Part 2 in the Where Are They Now? series, checking in with past Community Profilees.

Lauren Poleski-Schultz

San José State University School of Information Master of Archives and Records Administration (MARA) graduate Lauren Poleski-Schultz (pictured, below) was “afraid of technology” until an iSchool course in web programming changed her perspective and she realized how technology could help her achieve her goal of becoming a fabulous Hollywood archivist. After taking the course, Poleski-Schultz dove right into the program and obtained a dream internship at Warner Brothers Studios.

Immediately after graduating, Poleski-Schultz says, companies started showing interest in hiring her.

“Thanks to SJSU—I applied and got an internship at Walt Disney Imagineering in June of 2015 to work in their library,” she explains. “I worked on organizing their older records and created a helpful digital guide to find specific folders in their collection, among many things. I worked extremely hard and got a great recommendation to another amazing job.”

The “other amazing job” finds Poleski-Schultz at the Walt Disney Archives working on a digitization project of the photo library collection. She started out as a metadata specialist and was recently promoted to quality control analyst.

“I feel extremely lucky to be in this position,” she says. “I have been able to be a part of some pretty amazing projects including the opening of Walt Disney’s office where I have been conducting tours for fans and important guests of the studio. This year has been unbelievably life changing!”

Poleski-Schultz gives much thanks to everyone at SJSU for her continued success in landing her dream job, noting that without the iSchool, achieving her LIS goals would not have been possible.

Sylvia Aguiñaga

2016 Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) graduate Sylvia Aguiñaga has a passion for teaching children to create with code and promoting diversity in the field. As director of curriculum for 9 Dots, “a collaborative of engineers and educators” dedicated to providing science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs to underserved children, and DIY Girls, a nonprofit that provides hands-on technology experiences for young girls, both based in Los Angeles, Aguiñaga continues to spread her love of coding and technology to as many children, and libraries, as she can.

“My duties are expanding now that we are launching a couple new initiatives,” she says. “The newest being Tech & Tape, a training program for educators new to STEM. I love this initiative because I get to pull together all of DIY Girls and 9 Dots curriculum and make it beautiful and shareable. It will be available for free on our website (which I am also creating!).”

“I just dropped off our first DIY Girls Club Kit at Fairview Branch Library in Santa Monica,” she adds. “We’re excited to share our engineering ethos and curriculum with librarians. This kit is for everyone! The goal is to create accessible avenues to gaining these fun and critical 21st century skills.”

This summer Aguiñaga (pictured, right) is also leading a synth making workshop at East Los Angeles Library, teaching teens the basics of building electronics and making electronic music. She’s excited to share her love of making music and building noise makers with the group.

Aguiana admits that she is “still in love with public libraries,” but interested in working at the community college level as well. With a goal to transition into the library world, Aguiñaga’s dream is to start a makerspace at a library branch or run an existing one.

And in June, Spectrum Scholar Aguiñaga plans on attending ALA annual conference in Orlando and participating in the Spectrum Scholar training. “I will also be hosting the authors and illustrators of the Pura Belpré Award,” she adds, an award given to “a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth.”

“It was such an honor to serve on that committee.”

With 9 Dots and DIY Girls on the move to educating Los Angeles children in coding, engineering and technology, her musical passion gaining steam, and a wide open spectrum of ALA events, Aguiñaga is certain to be a boon to any library.

Read more exciting updates from previously profiled iSchool community members in the first part of the series, iSchool Community Profilees: Where Are They Now?