Being an intern is fun

It really is!

Some of you may or may not have heard of me (or even met me) but for about the past month I have been an intern for 21inc. I attend the New Brunswick College Of Craft And Design, taking the Integrated Media program. I hear you now asking yourself, "What is integrated media?"

If you are familiar with NBCCD at all, you may know that one of the studios (programs) they have is called "Communication Design" which is basically Graphic Design. They decided last year that there was so much in the realm of graphic design that they couldn't fit it all into one program any longer. So! They split it up into two programs, Graphic Design (Mostly print media based and basic web design) , and Integrated Media. What I take in school is less about the print side of things (Though those things are still a part of my program) and more about media - More dynamic web design, special effects (Motion graphics), film, animation and game design. I also graduated from the Foundation Visual Arts program last year (I miss the drawing/painting aspect of that, though I still get to draw and paint - I just don't always have a drawing class) and I'm almost at the end of year 1 of a 2 year program. The things that I'm most excited about next year are making video games (We're going to be using a program called unity which looks amazing), learning php/web programming, flash actionscript and I get to take another elective (I would like to take a drawing class or something in textiles/surface design.)

Tim brought me on to take care of more the communications side of 21inc - Newsletters, web, and video is mostly what I'll be doing. It's really great for me because I get a chance to work in my field and I haven't even graduated yet. (Sidenote: I get to blog and post things to Twitter/Facebook. For work. How awesome is that?)

Last week there was an event for 21inc alumni at Up wine bar with Nancy McKay, and I got to attend and take pictures/interviews. It was really interesting because I don't really read the news that often or keep up with politics (shame on me) so I definitely learned a lot. I didn't participate in the group discussion but hearing the differing opinions was very insightful. (And the decor was amazing)

That and photography is something that I really enjoy doing, so I was happy that I had a chance to borrow a sweet camera (Nikon D300s) from my studio and go out and take some pictures. I would say that I took at least 80, but narrowed it down to 12 to upload, which you can see at flickr (Click the image at the top of the post)

Guest Blog Post: Jeff Sparks on 11 Minutes/11 Muscles

As a 21 Inc. alumni, member of the 21 Inc. Board, and person with a neuromuscular disorder, I am very excited to attend 11 Minutes/11 Muscles. This is an event conceived and organized by students in UNB's MBA professional development class to support Muscular Dystrophy Canada (MDC) and modeled after the inspirational TED event.

Through attending this event you will have the opportunity to hear from some amazing speakers, while making a difference in the lives of those with neuromuscular disorders. 11 Minutes/11 Muscles will feature the Honourable Graydon Nicholas, Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick; Freeman Patterson, photographer and writer; Rachel Pulfer, international program director, Journalists for Human Rights; Stanton T. Friedman, physicist and ufologist; Brian Duplessis, executive director, United Way; and David Adams Richards, author, playwright and Saint Thomas University writer-in-residence.

Funds raised from the event will support the programs and services of Muscular Dystrophy Canada including. Where do the funds go? Here's a personal example: My new wheelchair cost $45,000. Purchased with support from MD Canada, it allows me to live an amazing quality of life and contribute to our communities through the work of great organizations like 21 Inc.

Hope to see you on April 1st.

Ideas Festival videos

Over the last couple months we've been working with Hemmings House Pictures to produce a few videos of the Ideas Festival. We're really happy with the results - they capture the energy and opportunities created by the Festival. I'll be posting English, French, and bilingual videos up here over the next week. Below is the bilingual trailer, a mash up of some of the best quotes and interviews from the 2010 Festival.