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PTW major Taylor Hart joins me to discuss her summer 2022 internship at NASA.
Discussions of learning and living in the academic programs sponsored by the Department of Rhetoric & Professional Writing (RPW) at Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan. Features interviews with students, faculty, staff, friends, and alumni. Interested in careers in writing and design, media, publishing, and content creation? We have what you are looking for.
All of our transcripts are provided by Otter transcription services. Note that although the resulting text record is very readable, it is not without some glitches. Each only undergoes minimal editing before being shared here.
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Bill Williamson 0:20
Hey there listeners. This is Dr. Bill Williamson from SVSU rhetoric a professional writing department and it's ptw program — professional and technical writing. I am here to launch the inaugural episode of a new podcast that we're developing here called "All things PTW" and I have the good fortune of having as my first guest for this episode, Taylor Hart, who just completed an internship with a pretty cool place. And I'm gonna let her do the talking about that kind of stuff in just a moment here. But I just wanted to make sure to say welcome, welcome to our new show. Taylor, introduce yourself. Tell us where you been.
Taylor Hart 1:00
All righty. So hi, everyone. My name is Taylor Hart. I am a senior undergrad in our PTW program. And I recently got to work with the NASA eClips team, where we kind of worked on educational resource content and helped kind of publicize NASA missions by working with K through 12 schools.
Bill Williamson 1:19
I gotta tell you that I was so excited when you came to me and said that you had the chance to work for NASA and and I've literally right now I still have goosebumps over because I think it's such an awesome thing. NASA was one of those places that when I was an undergrad in the way to dis dim and distant past to that was one of my dream jobs was to somehow wind up working in the space program. And, you know, I get to live vicariously this summer a little bit through you and the kinds of things that you were doing there. So it's it's a, it's a super special kind of moment for me, as well as for you.
Taylor Hart 1:51
I still have goosebumps about it as well, during my exit presentation from the program. They were always asking us, they're like, are you guys sad, you're leaving. And I'm like, I still feel like it just started, like, being a part of NASA was just a dream come true. I grew up as a kid wanting to work in space. And now that dream has become a reality. So it's really felt unreal. And I'm excited to be working with them in the future, as I've been keeping contact with them. And they have a lot of different projects lined up for the future as well.
Bill Williamson 2:23
That is so awesome. And listened to so that you know, so Taylor and I met for the first time last year in another class, where part of what we were doing was was producing some podcasts. And I knew that she was interested in this stuff because her podcast focused on astrophysics. And I thought they this is a really cool thing. I wonder what could possibly come of this. So we had a few conversations. And then when she came to me and told me about the opportunity, it was really just this. Well, absolutely no pun intended the planets aligning for you. Absolutely. So So Taylor, why don't you tell the listeners a little bit more detail about the kinds of things that you were doing on a daily basis and some of the, like special moments from that from that NASA experience?
Taylor Hart 3:11
Absolutely. So my official title of the internship, and what I was doing was a content creation specialist. And the name of the internship was science communications. So the eClips team focuses on educational content. So it involves a lot of work, like kind of involving writing intensive projects, videography, I did a lot of graphic design work when I was with them. Just a lot of different multimedia projects throughout the internship. I worked on social media strategy. And then I kind of came up with posts for their Facebook and Twitter. I made lots of different video presentations as well, for groups of summer camps. So kids ranging from like nine years old to 17. And then one of my favorite projects of the summer was working with the James Webb Space Telescope team. And I actually got to make a professional video with their team for their unfold the universe art contest, and that recently just got published on YouTube. And it's something I'm super proud of, because I got to share it with the world and it has probably close to 5000 views on it right now.
Bill Williamson 4:18
You know, what we'll do is I'm going to get that link from you before this podcast episode goes live. I will add that into the website for it.
Taylor Hart 4:26
Awesome. That's exciting. And then I'm also working with the science matters, BPM director right now on a written article about the importance of internships, and she's working with my partner and I to publish a written piece about our NASA internship experience and kind of emphasize the importance of internships as a whole.
Bill Williamson 4:48
Wow, that it's just so cool. I mean, I know all of this because I've been listening to you and meeting with you throughout the summer as you were working on stuff, but it hearing you talk about it again. It is really just such an amazing thing, not just that they gave you a lot of responsibility, and they had a lot of expectations, which is the ideal thing for an internship. But just that you got to have your hand in such an incredible variety of projects. And that you got to work with material is it's it's super complex, it's fascinating stuff, but you're talking about trying to communicate that kind of material to this incredible range of ages. And I mean, the challenges that come with that kind of expectation is, there's so many, there's a new one probably every day, I'm guessing. So why don't you talk for a moment about what you found both like challenging and rewarding about the experience of doing that kind of stuff.
Taylor Hart 5:46
Of course. So my first week was actually quite chaotic. We hopped right into the internship, and my boss had a line of projects right up for us. And we had to get a video and presentation made within the first week for our first group of summer camps, because we were behind schedule when we started to do. Yeah, well, it was, it was very challenging, because I never worked with my partner before she was living in Tennessee. So we were virtual partners. So we had to learn how to communicate and work on video project, like coordination online through email, or sharing links and stuff like that. And then it was also a challenge for us, because we had never really worked with kids of that age before they were nine to 13. And so we had to present to them some of the materials and teach them how to make a video of their own. And so I find it challenging and rewarding to have worked with such a variety of different ages of kids in groups, because we were able to kind of change the content and like this strategy to each of the presentations to kind of get that message across to them, if that makes sense.
Bill Williamson 6:57
Oh, yeah, that's incredibly challenging stuff, though. I mean, it's challenging to talk to people who are very much like yourself, and then to have any level or any degree of shift away from your own experience and trying to you put yourself in that in that position of imagining what it's like to be them. And that's always a big challenge. And, and you're doing things so quickly, you don't always have the opportunity. Or maybe you had no opportunity to even figure out or find out how people were responding to the material that you were creating, before you had to move on to the next project.
Taylor Hart 7:29
Exactly. The only way we could kind of determine if the kids were kind of understanding what we were presenting was through their video projects themselves, right. So at the end of the week, when we were working with them, we would break it down and talk to them about like the steps in a video and all the content that they needed for the project as a whole.
Bill Williamson 7:49
So out of curiosity, how did your students do with the things that they produced in response to the materials that you were creating?
Taylor Hart 7:58
It did really well, I mean, some groups definitely did better than others. A lot of the older kids, you know, I don't know if it was just the maturity level difference, or if they had prior background working with video. But a lot of the older groups definitely created better quality work than some of the younger groups. And then it also came down to Time for some of the summer camps had a week to make a video others had three days. So the content and then the quality definitely varied. But I think for the most part, everyone understood the assignment, and they had a lot of fun making it overall.
Bill Williamson 8:36
That's cool. You've already talked about such an incredible array of elements to this that made it interesting and challenging. One of the things I think listeners are probably going to be wondering about at some point here, if they aren't already is how did you find this internship in the first place? How did you wind up working for NASA?
Taylor Hart 8:56
I love telling this story.
So I actually applied to NASA internships a year prior. So before I even came to SVSU, I was right out of Delta College and I wanted a NASA internship. I applied to about 10 different ones and did not hear a word back. And I was very sad at the time. But I was like you know what, I'm going to spend my year at SVSU crafting projects that involve astronomy, and I'm going to really focus on improving my work as a whole. And I think that really benefited me in the long run. Because this year in the winter when I applied I got several emails from different internship coordinators throughout the NASA bases. And the one that I remained in contact with was from NASA Langley. And she pointed me to the one that I was invited to participate in. So she helped connect me in her program to the eClips team and that's how I met some of my bosses and got the job.
Bill Williamson 9:52
Wow. One thing that I love hearing about this story is that you know in my classes as you very well know it I push students to find material that is of interest to them, and to focus on things, especially when when the projects allow whenever I can give you sort of an open ended subject matter to work with, I always encourage people to find stuff that you're going to be interested in it, you absolutely took advantage of that. And I think it's a wonderful, incredible thing that that paid off for you in really big ways. So you get invited to take control, so to speak of your own education, you rose to that challenge, and took advantage of that opportunity. And boom, you get to translate that directly into just this amazing internship experience. That's about as good as it gets.
Taylor Hart 10:44
It really is. That's what I love about this program, because all of the classes are designed to allow the student to explore their interests and craft projects of their own, so long as it meets the guidelines, of course, yeah. It's a lot of different things. You know, we are a technical writing program, but there's a lot of different creativity involved in the projects themselves. And I think that's really important to emphasize as well.
Bill Williamson 11:09
I think that's a really incredible thing to hear you say as well, because so often people come into the program thinking, you know, they're going to be doing manuals for boring technology or something like that. And, yeah, that's certainly a job. And there's absolutely a lot of opportunities to go do pretty standard kind of technical writing work. But the profession has become so much more as illustrated by your experiences where, especially when you've got that educational component to it, you know, you get to work in a lot of different kinds of modes and media, you get to focus on a lot of different kinds of content, a lot of different kinds of, of audiences. And of course, with those shifts in perspective and context, there's a lot of new challenges that come with it. And there's an incredible array of opportunities to be creative, and to be innovative in the things that you do.
Taylor Hart 12:01
Absolutely. I agree. Is there
Bill Williamson 12:03
anything that you would offer up to prospective interns, people who are planning their internship, people who are just looking ahead do wonder what I'm going to do with with that kind of experience in the program? What advice do you have to them for taking a little bit of ownership of that moment of that professional development opportunity?
Taylor Hart 12:23
Yeah, this is actually something I addressed in my exit presentation for my NASA internship. So the number one things that my partner Her name was Kate, we kind of came up with together, I think the number one thing I would say is, make sure to share your ideas. And don't be afraid to open up to your project coordinators are your mentors about ideas that you want to do on your internship, because it may be intimidating at first, if you're first getting in there, and you want to make sure you're doing the work. But sharing your ideas really helps in the long run. So I would definitely encourage that. And then just seek out as many opportunities as possible and network and make sure to build connections with people wherever you may be interning at, I was fortunate and got to sit in on a variety of different meetings, I got to meet people that work at different NASA bases, but also like different branches at NASA itself. So I was really fortunate and got to connect with a variety of different creative people that work at NASA. So that's definitely something I would emphasize, build those connections, and figure out from those connections where you may possibly want to end up in the future.
Bill Williamson 13:33
Well, I gotta tell you that one of the things that made me most excited about this opportunity is actually that it was you going out, because you have you've absolutely distinguished yourself in the program in your early experiences. And again, knowing about your interests that tied you to the to the space program, you know, just makes it an ideal experience for you. But my hope is that your internship and them getting to see what it's like to have one of us among them, working side by side producing material that you are the first but by no means the last of the interns that come out of SVSU is programs and especially btw and our PW programs, I hope that we get the opportunity to send them more people than the years to come. And I know that you created excitement there for them and gave them a really a really good experience of what it's like to work with someone from SVSU
Taylor Hart 14:28
that's something I got a lot, especially when I visited the base, I got to meet a variety of people that worked at the National Institute of Aerospace, which is where I was primarily. And they would always ask me like, Oh, where are you from? Which school do you go to? And I'd say, Oh, I'm from Michigan, and they're like, Oh, you go to the universe. I was like, No, I go to this little school called Saginaw Valley State. And some people actually knew where that was and I was very happy and then kind of bond with people over that.
So I'm I'm proud to be from SVSU Yeah,
Bill Williamson 14:59
I I think we've got a lot to be proud of here, you know, the whole university has really strived to well to do right by students. And given the the pandemic that we've just been coming through, I think we've done okay even dealing with those kinds of adversity with students and, and I know that in our department, we have really pushed ourselves to offer quality education to students, and to give you a lot of significant preparation for the professional development experiences that you're going to have outside of of our campus as well like this one, and you know, for your careers that are that are still to come. So, so Taylor, is there any opportunity that you're going to have to go back to NASA when you're done, or you're gonna get a chance to continue with them after the summer.
Taylor Hart 15:44
So the goal right now is to be hired fully on the eClips team, they gave slight hints that they're trying to accomplish that they want your round interns, but their specific program doesn't have enough funding to have year round interns. So they can only offer the science communications position during the summer. So that's why my internship ended. But I am in contact with the people that I worked with. And they just sent out a proposal to try and get more funding for year round interns. And if that gets approved, they may or may not hire Katyn AI back into the winter semester.
Bill Williamson 16:22
Well, I for one will have my fingers crossed that happy things develop there. And if that news comes through, I think we'll have to head back to give a little excited shout out to about the possibility of working with them again.
Taylor Hart 16:41
I don't know what the future holds for me yet. But I definitely want to look into future NASA internships and explore some of the other opportunities now that I've kind of had this little experience, I only want to go forward with it.
Bill Williamson 16:54
Yeah, it's been such an incredible experience to have. Like I said, You made the absolute most of it. I'm super proud of you. And hopefully this this manifests into something more down the road. And I'd be excited to share that news with people if it comes to that. Well, Taylor, I want to thank you so much for being with us today. And being our first guest for all things our PW, again, I can't say enough good things about your work in the program and in celebrate strongly enough the opportunities that you've made the most of here with NASA this summer. So again, thank you very much for being here with us today.
Taylor Hart 17:32
Thank you for letting me share my internship story. I absolutely love sharing it with people and I hope to encourage interns in the future to look after opportunities in their communities, whether that's like a local internship or higher ups like NASA.
Bill Williamson 17:47
Yep. It's a it's a cool opportunity that we present to you that you do an internship. So yeah, and now we know that the in terms of how you make the most of it, the sky's the limit.
Taylor Hart 17:57
Absolutely.
Thank you again.
Bill Williamson 17:59
Well, listeners, thank you so much for joining us for this first episode of All Things PTW. I hope you found this episode to be interesting. I certainly love talking to Taylor about her experiences at NASA. And I hope you come back because we've got some really cool things on tap that we're going to be talking about this season. And I think we've got a lot of great stuff going on here at SVSU. I hope you'll join us for future episodes. Until then. Take care everybody.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai