00:18And I'm studying product design.
00:20This summer I was interning through
the Seed program, working for
00:24a company called Accents and Arts.
00:26Accents and Arts is the leader in
metal fabrication in West Africa.
00:31They produce beautifully custom made
products for homes and churches.
00:38I always wanted to try something new,
maybe a little out of my comfort zone.
00:44It just sounded like a pretty unusual and
exciting opportunity.
00:48And it turned out being more
special than I could have imagined.
00:52My project at Accents and Arts was
to design and engineer a mechanism
00:57to allow our railing product to be
self-installable by the client.
01:03I remember the first day,
01:05I participated in carrying the metal
to the trucks at the end of the day.
01:09And everyone was kind of like laughing at
me and they were like ha, ha, ha, Ellie.
01:13But I think over time, just those small
things of being able to actually work and
01:18show that I wanted to learn and get my
hands dirty and talk to the workers and
01:23rely on them went really far away
in them respecting my ideas.
01:27And that was something really
powerful at Accents and
01:30Arts, because it's not as if I changed
the company or the organization.
01:34But I feel like I really impacted
the products they set out for
01:39me that will ultimately have a big impact.
01:42I did travel a lot on the weekends.
01:45So went to Cape Coast and
saw the slave castles,
01:49which was really interesting experience.
01:53And then I also went to the Volta region,
to the waterfalls.
01:58The relationships I formed were far and
02:01away the highlight of the summer,
especially at Accents and Arts.
02:05We'd hang out on the weekends, and
they knew all about my life at home.
02:08And we developed this candor that was so
special.
02:12Other relationship I would want to
highlight would be the relationship with
02:17She was an arts intern and I ended
up just becoming so close with her.
02:21I spent half of my weekends at her house.
02:25Every Sunday, her family cooks all day,
and watches TV, and
02:28just hangs out at the house,
and I was a part of that.
02:32On the last day, Solney made these
homemade beaded bracelets for me and
02:37my mom and was like, Ellie,
I'm going to miss you so much.
02:40And I just remember feeling so touched and
just hugging her, and started crying
02:45later that day because I just didn't
anticipate feeling so happy to be there.
02:50After the experience was over,
I felt really proud.
02:53I think I feel more confident in myself to
work with many different environments and
02:59people, and kind of be confident
in my ability to succeed,
03:03whatever life throws at me.
03:06To students who are considering doing
Seed, I would say absolutely do it.
03:11It's going to be an adventure, and I just
can't emphasize enough how much you'll
03:15learn about yourself, and about the world.
03:19Just be open to Seed and
let them kind of guide you, but
03:22also take it on as your own journey and
make it your own.
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