Get Healthy Philly: A Taylor-Made Internship
If you were to look at a timeline of my life, you would absolutely be able to spot some common threads. You would also be able to follow those threads and see how they have somehow managed to intertwine and lead me to where I am today. My name is Taylor Robbins and this post is about my graphic design internship with Get Healthy Philly and how it was the perfect combination of everything that I am passionate about.
I have always considered myself an artist. Art has been incredibly important to me for as long as I can remember. I could not imagine going into a profession that didn’t allow me to express my own artistic creativity. I have also always been interested in the medical field (a weird combination, I know). I have consistently been surrounded by medical professionals, both in my family and in the places that I have chosen to work over the years. The field has always peaked my interest. In high school, I began volunteering with a program that works in alcohol, tobacco, and other drug prevention throughout New Jersey, leading me to passion number three. I became very involved with the program and I have gotten to work with hundreds of incredible teenagers throughout the state. The program still is a very big part of my life and I absolutely love working in prevention.
When faced with finding an internship for my final semester in school, I knew it had to be working on something important to me. I had no clue how lucky I was about to get. Get Healthy Philly is a branch of the Public Health Department of Philadelphia. Their focus is on getting Philadelphians “Healthy, Active, and Smoke-Free.” I’m sure it comes as no surprise to you how excited I was to see they were hiring a graphic design intern. Over the last few months I’ve gotten to work on some truly incredible projects that have all been for the greater good of Philadelphia. Being able to use my design skills for a smoking prevention program that operates at the scale that Smoke-Free Philly does has been my favorite part of working with Get Healthy Philly. I was even honored enough to actually rebrand the program. A logo that I designed will now be the face of the smoking prevention program of the City of Philadelphia. This is something I never even dreamed I could do. Overall, Get Healthy Philly has been incredibly welcoming towards me and allowed me to create some work that I am truly passionate about. I could definitely see myself working in public health or for non-profits of a similar caliber in the future. And if you see this logo around town, you can be assured that the person who designed it truly cares about the cause.
