FROM SMALL TOWN TO BIG CITY: MY INTERNSHIP JOURNEY
By Chloe Casey-Machnikowski, UX Intern, Digitas Health
Starting my internship search, I was very lost on where I wanted to go. As a first-generation college student from Whiting, Indiana, a city with a population of 5,000 people, I didn’t have any guidance or anyone to turn to for help. Going into college, it seemed as if everyone knew the route they were taking, whereas I always struggled to find my own path. I eventually declared my major as informatics at Indiana University—a huge step for me—but it was still difficult to decide what I wanted to do with my degree.
Informatics focuses on how information systems impact different groups of people. It encompasses such a broad range of skills, and when I had to decide my specializations, once again … I found myself feeling lost. As I started taking my classes, I realized I loved designing, building prototypes, and discovering how people interact with the functionality of a website. I soon declared two minors in Web Development & Design and Human-Centered Computing.
It was very important to me to get my foot in the door of my future career. I did not have the connections and network that others around me had, so I applied to a variety of internships with the skills I do possess. Hearing rejection after rejection, I decided to be brave and apply for internships outside of the midwest. As a girl from a small town, I was terrified to reach beyond my comfort zone. I applied to agencies in Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia—all huge cities where I have never pictured myself being.
After hours of interview prep, interviews, practicing my skills, feelings of doubt, my hard work finally paid off. To my delight, I received a call back from Publicis Health and they offered me a User Experience Intern position at Digitas Health in Philadelphia. Then, I headed from Whiting, Indiana, to Philadelphia, for the first time in my life. Moving from a suburb to a big city is a huge adjustment. I wasn’t used to public transportation, higher living costs, meeting new people, or where to visit and explore. In fact, I still have some trouble getting around on my own.
Shocked. Scared. Alone. All of these emotions were so overwhelming. I was in a new city, not knowing how to navigate, and was constantly surrounded by professionals who have been with the company for years. Throughout those mixed feelings, I can say I feel at home. I have learned so much already and have had very meaningful assignments given to me by my supervisor Kelly Wooding, a senior User Experience Designer at Digitas Health. From learning how to use Sketch, organizing wireframes to pass to developers, to giving presentations to the entire UX team, I have already used and grown my skills to showcase my work and increase my confidence to push me forward into my senior year, as well as life after college.
From my experience interning with Publicis so far, healthcare is an entirely new ballgame for me. Designing for a completely different user group than I am used to has been eye opening, and has allowed me to gain more empathy for those users and create more meaningful, accessible designs. While I’m not sure if healthcare is in my future, the experience has pushed me to think more about different users, and their needs within a website or app, which ultimately makes me a better UX designer for other areas of work.
Chloe Casey-Machnikowski is a 2022 User Experience Intern at Digitas Health in Philadelphia. She is studying Informatics with minors in Human-Centered Computing and Web Development & Design at Indiana University (Class of 2023). Aside from work, Chloe ran the Chicago Marathon in 2021, has a twin brother, and has a tiny chihuahua named Maggie who really likes watermelon!
