Name: Enora Rice
Class Year: 2022
Major: Computer Science and Linguistics
Hometown: New York
Internship Organization: Bryn Mawr LITS (Library and Information Technology Services)
Job Title: Digital Technology Summer Intern
Location: Remote
This past summer, I worked with an indigenous American linguist to develop a dynamic language learning website for his community’s endangered native language. This content-rich website displays a 700-plus page culturally significant text in a fully interactive format—wherein each individual word is linked to a unique sound file and morphology animation—and several grammar pages with opportunities for user-directed learning. I also worked some text analysis and developed an interactive graph of the frequency of different kinds of grammatical aspect throughout the text, which will hopefully serve as a tool for gaining insight into how the different aspects are used in storytelling.
I originally heard about the internship through a praxis in my Introduction to Linguistics class my freshman year. I didn’t end up joining the project right away, but when it came time to find an internship for this summer, I remembered the opportunity. Since I wanted to work on a project that combined my interests in linguistics and computer science, I thought that this internship would be a great fit.
Throughout the summer, I learned a great deal of web development skills like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript that will undoubtedly come in handy in the future. I actually just recently got a job developing a website for a tutoring center so I am putting my skills to use already. I also learned some more soft skills like agile project management and how to work well with a team—even in a remote setting. I don’t think I will have any work experience in the future where these skills won’t be important.
The most rewarding thing about my internship was being able to contribute to such a meaningful project. Over the summer I realized how unique the work my team was doing was and how important it was to our client and his community. There are very few existing resources for learning the language we worked with and there are no remaining native speakers so now is a critical time for preserving the language and all of the cultural significance it carries with it. The website I worked on could potentially make an entire language more accessible for the community to whom it matters most.
Visit the Summer 2020 Internships page to read more student stories.