This fall, I’m entering in my senior year at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire. I will graduate in May of 2011 with a B.A. degree in Advertising and Web Design. This past summer, I had the privilege of working as the web design and development intern in the multimedia department at Prime Advertising & Design. This internship was a perfect fit to my studies at Eau Claire; allowing me to witness many aspects of the advertising industry as well as gain hands-on experience in web development. Throughout the duration of my internship I completed a wide range of small projects and was encouraged to seek out any others that interested me.

I was looking for a demanding internship in web design/development but I underestimated how rewarding the experience was going to be. The hands-on experience and knowledge that I have gained are valuable tools that will build a strong foundation for future opportunities. I have also furthered my awareness of the importance of web design and development in today’s society. A website is an online identity of a company or individual and needs to be well designed, easy to navigate, and search engine friendly.

The position was supervised by Shauna Smart, the Web Project Manager at Prime. I worked closely with the Web Designers and Web Programmers in preparing customer sites for go live. Projects for the internship included daily meetings and tasks assigned to me by Shauna. My internship at Prime predominantly focused on building and maintaining websites for numerous clients. I contributed to all phases of the process, and learned aspects of building a website that I had little experience with prior to the internship. I gained experience from the beginning of projects at the customer estimate phase through the final phase of go-live.

An aspect of web design that I had not been introduced to previously, was the use of a content management system (CMS). At Prime, I was able to work with the company’s in-house CMS called Element Z.  Becoming familiar with Element Z taught me how to place content within a site, edit HTML code, upload files/photos to the file manager, and also use the dashboard to navigate around the system/site.

While I am excited to get back to school and finish out my senior year, I am sad to be leaving my internship at Prime Advertising & Design. I have enjoyed working with the staff and learning to apply my education in the work force. I appreciate all of your time and guidance these past three months. I cannot thank you all enough for all that you have taught me and for making my internship such a rewarding experience.