SAMANTHA MCNAIR

During the internship semester of my undergraduate degree (May - August 2021), I was employed by Sheridan College's Faculty of Animation, Arts, and Design (FAAD) where I took on the roles of Senior Producer and Co-host for Sheridan's first ever Interior Design podcast. 

 

It was truly a trailblazing project for FAAD and provided amazing exposure for our Interior Design program within the industry. The first installment of the podcast is a seven-episode series titled “Uncharted Territory”, which aims to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the design world and predicts what Interior Design will look like on a global scale during the post-pandemic era through interviews with industry professionals. Although the target audience of the podcast was Interior Design students and recent graduates, I believe the topic of post-COVID design has a wide arch of interest that touches many disciplines. I had a hand in every part of the production process, from branding and marketing, to contacting high profile guests, writing episode scripts, and even co-hosting the podcast. I took my role as a Sheridan ambassador very seriously and was proud to represent the college and my program within the community. As someone with a fierce entrepreneurial spirit, taking on such a role was a dream come true. It challenged me to become a better leader for my team and allowed me to develop other important interpersonal skills along the way. I was given a lot of creative freedom, which is a testament to the trust and confidence the staff in my program have in me.

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The podcast, named "2 Designer's & A Podcast", has now officially been uploaded to Spotify. This allows the content to be accessible to a global audience and provides Sheridan with an incredible amount exposure. I feel immensely proud to have started this project for Sheridan and to have used the podcast platform to promote the college and its interior design program. In the fall of 2021, I continued my roll as Senior Producer & Co-host to develop more content for the podcast. In January 2022, I became a mentor for the new podcast team and helped them transition into their rolls while continuing to edit content from behind the scenes. 

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Through my hard work and dedication as Senior Producer and Co-host of the podcast, I have been honoured with several awards. In 2021, I received the prestigious Education Work Ontario (EWO) Experiential Learning (EL) Student of the Year Award in the College category. The EWO EL Student of the Year Award recognizes one student (or group) attending a university and one student (or group) attending a college, who have showcased exceptional job/community/project accomplishment, extra-curricular involvement, and a strong contribution to Experiential Learning in Ontario. I also received the 2021 Sheridan Work Integrated Learning (WIL) Student of the Year Award – Internship for the Faculty of Arts, Animation and Design. This was another high honour, as it is a school-wide award given to the student who has demonstrated exceptional leadership and initiative during their internship. I was honoured to have won the award for my Faculty and the Interior Design program.