GLOBAL INNOVATION AND DESIGN INTERNSHIP

Earn a Digital Badge

The Global Innovation and Design (GID) Internship is an outstanding competitive opportunity for students to gain professional experience working directly with community organizations. Students earn micro credentials, receive a $750 stipend, and academic credit, while developing need finding, problem solving, facilitation, and presentation skills. More importantly, students gain a deep and empathetic understanding of community issues, while broadening their knowledge of innovations around the world. The competitive opportunity is open to all UW Tacoma students.

A micro-credential is a credential that verifies the achievement of skills and competencies.

Upon completing a micro-credential, students will receive a dynamic digital badge. The badge link will include information about the issuing institution, date earned, criteria for earning the badge, and evidence of meeting those criteria. Digital badges can be displayed on social media platforms like LinkedIn, added as links to a resume, or embedded in an e-portfolio.

Deadline for Fall Quarter 2024: June 8
Deadline for Winter Quarter 2025: November 25
Deadline for Spring Quarter 2025: March 2

APPLY HERE

READ ABOUT INTERN PROJECTS

MEET OUR SPRING 2024 INTERNS!

Jack Cheung

Hello UWT! My name is Jack Cheung, and I’m one of the seven interns who are working with the Global Innovation and Design Lab this Quarter. I’m a junior majoring in Information Technology and minoring in Innovation and Design. I’m also a digital art hobbyist, enjoy papercrafts, and am a casual comics and model kit collector. Whenever I find the free time, you’ll probably find me hammering away at a personal project relating to one of the three. I love working on complex projects and I like to push myself to make my work as fun and unorthodox as possible. </p><p>I aspire to work in UI/UX, and I hope to apply design thinking to work I do in that field. I’m particularly interested in and strongly value the appeal of interactivity and fun when designing user experiences, and I hope to emphasize these aspects in the designs I create in the future. I think that playful design is a compelling way to make user experience more enjoyable and fun, and I hope to explore that in my studies.

Zainab Hamadi

Hello, my name is Zainab. I am currently majoring in technical communications and minoring in innovation and design. I enjoy traveling, exploring nature, painting, and cooking. My goal for the future is to be a UX Designer. I am passionate about design thinking and often use it in my daily life to find creative solutions to daily problems. I will often strategize problem solving using ideation and prototyping. I also use design thinking exercises to organize my daily schedule, to prepare for meetings, and to manage schoolwork. I am grateful for the GID Lab internship where I am learning how design thinking can positively impact society.

Cecil Susi

My name is Cecil Susi and I am a senior at UW Tacoma majoring in computer science and systems, and minoring in Innovation and design. My focus is on user experience and interface design. I am extremely excited to be joining the Global Innovation and Design Lab as an intern for my third and last quarter at UW Tacoma. I especially look forward to designing a design thinking workshop for my peers to help cultivate creative and inclusive spaces for campus. A design invention that has positively impacted my daily life is the use of rubber grips for opening things such as twist bottles and jars. One of my family members had discovered these circular grip pads intended for opening jars at the grocery store one day and decided to buy one. Though the item is somewhat simple in design, I have found that it’s a helpful tool in the kitchen, especially when cooking. This item goes to show that a product designed to solve user issues doesn’t necessarily have to be complex.

Maria Villa

Hello, my name is Maria Belen Villa and I am a senior technical writing major and minoring in global innovation and design in my second year at the University of Washington Tacoma. I am grateful to have received a GID Lab internship for Spring 2024 as it provides me with the opportunity to expand my horizons by creating, imagining, impacting community, and making lives easier. This internship has introduced me to the many ways UX design and technical writing are rooted in human design. Technical writing assists in the communication of complex information to users in the most straight forward way, providing them with instructions and information that they can employ when using a product. Design thinking is important because of our innate ability to find ways to make things easier. As a society, we love to make things effortless. As the saying goes, ‘work smarter, not harder’. I am excited to use design thinking to make our work and experiences effortless, and the outcomes more helpful. Design thinking, along with strong technical writing, can help us achieve this result for ourselves and our community.

Jannat Musawi

My name is Jannat Musawi, and I am a sophomore double majoring in Psychology and Social Welfare and minoring in Global Engagement. This is my third and last quarter as an intern in the GID Lab. Throughout my internship, I learned how to incorporate design thinking into my studies, experiences, and daily life. I also learned ways to share design thinking with others and explain it effectively. I hosted workshops, participated in harvesting sessions, and facilitated activities that involved design thinking. Overall, the internship allowed me to engage more with community partners and learn about their processes. The GID Lab internship, paired with my other activities on campus, tied my education together and provided me with skills that I will use across various disciplines. Leadership, event planning, workshop facilitation, public speaking, and collaborative design thinking are all valuable skills that the GID Lab Internship equipped me with. In the future, I aim to be a macro social worker, focusing on large-scale, systematic change within underrepresented communities. After being a GID Lab intern this last academic year, I am more prepared to meet that goal.

Mak Pennington

Hello, my name is Mak and I am a senior majoring in psychology and minoring in global engagement. I am a proud owner of my ever-growing window garden, currently taking care of eight plants, along with three dogs and one cat! In addition to gardening, I enjoy reading, writing, and drawing. So far, I have used design thinking as a strategy for tackling stress from school and to manage my day-to-day schoolwork. As a psychology major, I am all too familiar with the current mental health crisis our country is facing. Using design thinking to come up with creative solutions is just one way to address the lack of mental health resources. For example, normalizing discussion about mental health and removing the formality or stigma of seeking treatment can create support networks for people. Design thinking is a great tool to help tackle this problem.

Sotharith Sieng

Greetings, IDEATE community! I'm Sotharith, a proud international student pursuing a degree in information technology at UW Tacoma. The diverse range of cultures that make up our campus community has enhanced my experience here, and I've discovered that design thinking is an effective tool for navigating and appreciating this diversity.<p>Design thinking has been part of my approach to problem-solving in my academic pursuits. Whether tackling coding challenges or collaborating on group projects, I've learned to use empathy and iteration to find innovative solutions. Beyond the classroom, I've applied design thinking to my everyday life, particularly in understanding and adapting to new cultures. I've encountered new traditions that have broadened my views and enhanced my perspective on the world. By applying design thinking principles, I've been able to approach these cultural differences with an open mind, fostering meaningful connections and friendships along the way. I'm excited to continue leveraging the power of design thinking to bridge cultural divides and create a more inclusive and empathetic community at UW Tacoma and beyond.

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