Hi all! My name is Hayley Soutter and I’m the most recent student to join the Digital Humanities Fellowship program. I want to start off by saying that, before I was offered a spot on this team, I really wasn’t sure what it would entail. I thought I might be required to code (which I did not know how to do whatsoever) or design a webpage all on my own. But because I am a Mass Communications and Art History major, I figured I would apply for the program to see if it would combine my humanity-driven interests with my desire to learn more about digital media.
I have always been a student who favored the humanities. I was never very good at science or math growing up. In high school, I was heavily involved in the photojournalism department; I worked as both a reporter and an editor for our yearbook- writing stories, designing page layouts, taking photographs or proofreading copy. While I loved working for my yearbook during high school, I wasn’t sure how I wanted to continue my passion at W&L. I knew early on that I didn’t want to pursue a degree in journalism, but I wanted something that combined writing, creativity and technology under one umbrella.
This past summer, I was an intern at The High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia. During my eight weeks there, I enjoyed working on many social media and technology-related projects. I wrote Instagram and Twitter posts for the museum, in addition to enhancing their Tumblr presence. I also helped the digital technology team redesign the museum’s entire website. I loved the digital media aspect of my internship and I wanted to develop my technological skills further once I got back to school. I learned of the DH Fellowship through an outreach to the journalism department and thought it sounded like the perfect opportunity for me! I’m only a few weeks in, but so far, the internship has been a great experience and I have learned a ton already (including how to code a little). I know the skills I am learning will help me when I enter the “real world” in just a few short months by opening up more opportunities for me in my prospective career path. The DH team is awesome, and I’m so excited for the projects and collaborations to come this year.