First Couple Weeks as an Earthling

by Madison Acker

Hey, I’m Madison Acker, a Marketing and Design Intern for Earthling Interactive this summer. I’m one of three interns that will be working here at Earthling this summer. In this Insight I’m going to talk about my first couple weeks here at Earthling Interactive, but first here’s a little get to know me.  

College Life

First off, this fall I will be a Junior at Northern Michigan University (NMU) majoring in Social Media Design Management and minoring in Computer Science. NMU is up in Marquette Michigan right along Lake Superior and has plenty of things to do outdoors. It is about a five-hour drive from Madison, WI which may seem like a long drive, but I know other people that have a longer drive and they live in Michigan. I would describe my major as a graphic design degree with some marketing and public relations (pr) included. This degree gives me many options to be creative, whether that be photography, videography, or graphic design, as well as learning more about the internal side of businesses and other career paths I could take with my major, whether that be sports pr or what I’m doing currently here as an intern . The Computer Science minor isn’t included in this degree, but something I added because of my enjoyment of coding from high school. It also gives me another opportunity in the design space of creating websites from scratch. 

Personal Life

Onto non-school related things about me. I’m the oldest sibling of me and my brother, both my parents are veterinarians, and at home I have a yellow lab named Gus who can be a little dumb at times (picture at the end). Some of my hobbies include playing soccer, swimming, skiing and ice skating when it is cold out, photography, and playing video games. 

Intern as an Earthling

In my first couple weeks there hasn’t been a lot to do, but it works out well as I’m still trying to de-stress from the past semester. It gives me time to work my way into the flow of getting up at a normal time, six or seven in the morning instead of noon, and what I could expect to be doing in this internship the rest of this summer. So far, I have been creating the graphics and captions for our LinkedIn posts (you should go check them out), creating a presentation for bringing future clients, testing an app that we are working on here, and creating selling sheets for future needs. In the following weeks I know I will still be creating the graphics and captions for the LinkedIn posts, creating other selling sheets, and will be helping with our Newsletter. Hopefully I will also get to test more apps that we are creating as well as help with some of the website design processes. 

Something I have learned so far at this internship is how to be specific, not only what I ask people, but what I ask AI for. I haven’t used AI much since it became a big thing, with the only program I have used being Grammarly. Since being here, I have been encouraged to use ChatGPT when I’m stuck or need help coming up with captions for a LinkedIn post. It has also helped me create quick graphics that fit my thoughts for a post or an icon on a presentation. It has taken a bit of time to figure out what I need to say to ChatGPT to have it create images or icons the way I want. One thing I figured out was that if I don’t want an image to not include words, all I have to say is “no words” after my description of what I want. It’s almost like coding, whether that be a website or a game of tic-tac-toe. You have to be specific otherwise it won’t do what you want it to.  

Now you have heard a bit about me and what I do here at Earthling. Hopefully I didn’t tire your eyes from reading this and gave you some “Insight” into what is happening here at Earthling. Enjoy the rest of your day and go check out our LinkedIn!