Responsible Computing in Practice: How Internships Have Transformed Student Trajectories

Authors: Maya Avital, Hannah Ismael, Bella Raja, and Princess Vongchanh

The Responsible Computing Challenge (RCC) has supported the education of the next generation of technology leaders since 2018, equipping over 31,000 post-secondary students around the world with the skills and knowledge to fuel an industry-wide cultural shift towards a healthier tech ecosystem. From leading classroom discussions, developing responsible computing events on their local campuses, to helping organize national convenings—students have been at the forefront of our team’s efforts. Today, we tell the story of some of our student interns and their transformational experiences.

Princess Vongchanh joined the RCC in 2023 as the first Mozilla Foundation intern in several years. Princess is a community organizer with experience in developing free tech education and tech support programs for underserved families and youth. Over the course of 9 weeks, they conducted a landscape analysis of student leadership in responsible computing by surveying students and student organizations at 16 colleges and universities across the United States. Their research culminated in a series of recommendations to Mozilla on how to better support students and early career individuals in their pursuit of responsible computing careers.

Many of these recommendations have been adopted by the RCC since then, including the hiring of student coordinators to support awardee selection and to lead the team’s student engagement strategy. Princess moreover converted their role into the U.S. Student Coordinator for RCC, working part time as they completed their undergraduate degree in Symbolic Systems at Stanford University. They currently work alongside Gretchen Adams, who is the South African Student Coordinator, and the rest of the RCC team to further develop direct support for student-led initiatives on campuses and community-led initiatives servicing alternative pathways for responsible computing education.

We have continued to model the future of technology we would like to see by expanding our internship program. This summer, the Foundation welcomed two other student interns to contribute their unique experiences.

Maya Avita is interested in the role of data in our understanding of the sociological impacts of digital technology. Her previous research utilized social network graphs to explore the risks of misinformation and AI on the information landscape. Maya further developed her research and data analysis skills as a member of the Fellowships & Awards team this summer. In her work with the Africa Mradi program, Maya analyzed themes across the 2023 Mradi projects and created data visualizations which displayed these trends across countries. She also contributed to developments in the Creative Media Awards by performing community research and recommending a set of potential partners who could advance the work of the CMA. Finally, Maya improved data retention among the Mozilla Awardee Alumni Network through critical support for its data infrastructure. By addressing the impact of these program areas on past, present, and future cohorts, Maya developed a deep understanding of how Mozilla community members are shaping the responsible computing ecosystem. Maya will graduate with a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from Stanford University in June 2025.

In a letter to future interns, Maya wrote, “Taking your time is crucial, especially at a company like Mozilla where every initiative is deeply connected to the organization's values and mission. I needed to truly absorb all I could about the Foundation’s position, values, goals, and means of achieving those goals… Understanding all these moving parts not only [improved] my research and decision-making, but also added meaning to some of the more routine tasks.”

Bella Raja is passionate about exploring responsible and equitable tech education, AI’s global impact on the future of work, and the environmental impact of tech. She has explored these passions in the past as a student organizer and researcher and by designing and teaching an ethics and tech course titled—Tech, Violence, and Morality. Bella applied her combined experience in these areas to strengthen RCC’s student engagement strategy. Specifically, she collaborated with RCC Country Leads to identify the best practices for building sustainable student communities across RCC awardee universities, and ultimately for a global Student Community of Practice. After determining both high-level and context-specific considerations for student engagement, she met with students in the RCC network to discuss possible digital community platforms, events, and future programming. Bella also compared how a student-led community would differ from other student engagements, advocating for students to have the ultimate say in the digital platform. Finally, Bella developed a proposal to present student work such as final papers, coding projects, or reflections alongside faculty curriculum published in the RCC Playbook. Bella will be attending Oxford University this Fall to pursue a Master’s Degree in Science, Technology, and Society.

“This internship has broadened my understanding of different levers of change for responsible computing work… I would love to stay connected with Mozilla and hopefully return in the future. I feel so lucky to have found an organization that is aligned both with my research interests and passion for social good.” – Bella Raja

Princess, Maya, and Bella’s internship programs stemmed from a collaboration between Mozilla and Stanford University’s Tech Ethics and Policy Fellowship (a joint program of the McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society and Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence).

These internships have clearly had an impact on both the students and the Mozilla Foundation. We are excited to welcome our next student intern, Hannah Ismael, in October.

Hannah Ismael is interested in the intersection of law and technology, including issues related to data privacy, transparency, and antitrust. As a previous Technology Policy Fellow at Princeton University’s Center for Information, she will contribute her legal and policy research skills to the Global AI Policy Team. She will assist in initiating a global AI policy brief process for the Policy team. Hannah is a recent graduate from the University of California, Berkeley—one of the RCC’s 2023 awardees—and is a previous student of the course Data C104. Hannah also won the Public Interest Technology-University Network Convening’s best Undergraduate Paper, and will be presenting a separate, accepted paper to the United Nations International Governance Forum’s Giganet Symposium. She hopes to pursue a JD so that she may contribute to the data governance field as a technology law and IP scholar.

At Mozilla, we believe the active participation of youth is crucial for shaping the future of technology. Internships in particular are pivotal to the growth of students and young people because they offer a hands-on opportunity to apply and continue developing their learnings from the classroom. Mozilla is one of the few leading organizations that provides students with the resources, community, and clear direction to become prominent changemakers in responsible computing. The stories above are just a sliver of the many lives touched by and transformed through Mozilla’s work—and we hope to transform many more.

Responsible Computing Challenge is a joint initiative between Mozilla, Omidyar Network, Schmidt Futures, Craig Newmark Philanthropies, Mellon Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and USAID. Click here to learn more about the work of the RCC.