My name is Cyntaria Johnson. In high school, I took a few graphic design classes as elective filler and was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed them. But after graduation, I needed to take a gap year to focus on acquiring the funds to further my education. When I was ready, I pursued my interest in graphic design by completing York Tech’s Digital Arts program and was fortunate enough to be offered a part-time position as a Course Accessibility Specialist at the college.

Completing your internship was the highlight of your York Tech experience. Tell us about that.

My last credit for completing the Digital Arts program was an internship, which I completed in York Tech’s Institute for Teaching Excellence (ITE) department. ITE supports students through training sessions, tutorials, and videos related to D2L navigation – York Tech’s student accounts that include email, Word, and PowerPoint. Throughout the internship, I worked with amazing people, created new pieces for my portfolio, and improved as an artist by developing my capabilities in Adobe Creative Cloud, particularly in Illustrator and Photoshop.

The marketing team even invited me to cooperate with them on a couple of their more urgent assignments. From weekly team meetings for discussing current assignments to receiving confirmation that the design had been accepted, I was there every step of the way. Being included in these projects really gave me insight on the ins and outs of a professional design environment.

Give us a glimpse inside your portfolio. What kind of work would we find there?

I created many course banners, and I liked being able to think outside of the box with a lot of those designs. I also designed session flyers and a poster for the Business Administration division. Unfortunately, that project got scrapped after I completed the design draft. Though that was an unfortunate reality, it still made for great practice.

The project that really helped direct me to where I am today was a summer presentation series where speakers provided attendees with resources for accessibility – from education about student accommodations and the Americans with Disabilities Act to demos of tools like Readspeaker, a text-to-speech technology, and Kaltura, a video cloud platform.

It’s funny because before going through formal training, I didn’t think much about accessibility, but I actually use accessibility features quite often. For instance, I prefer to use captions or transcripts to help me focus when watching videos or listening to audio. The process of getting my W3C compliance certification opened my eyes to how necessary accessibility accommodations are for everyone.

And today you work at York Tech as a Course Accessibility Specialist…

Yes. For accessibility to be something I was interested in, I never thought I would be able to explore it professionally. But it’s turned out to be the best decision I ever made! Not only am I putting my degree to use, but I am also continuing to develop my knowledge of accessibility.

Krista Rinehart, Director of Faculty Development and Curriculum Specialist, was excellent during my internship and continues to be a great influence in my day-to-day work. She was the person who conducted my interview and supervises all the work I complete. I’ve seen how dedicated she is to her work, and she deserves any recognition she receives. She is an absolute joy to be around, and I am happy to continue working alongside her in the ITE department.

Your work seems to pair nicely with your interests. You enjoy advertisements, and you also play video games. Has your experience in the Digital Arts program made you look at either of those in a different way?

Completing the Digital Arts program gave me a new perspective when looking at the way brands grab the attention of the average consumer. And recently, a game called Honkai Star Rail was released. (I have been quite obsessed with it!) Seeing how the other games I play held off on releasing major content in preparation for the release of their competitor’s game was very interesting to me.

Completing the Digital Arts program at York Tech clearly helped you grow as a professional. What about personally?

My internship was a turning point in my life. I had been suffering from severe burnout that really tanked my confidence. But I had the pleasure of working with a great supervisor who guided me and showed me that I don’t have to overwork myself to produce quality results. I learned so much – the value of having a great support system, the importance of taking breaks when needed, how to tackle a new challenge without overthinking it. My time at York Tech started in 2015, and I didn’t finish until the fall of 2022, so to say I’ve persevered for a while is an understatement. My determination to complete the program no matter what hardships stalled my progress was something I didn’t know I had.