My experience as a student during the 2024-2025 school year can best be described as a leap of faith. I have experienced a great deal of first opportunities in both my academic and professional life, and have learned a great deal about time management, burnout, and trying to find the balance between doing what you can and what you have to do. During the fall semester, I was fortunate to land my first design job as a graphic design intern for the University of Cincinnati Alumni Association. However, during this time, I was also balancing a full class load during my major’s “Weed Out” semester, searching for my first co-op, and navigating my responsibilities as a new member of the Next Innovation Scholars Program. Needless to say, I was incredibly busy during the fall semester, and I found it difficult to balance my work and class load. This, combined with some personal and family-related struggles, made the semester very stressful. However, I was able to push through once I realized how much the work I was doing would help me in the long run.  

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During my time with the Alumni Association, I was able to learn about the design world from the lens of a professional, and how to communicate in an occupational setting compared to an academic one, which became very useful during my co-op search process. My time in NIS has also been incredibly helpful, as it’s taught me important skills in design thinking, teamwork, and transdisciplinary study through learning skills outside of my major. NIS also introduced me to an incredible community of people I normally wouldn’t be able to interact with, as we are all from different majors and colleges around campus. Even though my degree is based in creative practice and that remains at the forefront of my personal goals, I have learned a great deal of practical and professional practice that ended up being incredibly useful during my first co-op.  

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My first co-op was spent with the UC Campus Marketing as a graphic design student. I had an incredible time with the people here and was able to learn so much more about my field. I had let my supervisor know that I was interested in environmental design and learning more about end stage processes, as that’s something that we often don’t touch on during the earlier years of the communication design program. Because of this, my supervisor allowed me to work on a bunch of projects that involved my interests, including designing a mural for Turner Hall and designing a set of stair clings for the sitting staircase in TUC. These projects were very intimidating, as they were a much larger scale project than anything I had worked on before. However, thanks to the mentorship I received from the people at Campus Marketing, I was able to complete these projects and feel more confident in my ability to pursue what I am interested in, even if I’m worried about my own technical skill level. 

 

Despite this past year being one that I experienced a lot of stress, I feel that I have grown considerably in not just my skills as a designer, but as an adult. I’ve become more confident in my skills, even ones that are not creative and pertain more to analysis, research, and professional communication. In addition, I’ve also learned a lot about burn-out. The body and mind require rest just as much as it needs food, water, and opportunity to learn and change. Learning how to balance giving my all to everything I was involved in, and taking care of myself was an essential skill to learn during this past year, and one I will carry with me as I go back to academic and co-op semesters in the future. My time in NIS will continue to help me grow similarly to the Honors program, as I continue to assist in innovative projects that help further my skills in transdisciplinary study, and I will be working for UC Campus Marketing both this summer and this fall, where I will be able to continue to explore my interest in environmental design. While the workload could be stressful, I plan on continuing to prioritize balance and my own creative projects as well.