Cultivating Talent: University of Cincinnati's Engaging Emerging Creatives
By Matt Czach, Senior Lead Industrial Designer
For the last three years, Tekna has participated in University of Cincinnati’s Co-Op program, hiring ID interns to work with us for a semester. This year, the U of C DAAP School explored a new networking format, Engaging Emerging Creatives, where Ben Purrenhage and I talked with students, giving them a feel for who we are and the work we do.
The first day was a quick presentation followed by Design Blitz, a four-hour activity where 300+ students and 100+ professionals co-developed solutions for Cincinnati non-profit organizations. Our team helped design holiday thank you cards for St. Vincent DePaul, as well as a collaborative workspace for United Way. By the end of the blitz, the local non-profit community was gifted 1,000 hours of creative time.
The second day was filled with professional round table discussions on topics such as entrepreneurship and innovation, along with 30-minute interviews of second- and fourth-year students looking for Co-Ops. I sat on the Entrepreneurial Spirit panel discussion with Casey Dougherty from Generac and Valerie Green from Tier 1 Performance Solutions.
Throughout the day, Ben and I interviewed seven students and hired a second-year student as our spring intern. It’s inspiring to attract great, young talent and show them what it’s like to work at Tekna!
If you’d like to see our current openings go to https://www.teknateam.com/team/
If you’re curious about the DAAP School at University of Cincinnati go to http://daap.uc.edu/
