At the click of a few buttons, I’d find myself at work. 

A work day beginning at 10am has an entirely different meaning when the term virtual is added. There is no longer the need to commute and be up at dawn. This wasn’t the experience I was expecting when I first applied to return as an MLK Scholar at Boston Partners in Education. However, through unexpected circumstances, it was the experience I am grateful to have had. 

This summer was my second interning at Boston Partners in Education. The wonderful staff and the driven work they pursued left an impression on me two summers ago and I wished to return for another summer filled with as much learning experience.

This summer, however, proved to be nothing like the first. It was a very new and fresh opportunity to experience online work and to expand my time management and leadership skills. With my two amazing co-scholars, Karla and Kaylee, I was given the chance to plan my time and structure projects as we all adapted to the new reality of virtual work. 

One of the most meaningful experiences this summer was our projects involving event planning, through which I was exposed to the many steps and levels there were in order to successfully carry out an event. I gained so much knowledge on varying features on excel that I will be sure to utilize in the future, while also learning about communication calendars, marketing strategies, flyer design, outreach, solicitations and so much more.

I was also able to research how to create a successful Instagram through our marketing project. This project allowed me to think more about engagement and how to best communicate with broad audiences. It was a unique opportunity to be able to directly contribute to the creation of a hopefully integral part of an organization’s outreach. 

I am extremely grateful for the experience I had this summer in tangent with that of my previous summer at Boston Partners in Education. I’m also thankful to have worked with all the extremely talented, driven and kind employees at Boston Partners. I learned just as much, if not more, from them as I did from the projects we took on. I’ll be heading into college with a great deal more insight into the professional world and cannot wait to proudly submit my first cover letter knowing it was at BPiE where I was first taught how to write one.