for site visitors to find a list of her research. Also, ORCHID I have the impression that it's more "social" than Google Scholar and Research Gate. Yes, those are my supervisor's three "social" profiles as a researcher.
Now that I think about it, I would like to share my notes with the team. Yeah, or... I just think it's a bit strange to keep those links to myself, y'know? I would *like* to add those three links to the lab's website. Maybe I should ask my supervisor first and see what she thinks. If I had to choose one to display in the website, I would choose ORCHID.
Next, I'm going to finish those interview questions for my coworker. She's doing some amazing social and scientific research in East Africa. So far, I have a draft for her introduction. For the questions, I'm thinking three to five well thought ones about her time over there so far. The goal is to showcase the work and life of lab members. My coworker is on a fellowship so I'll forgo the "basic" details and hone into the good stuff. What it's like to live over there! I have very little personal experience with the region so I think site visitors who are most likely from the American continent and Europe would be interested into reading insight in such a faraway region.
So for the presentation of this interview after the design of the News section has been up and running for a few weeks. I'm thinking that... ah yes, I was also advised to reach out to outlets for my writing. Yeah, I should seriously consider that, shouldn't I?
Instead, let's focus on writing topics. The lab has an interdisciplinary focus so talking about biodiversity, conservation, and political ecology to introduce people to the topics. They make sense to me because my family is from Latin American where agriculture is inherently woven with cultural identity. Ecuador is an agrarian country so agriculture and ecosystem health has a huge influence in politics. Perhaps I could write about this! Write about my own reality (or my cultural background to be specific) where while industrial agriculture does have a space in the country's economy, it relies mostly on small and medium-size producers (milk, fruits, seafood, coffee, cacao, and others). Yeah, I like that. It's also... lab agnostic I would say? As in it could also be read outside of any website. Syndicated is the word haha.
Something I could write about is an informal piece on my experience playing the board game my supervisor was part of designing. I played it twice and I think people might be interested in knowing about someone's experience. It would also indirectly be a way to promote it.
Based on the list of my deliverables I wrote with my supervisor before the start of the internship, my focus on April looks a bit like this:
Blog style articles (1 - 2)
- Board game
- Something related to agriculture, ecology, economy, and politics on an agrarian country (ex. Ecuador). Perhaps highlight one of the many sustainable agriculture projects in the c
Researcher profile/Q & A (1)
- Q & A with lab member
- Graphic/visual explainer (Optional)
- Something something, poster on basic agroecology concepts. I have learned that the best guides are the ones for personal use so I can gather some notes from what I have learned and make a poster out of it.
Tuesday, March 24, 2026 →
I like my writing! I like what I’m writing! Hooray! Yay! I’m so happy!
Monday, March 23, 2026 • 1 min read
Project Overview
summary
Objective
Steps
Role
Key tasks
Outcome
Lessons
Methodology
Quantifiable Results
stats and other data.
Work Samples
deliverables.
Personal Reflections
lessons learned.
Skills
applied and developed social and technical skills.
Monday, March 23, 2026 • 1 min read
Figure 1. Initial sketch of header design.
Figure 2. Intermediate sketch of header design.
Figure 3. Final sketch of header design.
Figure 4. Initial sketch of footer design.
Figure 5. Final sketch of footer design.
Figure 6. Final designs of header and footer. Made with Excalidraw.
Figure 7. Live version of footer.
Figure 8. News section before refresh.
Figure 9. News sections after refresh.
Figure 10. Research section before update.
Figure 11. Research section after update.
Figure 12. Snippet of the live version of the People section.
Figure 13. Comparison summary between Personal Plan (Legacy), Basic, and Core plans pricing.
Figure 14. Website features for Personal Plan (Legacy), Basic, Core plans.
Figure 15. Payment features for Personal Plan (Legacy), Basic, Core plans.
Figure 16. Selling features for Personal Plan (Legacy), Basic, Core plans.
Figure 17. Live version of footer. Mobile version.
Figure 18. Live version of header. Mobile version. Open.
Figure 19. Live version of header. Mobile version. Closed.
Monday, March 23, 2026 • 2 min read
The header and footer where the only sections that started with a wireframe because it required little technical knowledge of Squarespace’s CMS. I decided on the new layout beforehand and did my best to translate it to the CMS. The footer gave me the most trouble because of the alignment of various elements. I like to start a wiredrame with pen and paper to get familar with each elmenet before brainstorming ideas and try them out on a sketch before making the final design digitally.
With the page layouts, I had to get my hands dirty and work directly in the Squarespace laytout because I had little knowledge of its potential limitations, and limitations it had. Because my knowledge of markup were greater than my experience with Squarespace, there were many times I wanted to implement my ideas using what I was more familiar with. Nevertheless, I found a layout to my liking that I felt it fit well with the website as well. Naturally, I didn’t touch the live version. Instead, I created a new page that couldn’t be accessed to and tested various layouts. I also did my best to limit custom CSS because the site’s owner had little knowledge of it so its inclusion would have been more of a hindrance after my there ended because they would be unfamiliar with the code. Although I did cave in and wrote a couple of lines for aesthetic purposes that Squarespace didn’t offer for some reason. That reason is a background for each card. Pretty basic design option in my opinion.
Tuesday, March 17, 2026 • 5 min read
Project Overview
summary
Objective
Edit several web pages including but not limited to News, People, and Research with up to date information.
Steps
- Draft new versions of selected pages, submit for comments, and apply suggestions before implementation.
- List current areas improvement on the selected pages and brainstorm potential solutions.
- Gather references from other science-focused websites.
- Create wire frames for each proposed layout. Find SEO and accessibility vulnerabilities throughout the site and correct them.
Role
Project developer, designer, and manager working hand in hand with the website owner.
Key tasks
- Identified areas of improvement.
- Brainstormed and designed potential solutions.
- Implemented solutions and made sure they worked using Squarespace’s CMS.
- Followed web design and accessibility and standards.
Outcome
Brand new designs for several pages of the website (including a new header and footer) with the latest info and news. Several design proposals were accepted as-is while others required minimal changes.
Lessons
As a web designer, it is important to respect the intention behind every web page to help it grow. Any change to a page must be in accordance to the core idea behind it.
Methodology
For pages with a whole new layout (ie. People and News pages), Plain text version -> draft layout on Squarespace -> changes to live version. Started with a plain text draft which required zero knowledge of Squarespace’s CMS, before translating the layout to the CMS, and finally, after making sure everything on the page worked and looked pleasant, exchanged the live version with the draft.
- Pen & Paper
- Excalidraw
- Squarespace CMS
- Squarespace Forums.
Quantifiable Results
stats and other data.
Work Samples
deliverables.
Figure 1. Initial sketch of header design.
Figure 2. Intermediate sketch of header design.
Figure 3. Final sketch of header design.
Figure 4. Initial sketch of footer design.
Figure 5. Final sketch of footer design.
Figure 6. Final designs of header and footer. Made with Excalidraw.
Figure 7. Live version of header. Mobile version. Closed.
Figure 8. Live version of header. Mobile version. Open.
Figure 9. Live version of header. Mobile version. Open.
Figure 10. Live version of footer. Mobile version.
Figure 11. Live version of footer. Desktop version.
Figure 12. News section before refresh.
Figure 13. News sections after refresh.
Figure 14. Research section before update.
Figure 15. Research section after update.
Figure 16. Snippet of the live version of the People section.
Figure 17. Comparison summary between Personal Plan (Legacy), Basic, and Core plans pricing.
Figure 18. Website features for Personal Plan (Legacy), Basic, Core plans.
Figure 19. Payment features for Personal Plan (Legacy), Basic, Core plans.
Figure 20. Selling features for Personal Plan (Legacy), Basic, Core plans.
Personal Reflections
lessons learned.
Accomplishments
One of my first accomplishments in this internship is refreshing a website that wasn’t my own. I condensed the site’s header and footer, redesigned the News and People sections, and did slight touch-ups to the rest of the pages. To image heavy-pages, I identified the lack of alt-text and encouraged my supervisor to describe context-heavy pictures by explaining the importance of accessibility.
Challenges
One of my biggest challenges during this internship has been overcoming writer’s block. While I have no problem writing anecdotal stories, factual stories using a report-style has been a struggle for years. I worried that what I had to say had no value and feared judgement. I was able to overcome it by reading the words of people who shared opinions I heavily disagree with, people who write for a living or hold personal blogs. If they could speak their convictions so loud, then why me, who is so confident about the morality of their beliefs, couldn’t I do it? It’s not that I was encouraged to speak against them but encouraged to share my experience and beliefs with my voice just like them.
Skills
applied and developed social and technical skills.
The skills I developed during this internship experience include communication, time management, and independence. Communication with my supervisor and co-workers depended entirely through email and video calls. To my supervisor, I sent weekly reports, sharing what I had done, future plans, and questions. Because I tend to either bulldoze through tasks or ruminate on the details, remembering to take a step back, reflect, and move forward was an experience I’m thankful for.
While I have been tracking my time for a few years, designating time that qualified as part of my internship was challenging. Unlike STEM coursework, an assignment with a creative writing component requires patience. Inspiration may strike at any time and ideas need to be cultivated in one’s mind with time and attention. Thus, I had to be conscientious and liberal about focusing on the writing aspects of my internship outside the initial designated hours.
Because of the remote nature of this internship, I was given the flexibility to decide my day-to-day tasks and goals. For example, I could brainstorm and design ideas for the website under loose constraints, making full use of my web development experience till then. Similarly, I was able to shift my attention into the website refresh, a project which I had already taken several notes on before the official start of the internship.