Reflections: a unique internship experience

“It has been fruitful and enjoyable to have crossed paths and learnt so much. Thank you for the past 12 weeks, here is to more thought-provoking conversations!”

When I first heard back from Mona about my application to DP I was really skeptical. I had never heard of Design Prodigy and had no understanding of what ‘polymathic abilities’ meant.

But something about the program drew me to it and I found myself adapting to its quirks, such as the weekly ‘emotion level’ check-ins and reflections. And, at the tail end of this internship, I must say that it has been a fruitful journey filled with highs and lows.

Adjusting to the new normal.

As the first batch of interns to have completed the entire process online, it was eye-opening to experience, first-hand, how forging relationships is possible over such a format. While we took some time adjusting to collaborating and communicating over such this new platform, after awhile, we all were still able to achieve a level of coherence and flow in team discussions. I believe this spirit of adapting and thriving in crisis mode is very much part of DP’s culture.

Less structured, more freedom.

I guess, on some level, the uncertainty and doubts that we all experience is very much by design. By taking the plunge and participating in a program that can be seen as vague, unknown and unstructured, we had to find our own ways of coping in this environment that is often very different from the highly organised Singaporean education system.

In fact, it was this ‘safe-space’(the irony) in DP that I valued the most. It is not everyday that you get an internship program that allows you to set your own goals, plan your week and have the freedom to research about concepts that interest you. Sometimes, we fell into ‘rabbit holes’ and roadblocks. This was where we kept trying to better understand a certain concept without it amounting to anything immediately useful. The weekly check-ins and critiques sessions with the various Human Libraries always helped to clarify and regroup our goals and efforts.

Advice to future interns.

For future interns, my advice would be to keep an open mind from the start and to trust the process. While many of you may be highly skeptical of the many buzzwords being used, it is in fully immersing yourself in the process of these 12 weeks that you will experience and learn the most. To the various Human Libraries, full-timers and fellow interns : It has been fruitful and enjoyable to have crossed paths and learnt so much. Thank you for the past 12 weeks, here is to more thought-provoking conversations!