Professional growth through a Level UP project with computer science students Selina and Rajanbir

MiTravel, a company looking to innovate the group travel planning process, recently took part in multiple Level UP projects, one of which included computer science students working on key features in preparation for MiTravel’s launch.

Previously featured on our Riipen Blog for their Founder’s inspiring story of going from a student using Riipen to an employer, MiTravel is a virtual planning board for groups to collaboratively create their best trips together. Gearing up for their launch, MiTravel had a few more features that needed to be worked on and saw the opportunity to both mentor students and receive development support through Level UP.

Selina Wang, a 4th year Computer Science student at the University of Saskatchewan, and Rajanbir Singh, a 4th year Honours Computer Science student at York University, were two of the student developers working on MiTravel Level UP projects.

Having both received glowing feedback from the employer, we spoke with Selina and Rajanbir to hear how they amazed MiTravel and about their experience working with them.

Project scope

Over the course of 8 weeks, Selina put her classroom learnings to the test by working to implement a polling feature for the platform. Meanwhile, Rajanbir was working on a location tagging feature for easy filtering on the platform. Working on both the frontend and backend of these platform features, Selina and Rajanbir both enjoyed the challenge before them and even found time to support other interns on their features. 

Completing 2-3 tickets a week assigned by Rost Myshkin, Co-Founder & Lead Developer of MiTravel, the students were challenged to work within a tech stack that was new to them. Through Rost’s mentorship, Selina and Rajanbir learned quickly on the job and gained new skills that better prepared them to excel in a real professional work environment.

“It was a great experience working with the interns. They were very quick to get up to speed with the codebase and were open to receiving and providing feedback,” said Rost. “I enjoyed working and learning about them and would definitely work with them again in the future.”
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Love where you work

One similarity between our conversations with Selina and Rajanbir was how much they enjoyed working with MiTravel, especially how organized their entire project was. 

Selina felt that her objectives for each week were always clear thanks to the weekly meetings with Rost and the rest of the interns. “The weekly meeting was enough to keep us on track and I always knew what my goals were for every week,” said Selina. “If I didn't finish them, I knew that I could ask for help.”

Rajanbir appreciated Rost’s guidance and organization throughout the project, feeling that the work distributed to each student ensured they were learning and building on their current skills. “You as an individual, have one component to work with and you just take care of that component. So this sort of gives the students a taste of the system as a whole,” said Rajanbir. “The backend, the frontend, everybody's having a taste of all the technologies, so they're gaining more experience.”

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Both Selina and Rajanbir shared that the MiTravel team nurtured a very welcoming and comforting atmosphere for the students throughout the duration of their projects. “Annie and Rost did a great job at making us feel comfortable at MiTravel,” shared Rajanbir.

From regular socials to an end-of-project virtual wrap-up party, the MiTravel Level UP students really felt like they were part of the team. “We had a showcase in the end where we presented our work to the rest of MiTravel,” said Selina. “I think that was a really great ending for me, where I met everyone else. I felt like I was part of it.”

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Advice for future interns

With how much Selina and Rajanbir impressed MiTravel, we asked what advice they had for students looking to make the most of future internships.

“For computer science students, being involved in an internship, even if it's a short one, is a valuable experience because that's what all the employers look at,” said Selina. “They look at how much effort you put into learning new skills. Definitely for computer science students, it's a valuable experience.”

“Just try to do as many projects as possible and try to get as much out of those projects as you can because these are really the things that you can put on your resume,” said Rajanbir. “They [internships and projects] are really going to help you in landing a job, like they did for me.”

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Thank you to Selina and Rajanbir for sharing their Level UP project experience with us! To get involved with experiential learning, visit our website and keep up with Riipen on Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, and Facebook.

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Riipen Level UP program is funded by the Government of Canada's Innovative Work-Integrated Learning (I-WIL) Initiatives program. The opinions and interpretations in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Government of Canada.

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About the author

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Aaron Chang is a Marketing Intern at Riipen, as well as a fourth-year Business student at Simon Fraser University. He is passionate about spreading positivity and creating connections with others. When he has the time, he loves writing short stories, binging anime, and having a little too much chocolate.

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