About

a photo of me The elevator pitch version:
I’m Jenn, a 22-year-old senior at Cornell University and former Yahoo! / Flickr intern. I live for photography, gadgets, and the social web.

The semi-abridged version:
I’m Jennifer Vargas. I prefer to be called Jenn (note: not Jen or Jenny). I grew up across the water from NYC in Bayonne, New Jersey.

I will be graduating from Cornell University in May 2009 with a B.A. in Information Science, focusing on Social Systems and Human-Centered Systems, which means I spend a lot of time thinking about the way people use technology and how it fits into society.

Geekery
I don’t mind admitting that I’m a huge nerd. I’ve been online since at least the 2nd grade (that would be circa 1994 to save you the math) and have been tinkering with websites since I taught myself HTML out of boredom in the sixth grade. Unfortunately, I overwrote my first ever site, but here are a few of my old sites for your perusal. Yes, they may be extremely tacky now, but they were very “trendy” in their days.

I’ve blogged here at forever-digital since 2002. It is now a time capsule of nearly all of my (occasionally embarrassing) high school and college years.

Offline
I have always said that if I didn’t worry about having a stable career and money were no object I would pack up my camera, buy some plane tickets and travel the world taking photos. I’ve finally decided to do just that. I’ll be spending two months this summer traveling Europe and documenting it on my other blog: Notes from Abroad.

When it comes to hobbies, apart from spending countless hours online, I can always be found with at least one camera in hand. It took me until college to realize how much I enjoyed the art classes that I took throughout my younger school years and photography allowed me to continue to have an “artistic” outlet in my life. I’m currently working on a Project 365 to document what I believe will be one of the more eventful years in my life.

Apart from that, I try to make my responsibilities and involvements enjoyable which is just as good as any hobby in my mind. I’m constantly trying to “be better” and use my 101 in 365 or my bucket list to keep me on track.

The Future


Having spent the last two summers in the Bay Area interning at Yahoo! (first as a design intern with Maps & Local and then as a Community Marketing intern at Flickr), I knew exactly where I wanted to go after college. I have accepted a full-time offer to work as a Product Manager at Yahoo! and will be moving out to San Francisco this August. I can’t wait!

I’m still contemplating going to grad school (for something IS-related) or Law School (for Internet policy), but I’m still not entirely sure which path I want to pursue. In the mean time, I know that I need a break from the student life and I hope that some real-world experience will help me in my decision. You can find out more about that aspect of my life on LinkedIn or you can email me and ask.

If that wasn’t enough for you, or if you just want to get in touch with me, you can check out my “portal” page at jennvargas.com or contact me directly.

[As of 4/22/2009]