Even with classes, work and my internship, I was able to make it to a couple more iFest activites:

  • The Executive Roundtable was a great way to get to know local employers and their workplace culture. Though there were the general questions of the type of internships and positions available, what skills they are looking for, there was also constructive discussion of the type of environment and team dynamics. Anyone can learn and practice skills, however each professional drove home the idea of soft skills; knowing how to work in a team, standing up for your opinion, but still knowing when and how to negotiate, and asking the right questions.
  • The “Big Data in History: Creating a World-Historical Archive” presentation by Dr. Patrick Manning (Andrew W. Mellon Professor of World History and Director of the World History Center, University of Pittsburgh), sponsored by NDSA, illustrated the three missions of the Collaborative for Historical Information and Analysis, CHIA. It is an interesting research project for analyzing global statistics through data sets contributed by organizations around the world. Though there are still some issues concerning acquisition, assessment, and preservation, it seems to be moving towards a monumental goal.
  • The Career & Internship Expo brought together multiple employers to meet and greet with our students. Though it was not as person al as the Executive Roundtable, it was a great opportunity to share resumes with recuiters.
  • And, of course, the Books and Bots Design Challenge! Jourdan, Emily Mross, and I, as Team Notorious Cardigans, chose to create a “bot” that would embody the classic children’s book, Jumanji. We created the board game, in which a person would throw the dice, and the game piece would move magically move (spoiler: we used magnets), the center would light up with a quote from the book, and a corresponding audio clip would play. The dice can be thrown three times to move from start to the finish point at the center of the board. Though we did not place, we are pretty proud of what we created, and we did have a lot of fun working together.