Short Summary: 
Mei Kane realized early in the pandemic the potential impact COVID-19 would have on her extracurriculars. Wanting to remain involved while staying at home, Mei decided to apply to the Digital Media Engagement (DME) internship through the Virtual Student Federal Service program. She chose DME because she liked the idea of doing meaningful work to honor Veterans. Mei works as a web content management division officer (DO), helping to oversee the scheduling of content. Mei describes the Web Content Management Department as “a great department for generalists who want to work on planning and organizing content.”

As a web content management division officer, Mei oversees the scheduling of content postings, which involves working with various departments, such as the Writing and Podcast departments, ensuring their content is being scheduled and published on time. She also stays in daily contact with other web content management interns and uses her knowledge of WordPress to help others navigate its complexities. Working in the Web Content Management Department has allowed Mei to become more proficient in using tools such as WordPress and Divi Builder, the latter of which has allowed her to learn the basics of HTML programming. Mei describes the Web Content Management Department as a “jack-of-all-trades department … and a great area to work in if you want to learn how to wear lots of hats at once.”

Mei’s favorite part of working in the Web Content Management Department is getting the opportunity to learn more about web design, website accessibility and search engine optimization. While Mei states that “even though the work I do in this department doesn’t allow me to become an expert in anything,” she still loves the opportunity the internship provides to learn the fundamentals of web development and deepen her understanding of web design. 

Mei has some advice for prospective interns interested in applying to work in DME’s Web Content Management Department. She emphasizes the importance of understanding what web content management is compared to web development, web analytics and web security. Mei believes that while all these departments are important to DME, they each have different responsibilities and bring value to DME in different ways. While the DME internship is large, Mei’s advice for having a successful internship is, “being a self-advocate and confident in your own work is vital when you’re working with over 300 other interns … There’s a lot of moving parts … you need to know how to compromise and collaborate, but also how to highlight your own work and accomplishments.”

Writer: Raymond Lin
Editor: Christine Myers
Graphic Designer: Katie Rahill