Thanks to a multidisciplinary track, internships and student work through the Berry Information Technology Students (BITS) program, senior Kalista Shields is ready for life after Berry. Combining studies in creative technologies and computer science has reinforced creative problem solving-during the product design process as well as technical knowledge. Minoring in communication and competing at the national level on Berry’s award-winning forensics team has strengthened Kalista’s ability to market designs and explain ideas.
"It is so important to see how your work can impact others and how you can communicate with others through your work,” Kalista says. “With a well-rounded education, you can see how truly multidisciplinary engineering can be. Good engineers consider the ethical implications of their work. One of the most impactful classes I have taken at Berry was sociology. I was grumbling about taking the class before I took it, but I learned so much about other people and the impact my work could potentially have on others."
Q. How have your on-campus jobs contributed to your success in obtaining internships?
A. My freshman year, Berry College transferred to the new site and branding. It was the most valuable experience I could ever ask for. … The whole experience showed me what rebranding at a large scale was like. I had so much fun creating new sites.
Q. Tell us about your favorite internship experience.
A. The best internship I had was at Raymond James. I found the internship on Handshake, a website for helping college students find internships and jobs, and was in charge of updating the websites of the individual financial advisors at Raymond James. I learned how web development works in a large organization where web content is not the main focus of the business. I also learned a lot about antitrust laws during this experience.
Q. What are your long-term career goals? What excites you about the future?
A. Hopefully, I will be building prosthetics. If not, I would love to either go into hardware design or product design. I want to be able to express myself creatively in the workplace. … I’m excited to see where new technology leads us, and I hope to be a part of developing that technology.
Q. Who has influenced your entrepreneurial mindset?
A. My dad is absolutely my biggest entrepreneurial influence. He is a business owner and has shown me the value of hard work. He is always someone I can talk to about my business ideas and is not afraid to critique them.
