Our second summer student spotlight is on Ramina Mukundan!
Ramina is entering her second year in the MI program and is currently working at the University of Calgary Taylor Family Digital Library. We caught up with Ramina to hear how she has been keeping busy this summer. She has shared pictures of her time out west, and provides insight into her work with OER. Thank you Ramina and we look forward to seeing you back in Halifax for the fall semester!
What is your favorite summer activity? Or your favourite Halifax activity? Are you working/volunteering anywhere this summer? Tell us a bit about your role and what you like most about your position!
I am spending summer 2022 in Calgary, Alberta, working as an Open Education Resource Co-op Student Librarian at the University of Calgary Taylor Family Digital Library. I work with my Teammate Sarah Adams the UCalgary OER Librarian, a recent graduate from the McGill university with a lot of experience and enthusiasm for open publishing platforms with her past work experience in Pressbooks. We are working on publishing an OER by Discipline Guide for the University of Calgary, which will be published shortly in July.
My manager James Murphy, the Librarian at the Schulich School of Engineering, is an active OER team member at UCalgary. He provides me opportunities to visit the UCalgary Archives and Rare Books collections, the Art gallery in the TFDL, and the LabNext at the UCalgary library, where they have the maker space, 3D printing units, etc. I work with my teammate Sarah at a unit called the Spatial and Numeric Data center. TFDL has a High-density storage library at a different location with over 8 million collections, and I will be visiting this library in mid-July.
I have made a few new friends at the University residence, where I met and interacted with several international exchange students from all over the world who are here to work at the various UCalgary labs and research units during the summer. I went hiking in the Rocky Mountains on weekends with my new friends. I also went sightseeing Calgary while enjoying the sun and the rain along with the beautiful spring blooms and the Calgary mountains and valleys. I am also looking forward to participating in the Calgary Stampede from July 8th to 17th, a regional event hosted in Calgary.
Do you have any words of wisdom/encouragement for new students starting in the fall?
For the freshers at SIM, all I would like to say is that you are at a great place. Value your time at SIM and make good connections. While you focus on your programme with dedication, these two years you will cherish for a lifetime. Good luck in your studies and all your ventures.
