She swapped the TV studio for video storytelling on an archipelago in Panama
A co-op at a small educational nonprofit taught Lilly D’Italia how she can use her videography skills in different settings.
Fourth-year communications studies student Lilly D’Italia spent her first co-op under the bright lights of live broadcast sports shows. As a personal assistant for a senior producer working on ESPN or NFL segments, D’Italia would spend her days helping with logistics and research for televised events. She even got the chance to work the NFL Honors and Espy award shows.
For her second co-op, she wanted something different.
“I was an on-site production assistant at these huge live broadcast shows, which was thrilling and incredible,” she said. “But with my second co-op, I wanted to break away from the more corporate, structured worlds that you would find in Boston, New York, or Los Angeles. That’s why experience abroad, especially in a place like Panama, was really appealing.”
Her co-op offered her a fair amount of independence, D’Italia said. “I’ve always been really independent. I thrive when I have control over a project.”
So she swapped studios and stadiums for a semester spent on the remote Caribbean archipelago of Bocas Del Toro, Panama, where she used her video skills to create content for Give and Surf, a small nonprofit that provides educational resources to the Indigenous and Afro-Caribbean communities on the islands.
Give and Surf offers afterschool programming on the islands of the archipelago and serves as a safe space for local children to play and practice their English. The nonprofit also runs preschools for the local Indigenous community as well as hosts English and service industry-oriented classes for 18- to 29-year-olds.
“Doing a co-op like this taught me there are other routes you can take that are less traditional, but bring the same amount of creative and intellectual output,” D’Italia told Northeastern Global News. “That was important for me to learn and see with my own eyes.”
D’Italia lived on Isla Bastimentos, one of the largest islands in the archipelago. She took a water taxi to get to the grocery store and to her job. Doing so allowed her to become fully immersed in the cultures and communities she was working with, something she said was an additional benefit of her role.
There was a collective Bocas culture, D’Italia said, but also culture specific to each island. “For example, the island I lived on was more Afro-Caribbean and had a whole separate dialect which is a mix of Spanish, English and French.”
D’Italia’s responsibilities during the job were varied. Part of the time, she would assist with programming, using the Spanish she learned in school to teach students English. They helped improve her own Spanish in return.
The rest of the time, D’Italia crafted flyers, upgraded Give and Surf’s website and filmed and edited video content about the organization’s work.
She would meet with her supervisor to brainstorm ideas, but then make her own production schedule, figuring out which days she needed to be at which centers for content and which days could be dedicated to editing. From there, she would go around capturing the students and instructors in action, often sneaking her way around the classroom to avoid disrupting the work.
“The kids were really fascinated by the camera,” she said. “I would be hiding, trying to get content of them being normal.”
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By the time D’Italia ended her co-op, she had made two five-minute videos for the organization that she shot, edited and produced on her own. This included Give and Surf’s first-ever “anthem video,” which tells the story of the organization, said Jessica Arthur, D’Italia’s supervisor and Give and Surf’s director of development.
“(Lilly) was such an incredible asset to the team,” said Arthur, who is a graduate of Northeastern Law School and partook in a co-op abroad that eventually led her to pursue her current role at Give and Surf. “I did not want her to leave!”
Give and Surf has hired other co-ops from Northeastern in the past, including one there at the same time as D’Italia who focused on business management. All Northeastern students who’ve worked there have been “dedicated and professional,” Arthur said.
“Lilly was no exception,” she added. “Give and Surf is small, so I really rely on my interns and the work that they do.”
D’Italia said she appreciated her time at Give and Surf for the flexibility it offered both in terms of skills she exercised and the projects she decided to tackle.
“Having the freedom to do a project is empowering and a really good way to practice skills outside a structured setting,” she said, adding, “(It) was energizing for me and I was really passionate about it.”
The role also showed her the other possibilities in her field and that what she’s learning in her classes here can be used in many different settings.
“The skills we learn here (at Northeastern) are diverse and have such diverse applications,” she added.
