Intern Alina Nguyen Kicked Off Her Design Career

After spending the summer as the SF Bicycle Coalition’s graphic design intern, Alina Nguyen is now a full-time visual designer at BayAlarm Medical. We’re so appreciative of Alina’s creativity and contributions! Our graphic design interns get to work on some pretty exciting projects, which provides a solid foundation for moving ahead with a graphic design career.

We spoke with Alina to get insight on her internship experience and how it helped her develop crucial design skills and land a full-time design position. If you want to be our next graphic design intern, apply here!

SF Bicycle Coalition: What are some of things you liked most about interning at the SF Bicycle coalition?

Alina Nguyen: I really enjoyed getting to work with everyone at the SF Bicycle Coalition. Everyone is really friendly and passionate about their work! Biking is not only part of their work but also part of their lives. When there is an opportunity to bike somewhere, they will do it. It really encouraged me to continue biking because I knew I had this community to support me. Interning also gave me the opportunity to learn about bike culture and how nonprofit organizations function. I also got to know the other interns and the community that keeps the SF Bicycle Coalition going.

A sample of some amazing print projects graphic design interns get to work on.

How did this internship set you up for the future?

It helped me develop the skills to work in a professional environment as a designer. The biggest thing I learned was handling design feedback. Learning how to take critical feedback helped me find a common ground with colleagues and taught me how to communicate with people. Now I incorporate these skills both in and out of my professional life.

What projects from your internship are you most proud of?

I am grateful and proud of all the projects I’ve worked on. I had the opportunity to work on many projects that helped me grow as a designer and person. Working on Bike to Work Day helped me practice my photography and was a great way to engage with the community. I got to design a lot of the visuals for the Golden Wheel Awards and seeing the result was amazing. It was also fun to work on creating infographics, the 2018 Pride Parade spoke cards, and many other projects.

Want to work on cool projects like this? Apply to be an intern now!

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