My Summer Internship at Zebra Technologies (So far)

My Summer Internship at Zebra Technologies (So far)

August 4th, 2022

For the summer of 2022, I have been completing an industrial design internship at Zebra Technologies. I started right after I finished my classes at SCAD, and I have had the best time for the last two months I have been with Zebra.

This has been my first professional industrial design internship. I did not know what to expect going into it, and I have been blown away by the experience.

Over the course of this internship I have been developing a concept for buy online pick up in store (BOPIS) systems. I have been taking the three months I have here to go thorough the design process fully, from research to brainstorming to 3D modeling and renders.

I am so lucky to have been placed into a design group that is incredibly experienced and encouraging. While I have taken many classes on the design process and design theory, they have taught me things that are only learned from years in the industry.

I am also glad to have a partner on this journey. A mechanical engineering student from Penn State named Lily is the other intern in the industrial design studio this summer. It has been amazing to have someone to go through this process with that is just as new as I am. We are constantly bouncing ideas off each other and proof reading each others work. I am very glad that I have been able to share this experience with her.

As an intern, I have also had the opportunity to attend intern events and take part in volunteer week at Zebra. The internship environment at Zebra is phenomenal. The internship group has organized panels for us with current employees, as well as weekly interviews with the leaders of the company for us to gain insights and ask questions. They also schedule fun events for us like going to the Mets game and an escape room.

I love volunteering, so when Zebra volunteer week came along I signed up to paint the outside of a local planetarium. It was a beautiful day, and it always feels good to help others.

I still have about two weeks left at Zebra, and in those two weeks I have an intern innovation challenge presentation and my final design pitch for the buy online pick up in store (BOPIS) program. I can't wait to see what the end of this experience entails for me and how I will be able to apply this new knowledge in my last year at the Savannah College of Art and Design.