Beyond the Classroom: Crystal Sealey (CFA’23)

I am a communications intern so my role is to help spread awareness about BU’s sustainability goals and ways for the community to get involved in furthering the University’s progress with these goals. I help with managing our monthly newsletter, posting on social media, updating our website, spreading awareness about various funding opportunities, and facilitating in-person events like the BU Bazaar on January 28th. Because my major is graphic design, I am also the point-person for anything design-related. My last project was the Residential Composting Program in West Campus, Warren Towers, and 1019 Commonwealth.

I actually found out about this internship from a fellow design student who explained that BU Sustainability was looking for a new graphics intern to replace the last one, who had graduated the year before. When I interviewed for the position and learned more about the office, I realized that this is a communications role and I would be doing way more than graphic design! To secure this internship, I made sure to share any relevant work in my portfolio and practice advocating for myself before the interview. I started this internship in June of 2021, and so after working for the office remotely for a few months, I was very excited to meet everyone in person and participate in events like the BU Sustainability Festival.

I think my favorite accomplishment so far is creating the visual system for the Residential Composting Program. I created it over winter break and wanted to make sure that it was visually related to the idea of composting. I chose the fonts, colors, and elements, and I made sure that there was a clear hierarchy of information on the posters. I think it was really rewarding to help promote a new program on campus and create most communications for it from scratch. Hopefully, throughout the semester, I will continue to promote the composting program and encourage participation. Once I learned that even the tiniest amount of garbage can make a whole composting load be sent to the trash, I realized how important promoting non-contamination is amongst the student body. Hopefully, once this program becomes successful, we can add more composting bins throughout campus.

I cannot really say that there were any resources that helped me specifically! I did a lot of independent preparation for the internship, except for the CFA coursework that helped me practice design. I will say, though, that I appreciate that BU Sustainability involves students in the behind-the-scenes work of the office and that the news that they were hiring was able to get to me via word of mouth.

Well, as I mentioned, I am a graphic design major, so pretty much all of my coursework helped me to prepare for this internship. I have experience with creating visual systems, posters, and social media posts from past class projects.

I think one of the most valuable experiences I’ve gained from this internship is teamwork and collaboration. I work with 3 other communications interns and also collaborate with others in the Sustainability office about Zero Waste, engagement, etc. The experience has taught me how to better manage my time and work in an environment where other people are relying on my work. In graphic design, one can always expect to be a part of a team, so it is important that I practice effective communication with others and working on completing projects collaboratively.

I learned that I need to practice my communication more! Because I helped with the newsletter, I had to summarize lots of articles into short, enticing blurbs. I definitely neglect my writing skills since I pretty much study visual persuasion, but I’ve learned that being able to effectively communicate with my words is just as important and necessary for success.

My advice would be to seek out opportunities that aren’t necessarily art/design related but still have transferable skills for your career of choice.

1. As this is my last semester with BU Sustainability, I am hoping to move on to a motion design internship for the summer. My goal is to gain experience in multiple fields of work related to graphic design as I narrow down my career options. Hopefully, I will also go onto grad school to continue my studies.
2. I would also like to mention that since this is my last semester with BU Sustainability, we are looking for another student to replace me! Check out our Instagram @sustainablebu to get more information on the position later in the semester, but we are essentially looking for someone who is also experienced in graphic design.