internship spotlight
Yixin Zou
Graduation Year
May 2017
Major
Advertising
Minor
Informatics Communication
Hometown
Guangzhou, China
Campus Activities
Art director - American Advertising Federation at Illinois, OTH Creative Agency
Research assistant - College of Business
Undergraduate Intern - Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning, Data Analytic Group
Hobbies
Swimming, jogging, playing piano, baking
LinkedIn
Employer
Data analytic group, Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning
Internship Title
Undergraduate Intern
What were your duties?
As an undergraduate intern, I work with other interns on projects involving survey administration, coding and analysis. Job details include collecting survey responses, verifying quality of survey data, creating survey data codebooks, code qualitative responses etc.
What did you most enjoy about your internship?
Throughout this internship, I became a more skilled qualitative researcher. This semester the interns conducted an independent study focusing on open-ended survey questions versus close-ended survey questions. People in the office are always kind and helpful. They give us a lot of guidance about our work and research. And we got free foods almost every day!
What was the most difficult aspect of the internship?
As an international student, I sometimes still struggle with my English, which sometimes results in miscommunication during reconciling my codes with other interns. However, this has really improved over the past semester.
How did your experience at ILLINOIS and in the College of Media prepare you for your internship?
Some of the advertising courses really contribute to my understanding of qualitative work. The significant amount of group projects helps to develop my communicative skills, and makes me more relaxed and confident while talking with my workmates.
How has your internship prepared you for a career?
The internship leads me into the realm of qualitative research and teaches me a few applicable skills, such as using ATLAS.ti and SPSS to analyze data. Now I feel more prepared when it comes to graduate school applications.
What recommendations do you have for other students about doing an internship?
Keep an open mind. As a media student you are actually capable to do many things, much more than you can ever imagine.
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