UA Little Rock Graduate Student Contributes to ARDOT Project During CJRW Internship
From web design to professional writing, Hannah Darden has always followed her curiosity about creativity and human behavior. The Bauxite native is now a second-year graduate student at UA Little Rock in professional and technical writing, building on her bachelor’s degree in web design and development and interning this summer with local agency CJRW.
“I want to turn complexity into clarity,” Darden said. “Design, words, research—whatever it takes to help people find what they need.”
Darden’s advisor regularly shared internship and job opportunities. Through one of those emails, she discovered an opening at CJRW, where she interned with their Web Development team. Even though she was technically part of the development team, she enjoyed that there were opportunities to branch out. She worked with the creative team and even some account executives.
She is especially proud of her contributions to Street Smart, a new Arkansas Department of Transportation safety initiative designed to teach students about road safety. Darden wrote web copy for the website, bringing together her technical skills and her growing strengths as a writer.
Her web development background helped with the technical side, but it was really the rhetoric and writing training she’s gained in her graduate program that made her shine.
“It strengthened my UX writing and SEO skills, so I could create clear, user-friendly, and search-optimized content, communicate more effectively, and approach every task with purpose—helping me do more than I could with technical skills alone,” Darden said.
At her internship, she worked with cross-functional teams across several client projects, gaining exposure to different phases of the design process.
“I sharpened my social media copywriting and SEO skills, handled technical tasks like managing content in CMSs and adding copy to Figma designs, and even tested AI chatbots to improve user experience,” she said.
Before the internship, Darden was still figuring out which direction to take her career. Now, she has a clear focus.
“I want to build my career around user experience, putting people first in everything I create,” Darden said.
Her biggest takeaway from her internship is the importance of combining creativity with intentionality.
“This internship showed me that strong UX isn’t just about design,” she said. “It’s about understanding users, communicating clearly, and thinking critically at every step.”Her advice to UA Little Rock students is to stay curious.
“Ask for help when you need it, and reach out to advisors, teachers, or coworkers,” she said. “You never know where your next opportunity will come from. Don’t be afraid to contribute ideas. Your perspective as an intern can make a real impact.”
This story was written by Sydney Ambrus.