By Janet Krenn, Staff Writer
When thinking about what to pursue in college, Brandis Yoko thought archeology and history might be good fits. It wasn’t until she got a free trial of Adobe Photoshop that she started considering design.
“At first I thought I would do web design,” she says, but after taking some courses, “I thought graphics and graphic design is exciting.”
Yoko joined Virginia Sea Grant as a visual communications intern during the fall semester, and this spring she will be continuing her work building templates and creating infographics to help visually display some data about VASG programs.
She thought the internship would be a fun opportunity for several reasons.
“First of all, I’m a fan of the ocean,” she says. “I was also interested in getting to design infographics. It would be a new challenge from what I’ve done so far.”
“I see this internship as a way to gain experience outside of my current career path,” she says, referring to her 12-year career at Busch Gardens, working most recently as a Group Supervisor for the Ride Operations Department.
Yoko is pursuing computer arts degree at Thomas Nelson Community College, and interned with VASG as part of the program’s co-op experience requirement. She will continue this spring, finalizing infographics and templates, and her work will be showcased on the VASG website later this semester.
Yoko intends to graduate in 2017 and later hopes to work in marketing and design for a large creative company—“I can see myself working at a place like Dreamworks.”
