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I am a nomadic student who loves all things design.

I am a junior in university pursuing a double major in Interactive Design and Marketing. I am currently working on my marketing degree at ESSEC Business School in Paris, France. This past fall, I wrapped up an independent study at the Savannah College of Art and Design where I deepened my UX skills. In the fall of 2019 I will return to Tulane University to complete my major programs and will graduate with a BA in Interactive Design and a BSM in Marketing in May 2020.

My high-school-aged interest in graphic design has evolved and grown into a full-fledged passion for design and technology. I’m interested specifically in product design and how I can create things that improve people’s relationships with technology.

I feel incredibly fortunate to have found something that I love to do and am also able to pursue as a career.

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I believe the best way to learn is by doing.

My educational path has been a bit unorthodox, but the experiences I have had along the way have challenged and shaped me in ways I would not have thought possible.

I try to push myself to seek out new opportunities and dive in. Participating in the Digital Research Internship will allow me to continue to explore the fusion of design and technology and gain more experience working on varied projects with their unique constraints. I look forward to the possibility of working on a SCRUM team, where we all have our independent responsibilities but have to work together to accomplish our goals – this collaborative yet specialized workflow is similar to what I will encounter in my industry. I’m also excited to meet other people who are interested in technology and see what I can learn from them.

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I am extremely interested in the ethical implications of technology and how some digital products exploit human psychology and can influence our behavior.

Lately, I’ve been researching digital minimalism, which essentially focuses on using technology mindfully and deliberately. Digital minimalists use technology only in ways that serve them and do not let technology rule their behavior. A very common application of digital minimalism is using social media sparingly and with intention, rather than as a way to relieve boredom and scroll endlessly for hours.

A similarly related topic I’m interested is the idea of calm technology. So often, our devices are disrupting our conversations, our thoughts, and our daily lives with incessant pinging and buzzing. Calm technology’s main principle is that technology should require the smallest amount of attention necessary. There are many clever applications of calm technology, but a favorite I’ve seen recently is Instagram’s “All Caught Up” notice on a user’s screen when they’ve seen all recent posts. This message is unobtrusive and elegantly informs users they aren’t missing out on anything. It perfectly exemplifies another one of calm technology’s principles: “technology should inform and create calm.”