1/20/2023

Why did you decide to apply for this intern­ship?
While the Bright Schol­ars of Iowa schol­ar­ship has made col­lege my real­i­ty, the cel­e­bra­tion, infor­ma­tion, and moti­va­tion on the Bright Foundation’s media plat­forms helped con­nect me with oth­er schol­ars and remind me to work hard and give back. I felt moti­vat­ed and inspired as I scrolled through all the posts and sto­ries on the Bright Foundation’s Insta­gram page. Thus, when I saw the hir­ing post and received the email from Mered­ith about the job descrip­tion, I imme­di­ate­ly knew this was an oppor­tu­ni­ty I want­ed to catch. As I applied for this posi­tion, I viewed it as a chance to learn more about the foun­da­tion that changed my life while uti­liz­ing my knowl­edge and expe­ri­ence to con­nect the foun­da­tion with more schol­ars, alum­ni, and high school stu­dents look­ing for ways to pur­sue high­er education.

What is your role as an intern?

As an intern, I col­lab­o­rate with the Dig­i­tal Media Team to gen­er­ate dig­i­tal con­tent and help with com­mu­ni­ca­tions with schol­ars and alum­ni. Specif­i­cal­ly, with my cre­ativ­i­ty and expe­ri­ence, I help design graph­ics and dig­i­tal posts that rep­re­sent the foun­da­tion’s val­ues, cel­e­brate our schol­ars’ achieve­ments, and serve to enhance the Bright Foun­da­tion’s dig­i­tal pres­ence. I also use my knowl­edge and per­spec­tive as a schol­ar and col­lege stu­dent to con­tribute to build­ing an engaged and sup­port­ive com­mu­ni­ty of schol­ars and alumni.

What is your favorite way to waste time?

After fin­ish­ing my to-do list for the week, I love to waste my time by look­ing for a short writ­ing prompt that sparks my imag­i­na­tion and allows me to reflect on what has hap­pened around me. I devel­oped this inter­est after a writ­ing intern­ship where I worked with oth­er young writ­ers to pub­lish a lit­er­ary mag­a­zine and real­ized how writ­ing intro­duced me to all the beau­ties and mean­ings in my peo­ple, com­mu­ni­ties, and life. I enjoy sil­ly prompts inspired by doo­dling images, prompts that remind me of my child­hood days, and prompts that allow me to trans­fer all the vivid polaroid and video­tapes in my mem­o­ries into gor­geous pieces of writing.

What is a fun fact about you?

My name, Thi, can be under­stood as poet­ry in Viet­namese, and since I love writ­ing and poet­ry so much, I think my par­ents gave me a per­fect name that fits my personality.

What is some­thing you have learned out­side of class?

An impor­tant les­son I have learned is to pre­pare and equip myself with the expe­ri­ence, knowl­edge, and atti­tude nec­es­sary so that when an oppor­tu­ni­ty comes, I am capa­ble enough to catch it. From the peo­ple I have met and the sto­ries I have heard out­side of the class­room, I under­stand that time flies by, and oppor­tu­ni­ties do not wait for those who can­not appre­ci­ate or uti­lize them. That is why I always try to keep myself busy, step out of my com­fort zone to expe­ri­ence new things, and work hard to achieve my goals. Even if I fail to catch an oppor­tu­ni­ty, I won’t feel dis­ap­point­ed in myself if I try my best and put effort and ded­i­ca­tion into every­thing I do.