Intern Profile: Lila Gonzales
Special thanks to Learning Life intern, Ehvyn McDaniels, for helping to write Lila’s profile.
If you’re into IT (information technology) or gaming, look out for Lila Gonzales. Lila is a rising senior at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia majoring in IT, with ambitions to enter the gaming industry. In the meantime this summer, she is helping to improve Learning Life’s website and conducting online research for us.
Born and raised in Bowie, Maryland, Lila is forging her path in the IT world, starting at Marymount, where she has taken courses in web development, networking, databases, graphic design, and other areas. Most recently, through a software engineering course, Lila and two other Marymount students were charged with creating a software engineering plan for an airline company’s website. Lila was able to lead her group to success as they not only met the project’s objectives but also created case scenarios mapping the course of different user actions. Lila went on to write an 11-page paper explaining the tools found within the Apple IOS Software Development Kit that are used to create IOS applications, earning an “A” for her work. (IOS is an operating system for Apple mobile devices, like Apple cell phones and tablets.)
Keeping up with her intensive IT coursework is not easy, but Lila still finds time to pursue her passion for Manga, a Japanese cartoon style the most popular forms of which are turned into animations, movies and video games. Lila’s IT work was born in her passion for Manga starting in 4th grade. “I have always had a curiosity for the coding behind the gaming software” she says. “In fact, one of my biggest goals in life is to work for a large gaming company like Nintendo or Sony.” Manga has also inspired Lila to produce her own Manga artwork. Lila posts some of her artwork on Facebook and on her page at deviantart.com, and has sold some of it at Otakon, an annual anime convention.
Lila also finds time to volunteer. Through Marymount, she has helped with community gardening, and organizing an annual Halloween party for underprivileged children in Arlington, Virginia. She has also served as a visitor guide at the Newseum, a museum about the news in Washington, D.C.
At Learning Life this summer, Lila has employed her IT experience to better integrate our website and social media. Lila installed the Facebook and Twitter feeds in the right sidebar of each of Learning Life’s website pages (the homepage excepted) as well as floating social media sharing buttons. She has also helped grow our Facebook audience, created a list of places online where we can get answers to website-related questions, gathered amusing and clever uses of surfaces like napkins (some of these images are forthcoming on our social media pages!), researched the use of sales receipts to inform and advertise, and more.
When asked why she chose to intern with Learning Life, Lila responded, “I decided to volunteer at Learning Life as a way to help improve my experience in the IT field. As an IT major, I was given the task to help improve Learning Life’s website through editing and installations. Though I am very new to this, I feel that I am broadening my knowledge in computers through Learning Life.” Lila’s broadening knowledge is happily benefiting Learning Life, and we hope will help her on her path in the world of IT and gaming.
To learn more about interning or volunteering with Learning Life, contact us at email@learninglife.info.