Internship applicant

We ask our internship applicants to post to our blog as a way for them to connect with our community, and our community connect with these young minds.

"hello. (:
my name is amy lovett, and I want to change the world and make it a better place.

what I'm doing right now for an internship would seem to some, at first, to be decidedly unsexy design-wise.there is nothing you can touch, taste, or smell.however, when you take a few steps back, and look at it within a bigger scope, it's a lot more interesting.

I'm working for the University of Cincinnati's Criminal Justice Long Distance Learning Program, and really within that for only one professor who teaches one course online. it's what this professor wants, though, that's bigger than just the one course for the one university. he's asking me to help him make his classes more intriguing, so instead of plain word documents for lectures, there could be videos, and animations, and diagrams, and interactive activities. he's asking for help, because the complaints he has received from students, taking the course around the world, all derive from the students having no idea who he really is - there is no emotional connection between him and his students. thus, my task for this internship is to help him create an emotional connection between him and his students, whereby having them learn the material easier and better; students who are scattered around the globe, in many time zones, who speak in a multitude of different languages, and who all have different bandwidth issues.

it's fascinating and challenging, because it's not just about one diagram or one animation or one video. it's about how to make learning for these students easier, and in turn better for them, by creating emotional connections through an entirely unemotional online learning system. honestly, I wish I could focus on and fix the broken educational system we have right now in the US, but I know I won't be able to do that in one fell swoop; however, maybe in fixing this one course I could help make even just one person's life easier.

I am applying for Play's 2009 summer internship, because I want to learn all I can about making lives easier, and in turn, changing the world for the better. I know you guys do, too."