The interns we bring on board are second to none. And it’s about time they get a little attention.
We periodically feature our Freedom Consulting Group interns, giving them a voice to express what they’ve learned, any advice they have for future interns and something offbeat—like their favorite late-night snack, or what’s on their DVR.
Name: Reagan R.
Hometown: Ellicott City
Length of Time Interning at Freedom: Summer 2020
Favorite Show: The Office
Go-To Restaurant: Chipotle
How have you seen yourself grow as a person (or professionally) as a result of your time interning with Freedom?
Interning with Freedom has been awesome! Matt P. is really good at give hard problems to solve. Between learning new technologies and libraries and learning new coding techniques, I have gotten so much out of this internship.
What’s been your favorite part of your internship so far?
My favorite part of the internship is being exposed to new ideas. Coding by yourself in your room is always fun, but I enjoy being able to learn from my peers and mentors.
What new tricks/tips have you learned since your first day?
I learned how to use qGis and I got to work a lot with AWS. One thing that I think I became really good at was looking at other people’s code and adapting it to my own needs.
When your pals ask what you do as an intern how do you explain your position?
I tell them that I am working on a machine learning model to geolocate tweets. A very small percentage of tweets are already geolocated, so we have to use text and picture-based recognition.
If you were asked to choose one song to play every time you walked into a room for the rest of your life, what would it be?
I always hate the “favorite song” question, I have too many favorites. Right now, I am listening to lots of Lo-Fi and Taylor Swift’s new album folklore.
What show are you currently binging or what’s up next in the queue?
I am not watching a lot of TV right now. I have been playing a decent amount of Animal Crossing though. I have been playing since I was eight.
If you could use technology to advance one thing, what would it be?
Using technology to advance medicine would be awesome. No more cancer, we could use AI to find a quick solution for COVID, and I could fix my Celiac’s disease.
What’s a fact about you that most people would find surprising?
I don’t know if there is anything about me that is surprising. I played Classical Guitar growing up, I have two dogs and a lizard, and I can’t wink. I don’t know if that is surprising or not. 😛
What advice would you give to future interns at FCG?
My advice to future interns would be to learn as much as you can. You only have a small time in which you get to explore new paths and discover as an intern, so take advance of it.