As students will tell you, MICA’s curriculum is an especially rigorous one, with long hours spent in the studio, library, or computer lab well after classes have ended. Yet when summer rolls around, many of those students choose to forgo the usual pleasures of time off, instead, pursuing internships that will give them a leg up on their career.

And for a group of students that spent their summers working in New York City instead of heading to the beach, that choice has proved beyond fruitful for their long-term career ambitions.

One of those students is Tyler Naugle ’11 (Animation B.F.A.), who worked as a production assistant for MTV Networks after interning for the company’s on-air design team.

My internship at MTV was instrumental in helping me get a job after school because the team here already knew me and my work,” Naugle said. “And, it put me in contact with a lot of great animators and graphic designers.”

In addition to professional contacts, Naugle credits the internship for giving him insight into MTV’s workplace culture, an additional advantage over others competing for the job. Naugle joined a long list of MICA students who have interned at MTV, including Selina Loper ’09 (video and film arts), who worked on animation footage for MTV All Night, and Carlos Florez ’07 (graphic design), who interned at MTV Networks Latin America and went on to work on an Emmy Award-winning project.

Today, Naugle is a creative animator at BuzzFeed, where he creates custom animations and illustrations for sponsored posts.