Community Access Project

Recently I applied for and was accepted for the Community Access Project Internship. The position is acting as the Community Access Project’s (CAP) summer student at a local public library. For me this translates in to a full time job for the duration of the summer at the A.C. Hunter Library in St John’s. I applied for the job on a whim, not thinking I would actually get interviewed. Not only did I get an interview, they called me back the same day asking if I would accept the position. Obviously I accepted, and I just finished my first week of work.

The mission of the internship is to provide students with employment, working with and around technology for the summer. During which they will facilitate various programs to the community including, and not limited too, Cyber Camps for kids, Website design for beginners, Computer Basics, as well as outreach programs for the community in relation to the internet and its uses. The program was started by Industry Canada about 10 years ago, to help communities in rural and remote settings obtain affordable public access to the Internet and the skills to use it effectively. This is done through the establishment of community-based public Internet access facilities.

During my summer I will be presenting several seminars on various topics, all of which will focus on the available online resources for each topic. I will also run a website design course for members of the community who may be small business owners or non-profit sector employees. Typically these people are unable to afford the services of a professional graphic designer to provide them with an online presence, so my goal is to provide them with the basics to get them started. I have a few other projects on the calendar as well, but neither is finalized so I won’t mention them now.

I am looking forward to both the challenges, and opportunities this position will present over the next two and a half months. I also look forward to bringing those skills back to The Commons when I return in the fall term.