University of Wisconsin–Madison

England: Savanna Lee

Program: FIE London Internship, Summer

Savanna’s Major: Communication Arts

A woman smiles at the camera with her chin resting on her hand. She is on a fence with the Tower Bridge in the background. She has a black jacket on that is open displaying a blue shirt over a smaller black crop top.
This is from my first week in London when we were still doing lots of sight seeing. This is me in front of the Tower Bridge!

Describe your internship, research, or fieldwork and how the experience helped advance your career or studies.

I worked with a media production company called Really Bright Media. It is a small company with around 10 employees, they focus in on all parts of production (pre, post, etc.). Because of this company being so small, I had the chance to bond with everyone there and get to learn more about their time in this industry! Some of my tasks included: – Production assistant (helping out with getting the set ready) – Independent research (looking more into AI) – Creating production briefs – Editing in Premiere Pro (interviews as well as a music video)

I tried to go into everything open-minded and embrace all the changes I was facing.

How did your identities impact your experience? What advice would you give to students with similar identities who are considering a similar experience?

As a Black woman I didn’t really know what to expect going to London. I didn’t know if I was going to stand out or see other people of color in my program or the whole of London. I was able to find a group of people with similar identities to me and we were able to talk about how our identities differ from being back home to here. We were lucky enough to not run into any trouble surrounding this while there, and we often met very nice and generous people!

A woman stands in the middle of a large room at Oxford with long tables set out running the length of the room. The woman is wearing a blue dress with white flowers and wearing a headset from her tour and she smiles at the camera.
This is me on a trip I took to Oxford with my roommates. This is in the iconic Christ Church where the Harry Potter dining room scenes were filmed!

What challenges or barriers did you face as you prepared to go abroad and/or during your time abroad? How did you work through them?

Because this was my first time abroad, basically everything was new to me. I didn’t know how things may differ from here to there, so I tried to spend extra time researching more about the city (like different customs). That made me feel a bit more prepared, but actually getting to the city vs. researching was a very different experience. I tried to go into everything open-minded and embrace all the changes I was facing.