Sofy Maia is a senior Film & Media Culture major from São Paulo, Brazil. She is also a Computer Science minor, and loves working on animation projects that bring those two interests together. She has been a Digital Media tutor since the summer of 2014. Over these three years Sofy has learned a lot about completely new subjects like website design and audio editing, and also focused a lot of her attention on DMT projects having to do with film, design, and/or animation (interests she brought with her to the DMT program).
Although at first she found it hard to become comfortable with helping in the areas she was unfamiliar with, like WordPress and the plotter, Sofy came to find it exciting to come in to her shifts and get questions she had to figure out the answers for. After spending almost a year in the Boston area doing freelance work in animation and design, Sofy is currently living in Galway, Ireland and working in technical support at Shopify. Sophie shares that “The work I do today is really an extension of what I was doing as a DMT – constantly working to keep up to date with new features/tools on our platform, and doing my best to learn things quickly in order to pass them on to others and help solve problems. My time as a DMT was essential in preparing me for the day to day of a job where thinking on your feet and problem-solving creatively are key.”
I have really loved my time as a Digital Media Tutor. I hope that the program continues to expand in the future, because it truly was one of the best opportunities I had at Middlebury to learn skills that I know will be extremely useful to me going forward (and that weren’t taught in classes or other jobs on campus). Working as a Digital Media Tutor has cemented my love for multimedia and my certainty that I want to continue working in the field – I’ve learned so much in just three years in the program, and I’m excited to build on that after I graduate.
Beyond the technical skills I learned as a DMT, I loved getting to work with all the people involved in the program. It always seemed to me that the DMT program was one of the most diverse on campus, and besides the fantastic students in the group we also got the benefit of being mentored and taught by Heather, Joe, and many other digital media/technology professionals in the Davis Library. It was an excellent experience overall, and definitely one of my favorite parts of my time at Middlebury.
Sofy’s Projects
