Posted September 17, 2019
By Maria Jutton
Tavashia Berry is a fourth-year information science student in the School of Information
Science. She chose to study at the University of South Carolina because its information
science program is the only one in the state. Since coming to South Carolina, Berry
has discovered that her dream of becoming a librarian can open many more opportunities.
“I have come to realize that I can do just about anything with this degree,” she says.
“I started looking through jobs and I’m like, ‘Netflix needs a data collections manager
and I have done all of this in just one of my classes, so I can work for Netflix if
I want to.’”
Berry’s first internship was a Smithsonian Externship in Washington, D.C. She and
other students were able to visit each Smithsonian museum and meet directors to learn
about how descriptions of artifacts are written. In summer 2019, she interned with
an IT specialist in her hometown of Summerville, South Carolina. She was able to use
her computer skills to code and to repair hard drives.
In her spare time, Berry writes and hopes to be published one day. She especially
enjoys mystery, suspense and horror. She is also an officer of the university’s anime
club, which celebrates Japanese pop culture.
After graduation, Berry hopes to enter graduate school at South Carolina or become
a Fulbright Scholar and study interactive digital communications in Argentina. She
still has a dream of being a librarian with a focus on teenagers, who she feels are
often overlooked.
Maria Jutton
Maria Jutton is a fourth-year journalism student and Dean's Communications Fellow
at the School of Journalism and Mass Communications. She is especially passionate
about international communications and will pursue overseas work after she graduates
in May 2020.