IES Internships - Berlin Summer Internship

During my time abroad in Berlin, I interned at Impact Hub Berlin and got to experience what it's like to work in a real international environment. I helped with events, did market research, and worked with with people from all across the world. It taught me a lot about communication and stepping outside of my comfort zone. Outside of my internship, I explored the city constantly. I visited places I had only ever seen in history books and online, including remnants of the Berlin Wall, the East Side Gallery, graves of famous people such as Marlene Dietrich, and many smaller memorials that make the city's history feel very real. Some days were simply walking for hours and discovering new neighborhoods. Other days were all about food: trying Dürüm and Döner from different spots until I found my favorites. What made the experience special was how much I could do and see every week. Berlin is a city where you can learn something new just by getting on public transit and picking a random stop to get off at. Between the internship, the exploring, and the people I met, the experience really shaped my confidence and showed me that I can adapt and feel at home anywhere in the world.

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This was not my first time going abroad or even studying abroad. I had studied abroad in Berlin with another program during the Summer of 2016. Although I liked my trip then, my experience was so much better the second time around. The first thing I did differently was do a home-stay instead of living in the apartments. Although living in the apartments got me closer to the people that I was doing the program with, I wasn't practicing my German at all. Another thing I did differently was take advantage of my weekends. I went to Prague, Amsterdam, Poland, Munich and Brussels. Sometimes I was by myself and sometimes I went with others, but either way I had a great time! If I wasn't going somewhere else, I was taking advantage of everything that Berlin had to offer. From shows, to tea houses, to museums, I never felt bored. Having an internship also really made me feel like I was living in Berlin. My internship was at the Charité Krankenhaus as a researcher. I absolutely loved it there! The people were amazing and made me really feel at home. The one thing I didn't like about the internship was the safety aspect of it. Luckily the apartment I was staying in never got broken into but the apartments of the people not doing homestays did. They lived right by the Brandenburg Tor in center city but were never informed of the fact that you have to double lock your doors here for it do actually be locked. It's really strange because for some reason only turning the key once still allows for people to insert a card or something and pop open the door even though the handle doesn't move. The landlord of those apartments just laughed at them because apparently it's common knowledge over in Berlin but clearly not in America. I really wish they had told us that beforehand, maybe in the meeting before the internships started. Other than that though, my trip was amazing! IES really tried to address every problem we had in a timely manner. They also really tried to make it fun for us by hosting trips places or recommending restaurants or things to do. Overall, it was a really great trip!

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During the summer of 2016, I completed a two-month internship at BigchainDB (formerly Ascribe), a scalable database and start-up company headquartered in Berlin, Germany. My internship duties and responsibilities involved marketing; preparing written communications for different fora ranging from social media; newsletters, and brochures; the creation of analytics and editing of video projects for optimum data visualization. Working under the direct supervision of Bigchain’s Marketing and Communications Manager, I gained hands on experience and insight into the day-to day world of online marketing in a fast growing small enterprise. Initially, I had applied to work with Ascribe; a company that provides various services to digital artists who publish their work electronically. Nowadays, anyone can easily stream items off the Internet and claim ownership. Hence, it is difficult to ensure that these digital artists are fairly compensated. The founders of Ascribe wished to address this issue by creating a platform on which artists could safely publish and track the distribution of their art, and ensure that they would receive fair compensation. To make all these features possible Ascribe used bitcoin, the currency of the Internet. Within a short period of time, the founders of Ascribe saw the need for a database with tailor made tracking features and the use of bitcoin. Since the team could not find a database that combined these two features, Ascribe decided to create the product itself, a product now known as BigchainDB. Over the course of Ascribe’s development, the team created other products, including a public database, the Interplanetary Database (IPDB) and the webpage Where On the Net (WOTN). I joined the team at quite an exciting period because the company was transitioning their name and main product from Ascribe over to BigchainDB. Like many start-up companies which experience many structural and strategic transformations in their business growth cycle, I witnessed BigchainDB undergo a few drastic changes that shifted the company’s focus and direction. This included a company name change from Ascribe to BigchainDB; a main product modification, and personnel lay-off to accommodate the company’s restructuring. Notwithstanding the latter harsh lesson of “at-will” employment in the private sector, a significant reason for my amazing experience at BigchainDB was the diversity of staff of Bigchain’s small team and work force. The team consisted of seventeen members, all originating from various countries, including but not limited to Canada, England, Poland, and Italy. Apart from the founders most of the staff were in their late twenties or early thirties. Working with a relatively young and international team enable me to experience the type of environment I aspire to work after graduate school. Overall, BigchainDB provided an inclusive work environment in which my opinion and performance as an intern was valued as much as that of any other staff on the team. Simply stated, I do believe that the internship at BigchainDB sharpened my European perspective on the critical role of marketing for start-up companies. Moreover, this experience has also informed my consideration for graduate school programs.

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