Hear the Youth and Media summer interns talk about their background, why they applied to Youth and Media (at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University), and what they worked on over the summer.
Our youngest team members reflect on their time at the Youth and Media Lab, addressing their respective challenges, successes, and lessons learned. They also discuss their time at Berkman more generally.
Andy Aeberhard
Andy Aeberhard is a Master’s student at the University of Basel, Switzerland, with a focus on ‘Human-Computer Interaction’ (HCI). He just wrote a Master’s Thesis, “The Development of the ‘Form Usability Scale’ (FUS): Usability and User Satisfaction of Online Forms.” After finishing his Master’s, Andy would like to start his PhD.
At Youth and Media, he will be working on learning more about young peoples’ experience with new media, and on how to create online forms and interfaces that have a high satisfaction rate.
Hannah Deresiewicz
Hannah Deresiewicz is a rising junior at Columbia University where she is studying political science and sociology. Her research interests lie at the intersection of politics and digital media: Hannah is particularly interested in the ways – both positive and negative – that technology affects society, altering traditional processes of community organizing and social revolution. This is Hannah’s second summer at the Berkman Center.
Kassra Homaifar
Kassra Homaifar was born and raised in Greensboro, North Carolina. He is a rising sophomore at Grimsley High School and participates in the International Baccalaureate Program. Furthermore, he holds active roles in school, such as Student Council President, Student Human Relations Commission President, Man Up Mentoring Program Student Leader, and more.
He was selected as his high school representative for the HOBY (Hugh O’Brian Youth) NC East Seminar, a weekend leadership program for rising high school juniors.
Claire Kwong
Claire Kwong is a rising junior at Brown University studying computer science and modern culture and media. She is interested in how youth self-expression on blogs and social networks influences the formation and understanding of identity. She has taught on the intersection of art and new media as a teaching assistant for the Brown courses Digital Art and Open Source Culture. Claire is also a digital artist who uses interactive media to dramatize her personal experience with technology.
Andres Lombana Bermudez
Andres Lombana Bermudez researches, teaches, and practices digital media. He has been a lifelong student of the relationships between technology, youth, politics, and everyday life. His current research focuses in the opportunities that the digital networked environment is opening for social change, civic participation, community building, and learning. He is an advocate and a practitioner of participatory culture and media literacy. At the Berkman Center, he collaborates in the development of the Youth and Media Lab by designing curricula, producing multimedia, and researching. Andres is a second year PhD student in Media Studies at UT-Austin. Previously, he completed a MSc in Comparative Media Studies at MIT, and bachelor’s degrees in Literature and Political Science at Universidad de los Andes, in Bogota, Colombia. More information about Andres can be found at his website.
Joyce Neys
Joyce Neys is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Media and Communication at the Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) in the Netherlands. Her project, entitled ëEmpowered Citizens ñ How New Media Facilitate Civic Engagementí aims to investigate how and to what extent the production and use of new media by citizens facilitates an enhanced context for civic engagement. Currently she is investigating political remix videos (PRVs).
Next to her PhD Joyce is a lecturer at the International Bachelor for Communication and Media program at the EUR. She teaches introduction courses in Communication Science, research workshops and the introduction course in Statistics.
Before holding this position Joyce was a junior researcher at the University of Amsterdam where she also obtained her (research) Masterís degree in Communication Science as well as her Bachelorís degree. Additionally, she holds a Bachelor in Digital Communication from Hogeschool Utrecht.
Alex O’Dell
Alex O’Dell is a rising senior at the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Alex was a part of one of the founding member companies of the TechArb, a start-up incubator that provides a collaborative environment for students at the University of Michigan. Alex is the founder of TEDxUofM and served as the managing director over the course of two years. He produced and directed a documentary about youth and grassroots innovation in India that will be released online in September 2011.