I have officially made it back to the United States! It has been a whirlwind summer with the good, the bad, and everything in between. Being back in the US has been both nice and a strange. For starters, I still have not adjusted to the timezone, so I find myself still waking up super early! This has been ok tho because i’ve been able to watch a lot more of the olympics because of it. It is nice to have my own space back and spend time with family before returning to school. I did miss a lot of aspects of American culture being abroad. For example, it is so nice to wake up and get a coffee without stressing over my outfit. I feel like in Prague people dressed a lot better than here, and I felt out of place if I did not put effort in to my outfits. Additionally, it is nice being back in the air conditioning! Stepping of the plane it has been nothing but humid here and in the high 90s so it is nice to finally have AC inside. The one nice thing I miss about Prague is I felt like it was ever humid, even though it was hot, there was always a slight breeze.
In terms of my internship, I feel like I grew a lot during the process. In my exit interview I had great conversations with my bosses about my progress. In the beginning, I think I felt a bit of imposter syndrome. It was lonely most days in the office, and I felt like everybody else knew exactly what to do and I was lost. In the pre-departure meetings we were told that communication is often brief and you should figure out how to manage projects on your own. These warnings made me worried about asking questions or inserting myself into new tasks. I think I often avoided asking clarifying questions and would just try a bunch of different routes to complete my task and hope something stuck. As the first weeks went by, my bosses made efforts to host meetings with me to discuss my tasks. These meetings made me feel a lot better about my position and I learned quickly how the company functioned. They created a comfortable environment for me to ask questions. I also got in a rhythm of working with my bosses remotely. It was nice to get practice communicating via online measures and still work hard to complete tasks together. My boss told me it felt like we were a team and my efforts really contributed to the workload. I also had a variety of tasks using platforms and methods I had never worked with before. For example I had to create marketing materials using Canva. It was really nice to be able to be creative and although I was inexperienced, my team made it easy for me to grow my skills without judgment. They also made sure to always give honest and constructive feedback.
As I am applying to future internships now, I will definitely use my skills learned this summer. I think the main thing I will make sure to utilize in the future, is to not be afraid to ask questions. My office said all questions were welcome and wished I asked even more. I think I have learned that it is not embarrassing to ask questions at a job and usually makes it a lot easier for you to be productive if I simply ask. Another skill I think I will use is cross-cultural communication. Since Ashoka is such a global company, I had to communicate and work with people across multiple countries. Being able to communicate and work together is a valuable skill to have. I hope to go into public interest work and have really no interest in a corporate job. I think being in a job that is public facing, having the skills in cross-cultural competencies is really important. Ashoka allowed me to interact with a wide range of people with various passions.
Overall, my time in Europe and at Ashoka was unforgettable. I had a lot of experiences I will not soon forget. I am thankful for all of my co-workers and friends I was able to meet and would definitely recommend this experience to my peers. I am excited to continue developing my skills in international relations and am excited to see how my time at Ashoka shapes my future.
