I am entering the last year of my undergraduate program at 捆绑SM社区 with a double major in Economics and International Development Studies and a minor in Social Entrepreneurship. I am very passionate about innovative technologies and the ways they can be used to provide revolutionary solutions to various development issues worldwide. This summer, thanks to the 捆绑SM社区 Arts Internship Office, I had a chance to intern with InPath Detroit, an online software development solutions provider that aims to empower students globally by providing a platform where they can develop new skills and find internship opportunities. InPath Detroit offers virtual coaching positions to students across the globe and identifies students that have technical and teaching backgrounds to help them curate content for our online portal.
I discovered InPath Detroit through an interesting connection on LinkedIn. At the beginning of the academic year, I applied for different internships, yet in March I received various emails of cancelled internship positions because of logistical and financial challenges induced by COVID-19. I was very upset about the situation and made a post on LinkedIn emphasising the importance of remote internship positions. Ramona, the founder of InPath Detroit, saw my post and connected with me to discuss the ways to help students who were affected by COVID-19. I liked her passion and willingness to support young students as well as the mission of her company, so I decided to accept her offer and became a part of the InPath Detroit community.
My experience with InPath Detroit was full of professional growth and discoveries. I enjoyed being involved with different aspects of the host organization as it allowed me to gain a wide variety of skills from different fields. I worked on the Girls and Entrepreneurship program, developed numerous digital marketing materials and administrated a 鈥楪oFundMe鈥� fundraiser for the upcoming start-up. One of the highlights of my internship was my participation in the Virtual Visionaries Initiative while working on Impact Detroit Female Empowerment program. It allowed me to get to know many motivated young girls from diverse social and academic backgrounds, share my experience with them and present our entrepreneurship program. I worked as a Project Manager for Project Impact, a female fellowship program which addresses diverse young female entrepreneurs, who are entering into college with a project and are looking for mentorship and guidance in the start-up world. I also created academic syllabi and ran workshops for students who were interested in low/no-code platforms for creating marketing assets.
During my internship, I was enrolled in two online summer courses, which along with my remote internship increased my screen time drastically. Working from home created several challenges for me including time management, digital communication and organization of my working space. However, with the time, I learned to organize my time and space better, take regular breaks and limit the number of tasks I planned to complete each day. Despite all the challenges, working remotely taught me a lot about myself and helped me to improve my self-discipline and time management skills.
Another challenge that I faced during my internship was working across different time zones. In the middle of my experience, I decided to travel back to Armenia to see my family. International travel with COVID-19 restrictions was very overwhelming. Fortunately, my supervisor was very understanding; she gave me a couple of days off to relax and adjust to the self-quarantine. In the beginning, being in a different time zone made me feel a little distant from my work as maintaining a synchronous communication with my coworkers became difficult. However, it did not take long for me to accommodate my working schedule and get used to a different communication style.
I want to express my gratitude to Ms. Chloe Nicol and the Nicol Family Foundation, as this experience would have never been possible without the support that I received from the Arts Internship Award. The funds helped me to cover my living expenses while completing my internship. I did not receive academic credits for this experience as I have already completed all the required courses for my minor in Social Entrepreneurship. However, interning with InPath Detroit was an incredible opportunity for me. I enjoyed helping them to generate social impact by reaching out to students who were experiencing difficulties because of cancelled internship positions and support young females who were passionate about entrepreneurship. Furthermore, this internship helped me to improve my social media and marketing skills and give me a wider insight into business development.
