I got on a plane headed to Boston last Friday, spent the Fourth of July with my family in Cape Cod gorging on clam chowder and fried shrimp, and drove a car for the first time in months. It was a much needed vacation after hitting my internship’s halfway point, and gave me the opportunity to reflect on how this summer and this internship have gone thus far.I started at New Orleans Business Alliance on May 23. Since then, I have been a part of several events, including the first annual Investor’s Lunch, an Entrepreneurship in New Orleans Panel given to representatives from the European WTC, and a Tricentennial event for young professionals at The Historic New Orleans Collection downtown. I have met everyone in the office (I think everybody now knows my name), and another intern has started working with my supervisor, Alejandra, and I. I’ve assemblaged an impressive portfolio of research, and I think I’m learning a lot. As far as my progress in terms of my Learning Objectives, I’ve looked at them each below:
Learning Objectives
Learn about potential career paths with an economics degree and network with professionals in different fields.
I haven’t necessarily learned much about different career paths, but I feel like I’m so much more aware of the opportunities around me. Honestly, the idea of just being an entrepreneur and just coming up with an idea and running with it, starting a business rather than joining one, had never even occurred to me. I also didn’t know about 504ward, or any of these other organizations and initiatives that are catering to the needs of young professionals and helping them network and find employment. The 504ward Tricentennial event was specifically for young professionals, and I worked as a “bartender” (offering white wine in plastic cups, cans of beer, and water), and it was really interesting to watch all these people not much older than me forge connections. There was one guy – who had recently relocated to New Orleans and had created an app called Scenehound – who served as a presenter at the European WTC event and gave a talk about his entrepreneurial experience, who was also at this young professionals event, and he recognized me and the other intern, Natalie, which was great because suddenly I felt like I was one of these young professionals, making connections and recognizing faces at different events.
Understand the importance of research and planning in a business environment and in impacting economic change.
If there is one thing that I’ve learned at this internship so far, it’s the importance of research and planning. My job is almost exclusively researching, and once I’ve accumulated enough information, my boss presents it to her boss and the rest of the team, and then it’s passed back down to me and I do more research. After this happens a few times, then planning starts – planning for an event, an intitiative, a project – preparation is incredibly important, and with such a small budget and little room for mistakes, a thorough plan is nothing short of necessary.
Gain confidence in an office setting and in my business abilities.
I felt very unsure of myself for the first few weeks, but by the time the other intern came, I was comfortable enough to catch her up on the work we’d been doing so far. Now, I’m at a point where I feel like I can speak up when my supervisor is looking for my ideas or for criticism, and use my voice. I don’t know that I’d ever say something in a staff meeting yet, but I’m working on it.
Utilize the knowledge I’ve accumulated from my academic background and apply it in real life scenarios.
I have not used much academic knowledge so far at this internship, aside from researching skills I learned in a my sophomore colloquium course (a part of the scholars program). I think that it will go the other way around – the practical skills I learn here will help me in my future academic classes. Much of my work is literally done through googling, and looking people up on LinkedIn and trying to find contact information – I have officially gotten through the 26th page of a google search, a feat that I never thought I would reach. And while sometimes the work feels tedious, it’s made me realize that I’m actually finding this information – this isn’t a silly little task given to me by a teacher or professor to test my comprehension, there’s no checking the answer key. I am providing information, which makes the task feel much more important.
Become more familiar with the New Orleans economy, and also work towards more personal independence living in this city.
I am very proud of my progress regarding this particular learning objective. Every morning I take the streetcar, whenever I take a lunch break I take a walk – I am making an active effort to learn about this city. I’ve walked into bookstores and coffee shops that I’d never been to, and I’ve found new favorites. Even the 20 minute walk I take every morning and afternoon to and from the streetcar has given me a better understanding of the Uptown area. The other night I was in the car with a friend (who actually used to live in New Orleans) and I had to give her directions to the place we were going, something I never would’ve been able to do before this summer. From an economic perspective, I see this city from all different angles, approaches now, where I used to just see an economy still bouncing back. I see the specific groups that are struggling, the areas where poverty is higher, and it makes me see the importance of working towards economic change and lessening the disparities.
My supervisor has a method of monitoring her work, through weekly reports, that she has asked us to continue. Through looking at these weekly reports and reviewing the growing number of documents on my computer drive, I am able to see the progress I’m making. I’ve also noticed little things, like I’m no longer afraid to go into the kitchen to refill my coffee mug if somebody else is in there, and I don’t hesitate to take my lunch break when I’m hungry. I feel like I’ve officially become a part of the NOLABA team, and I play a part the same way everybody else does. The project I am currently working on is a report for an event that my supervisor attended last month called Forward Cities. This report is extensive – I’ve had to find pictures, analyze social media, and summarize over thirty organizations that participated in the event. Now that the content is complete, all that’s left to do is trim down some of the longer paragraphs and drawn out material, and make the report itself more professional and aesthetically pleasing. This report will be going to the rest of the team, as well as investors and the board, so I’m excited to be playing such a large role. I also really liked taking part in the WTC entrepreneurship panel event, because my supervisor essentially coordinated and orchestrated the whole event, so Natalie and I played a huge role. I created the agenda given to all attendees, and we attended the event and helped prepare and set up for it, and took pictures and videos to post on social media and the website later. Most of the work I’ve done is incredibly rewarding, and I’m very impressed with the knowledge and talent of the NOLABA team and everything that they’ve accomplished in only five years. The team is incredibly diverse, in terms of ethnicity, race, age, and gender, which is hard to find in many business settings today. Many of the directors and department heads are women, so I have several strong figures to look up to and learn from. Everyone in the office seems to highly respect one another, and everybody values other perspectives and opinions. There is no male superiority or “mansplaining” – the office feels relatively evolved, and has definitely set my standards in terms of how a strong woman in business acts, and how I should be treated (aka the exact same as a man). I’ve loved my time at NOLABA so far, and I look forward to what the rest of the summer holds.