MSU art student learns from eye-opening D.C. internship

Lin-hsiu Huang went from growing up in one of the biggest cities in her native Taiwan to experiencing one of the top public universities in the South at Morehead State University. Thanks to MSU, Huang has not only been able to gain a well-rounded education as an art and design major with a minor in mathematics, she’s been able to gather valuable real-world experience in our nation’s capital.

This past spring, the MSU Academic Honors Program student and Undergraduate Research Fellow expanded her skill set, horizons and potential job opportunities thanks to a communication/design internship with The Future of Privacy Forum, a nonprofit advocacy group focusing on issues of internet data privacy located in downtown Washington, D.C. Huang landed the internship through The Washington Center, an internship company that was brought to her attention by MSU’s Office of Career Services.

“I have a really strong interest in tech. I eventually want to end up in tech as a designer,” she said. “I thought it would be a good idea to kind of understand the different aspects of a tech company.”

While in Washington, D.C., Huang was the only undergraduate student serving as an intern for The Future of Privacy Forum and served as the organization’s in-house designer, creating brochures, ads for social media, intros for multimedia projects and other marketing materials. While completing her internship, she also was writing about her internship experience as a student blogger for The Washington Center.

Huang said her internship was extremely beneficial for both her academic and professional goals. As she is set to graduate in December 2018, she believes this experiential learning opportunity she acquired through MSU could set her up for something much bigger down the road.

“I think it helps definitely a lot knowing that you’re capable of doing a real-world job,” she said. “I think it is really nice feeling knowing you are a smaller fish in a big pond, which is a big motivation to work harder and accomplish more things.”

To learn more about internships at MSU, call the Office of Career Services at 606-783-2233 or visit www.moreheadstate.edu/career.

For more information about the Department of Art and Design, call 606-783-2766 or visit www.moreheadstate.edu/art.