my summer at usa today
After returning back to UNC from DC this fall, I was constantly asked the question, “How was your summer?” I think everyone has a hard time answering this question - for me, the easy answer to describe my summer as a whole was, “It was good!” In passing, it’s hard to find the exact words to accurately describe how I spent three months of my life.
But to describe how my summer really was, would take a lot of time. So, I’m going to try to cover it as short and sweet as I can here.
I was fortunate enough to spend another summer in Washington, D.C., thanks to the Sharoky Fellowship from the Hussman School of Journalism and Media. After a long internship searching process, one day, I randomly sent in an application to USA Today Network on a whim. Just another application I thought I would never hear back from again, something I applied to just see what would happen. Two months later, I heard back from my boss today, Heather Perez, that she wanted to schedule an interview with me to work as a data visualization designer for the summer. My first thought was, “there’s no way this is real life.” I actually thought it was a spam email. I forgot I’d even submitted this application. But, I did my research, and it was in fact, real.
Thus began my month-long interview process with USA Today Network. I had some initial phone screening calls, then I was given a short-term internship project to see how I worked with data. I had two weeks to sort through data spreadsheets and summary documents to prepare for my hour-long presentation on USA Today customer segments. This was probably one of the most nerve-racking things I’ve ever done. I spent more time on this project than all of my school work in total. But, probably almost exactly a year ago today, I got a call from my soon-to-be manager, that I’d been chosen to work within the Data Science team as a designer for the summer in the USA Today Headquarters in McLean, VA.
Flash forward to May - working at USA Today Network this past summer was everything I thought it would’ve been and more. Within the marketing department interns, I met some of my best friends. Because when you spend 40 hours a week with these people, you don’t really have another option. ;)
As a digital designer on the consumer marketing team, my responsibilities included:
Developing data visualizations and infographics for the data science and analytics team.
Compiling and designing a comprehensive deck for a major data-science initiative on the habits of the 1st 100 days of USA Today subscribers and its impact on retention. These insights were shared with managers across the business in Product, Editorial, and Marketing departments. It was also presented at the CXNYC Conference by USA Today’s VP of Customer Experience and Insights.
Collaborating with data scientists and data analysts within the USA Today consumer marketing team to assist in data storytelling. This included analyzing data to create actionable insights/data visualizations for the data science team to report out to internal teams.
Working with fellow interns to report on current media trends, the USA Today digital UX, and how our generation consumes news.
Providing ongoing support to the Customer Experience Strategy team in partnering with cross-functional teams from USA Today including product, customer service, marketing, ad solutions, and editorial.
Some other highlights from the office:
The Valo Park coffee bar: the prime spot for a coffee break (or three), the best breakfast sandwiches, chocolate chip cookies, and free smoothie samples. Probably spent all my money here over the summer.
Lunch breaks: All of the marketing interns had 30 minutes every day blocked off for our lunch break, where we had a chance to catch up on our days and talk about anything and everything. There was also a lake trail outside of the cafeteria we would walk around sometimes.
Intern Events: Ashton Ragsdale, our awesome intern coordinator, hosted a couple events over the summer to get all the interns from different departments together and enjoy 30 minutes of work-free time. Some of my favorites were corn hole and ice cream socials.
Ten weeks working with this team just wasn’t enough time. Since I spearheaded the first design role on the data science team, there was still a lot of work to do. I was lucky to be given the opportunity to stay on the team part-time throughout the 2019-2020 school year, still working on data visualizations and helping the data science team with their storytelling efforts.