2020
URGENT, Inc. (Miami, Florida, USA)
Urgent, Inc. created and implemented their first ever, fully virtual work placement internship during the summer
of 2020 in response to the COVID 19 pandemic. Over the course of seven weeks, 26 participants connected
five days a week to learn new skills and work with their employers to complete assigned projects. This virtual
internship used a combination of a project-based approach and
collaborative workspaces which allowed participants to delve
into digital media, communications and entrepreneurship. The
participants were divided into three remote cohorts, with each
cohort focusing on a different dimension of learning within the
creative content industry ‒ covering all aspects and phases of
a producing a media project ‒ Development, Pre-production,
Production, Post Production, Exhibition and Distribution.
Women's Voices Now
The typical in-person filmmaking summer camp, Girls Voices Now, was redesigned to be delivered using online
engagement tools in response to the COVID 19 pandemic. For three weeks, 19 young girls connected virtually five
days a week to learn skills that allowed them to shoot short-films using their mobile devices, hear from industry
leaders, collaborate with their peers, and receive one-on-one feedback from their mentors. To acknowledge the
lack of physical social interaction and to support combating video conferencing fatigue, health and mental well-
being sessions were incorporated as a part of the
curriculum. These sessions and workshops provided a
space for everyone to pritozie their health and mental
well-being and helped with forming close friendships
and bonds among participants and instructors, which
resulted in everyone feeling less isolated. The Girls
Voices Now 2020 summer camp culminated with their
first ever virtual film screening showcasing the short-
films produced by the participants.
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