Meet the Interns
Reflecting on Our Internship Program
This summer, the Which Side Digital 2026 Internship Program gave four interns the opportunity to step beyond the classroom and into the fast-paced world of political digital communications. Working directly with mentors and contributing to real client projects, we learned not only the technical skills needed in our respective fields, but also how collaboration, strategy, and creativity come together to build successful campaigns.
For designer Hannah Lord she saw improvement in Figma tools and navigation. Additionally, she learned backend website design, web design terminology (loop gallery, category, featured image), language and imagery used in political digital/print products, and the creation of halftone imagery in photoshop.
On the other hand Jessica Martins was able to improve her email and text message formatting to ensure audience retention, create a monthly email schedule to allow future content production, develop an onboarding funnel for new people to join our email program without getting overwhelmed, and write a long form blog copy as a fledgling communications intern.
While designer Ava Quimby grew as a teamworker, designer and writer, and individual. Working with various clients gave her insight into tailoring copywriting, graphics, storyboarding, and website design to specific brands, missions, and perspectives. One of her biggest takeaways throughout this process is how brand guides and messaging is relayed through website design. She now has experience building website wireframes using Figma resources, as well as WordPress and Elementor softwares.
Finally Olivia Gendron strengthened her understanding of strategic political communications by learning how to craft messaging for specific audiences, edit social media copy, analyze public opinion, and support digital campaigns through media sourcing and content planning. She also gained experience using industry tools such as Google Sheets, OneUp, and Figma, where she developed skills in photo editing and creating polished graphics.
Hannah’s Project Highlights
Using inspiration from vintage sports trading cards, my mentor and I collaborated on an Alaskan Democratic Party project to introduce this election’s candidates. During this process, and with the help of the team, we designed a product that communicated candidate information in a fun, clear, and engaging way. This was the first project I saw proposed, iterated, and produced as a part of the WSD team; for that reason, it stands tall as my favorite internship project of our 2026 run.
Jessica's Project Highlights
Working on an email about healthcare was my favorite project. I enjoyed this most because it is a universal topic that everyone resonates with. When writing this email in particular I found myself able to write without losing focus, getting bored, or worrying about misinterpretation of my writing. Through this email I was able to take the feedback provided and improve on structure while maintaining the core messaging I wanted to portray. I’m proud of all the work I contributed during my eight week journey and look forward to taking what I learned into my future career.
0.6%
Average Click Rate
12%
Average Open Rate
$1.5K
Total Raised
Ava’s Project Highlights
The Alaska Democratic Party ‘Meet the Candidates’ profiles challenged me to navigate new software. My amazing mentor taught me how to utilize WordPress and Elementor to produce polished profiles for dozens of candidates for State House, State Senate, and Statewide. The scale of this endeavour pushed me to work efficiently and ask important questions to make sure each candidate profile was accurate and perfected. The final product was a wonderful accomplishment.
Olivia’s Project Highlights
The project I am most proud to have worked on was the Alaska Democratic Party Candidate Hub on their website. This project allowed me to apply some of the new skills I had learned, such as using a spreadsheet to gather and organize candidate information, writing copy, and conducting accurate candidate research. It required me to collect information, organize it, and ensure consistency throughout. While working on projects like this, I learned how important it is to include only information that is unbiased – everything has to remain neutral. Having the opportunity to assist the WSD team and my fellow interns on a large project was extremely rewarding.
Moving Forward
Although being able to have hands-on project experience was fantastic, learning about new software or communication strategies wasn’t all we gained from this internship. Throughout our journey we were able to grow as designers, team members, and professionals. Because our projects were fast paced with real impact, we were able to learn how to adapt quickly while producing high quality results, think creatively to solve any problems that came up, and support team members along our collective journey.
We’re grateful to everyone at Which Side Digital who welcomed us onto the team and encouraged us every step of the way. Their mentorship, patience, and willingness to share their expertise gave us experiences we couldn’t have found in a classroom. As we move forward, these lessons and the relationships we built with us will remain a part of our lives. Thank you everyone for an unforgettable experience.
