Hola! I have been having a wonderful time exploring Spain. This weekend my friends and I went to Málaga, where we rented a boat and swam in the Mediterranean Sea. I’ve been doing so much sightseeing, working and exploring, and while I’ve loved being active it was very nice to have an experience that was almost completely relaxing. Throughout this past week, I’ve had fun visiting many photography exhibits throughout Madrid; there are nearly a hundred exhibits across the city participating in an annual festival called PhotoEspaña, and I’ve been on a mission to see as many as possible. I’ve also been making local friends, who I’ve met at a community-run events center where I take swing lessons and participate in an English-Spanish conversation circle every week. It’s been very fun experiencing Madrid in a deeper way since I’ve been settled in for a few weeks, while also getting to be a complete tourist again when I travel by weekend!
I’ve been interning with ActionAid International/ActionAid España for almost a month, and I feel like I’ve already grown so much. As far as hard skills, I was taught to use Google workspaces throughout high school and have had a hard time switching over to Microsoft, but this internship has required me to jump on board. I’ve gotten a lot more familiar using these tools, especially Excel, which is where I’ve created a content calendar for an advocacy campaign. I’ve also gained competency using social media in a professional manner, ex. posting on LinkedIn or X on behalf of an organization. I also feel like I’ve exercised my writing abilities throughout this internship. The European Union office of ActionAid is preparing a website in English to serve as our advocacy campaign’s home base, but I am the only native English speaker in the office, so my grammar and editing skills have been put to use. Additionally, I’ve had to transform interview transcripts into articles that tell a concise, cohesive narrative, which has helped me become a better note-taker and writer. Lastly, part of my work for ActionAid Spain has been recording English versions of existing videos for volunteer orientation, which has required me to translate key ideas from Spanish.
Additionally, I feel like this entire experience has helped contribute to my growth in regards to soft skills. For one, I’ve gotten more comfortable being a team member and collaborator with a diverse range of colleagues. This is especially true because of my role as a Communications Intern for the EU office, which encourages me to have a working relationship with nearly everyone across different areas of work (since everyone wants to communicate things). I also believe this experience has been great practice in developing personal relationships with my colleagues. Although I had an internship in the US and really enjoyed my coworkers, I’ve spent much more time interacting socially with my coworkers at ActionAid, which has helped improve my confidence in these situations.
My work with the ActionAid EU office has helped me exercise my creativity, which, in the words of Maya Angelou, “the more you use, the more you have.” I’ve enjoyed coming up with ideas for reels and other social media content for our advocacy campaign. We are advocating for a more humanitarian aid-focused approach to global relations within the European Union’s next 7-year budget. The budget process alone is very complex, and our messaging deals with many complicated issues like climate change, migration, and women’s rights. Translating these ideas into approachable, engaging content has been a great use of my creativity, and making hard concepts easier to understand feels like a soft skill in itself.
Lastly, I’ve greatly improved my time management skills. I am more accountable to myself in this role than any other I’ve held. I work in person only two days most weeks, and there’s usually nobody telling me what exactly to do when I arrive in the office. I have multiple supervisors and multiple coworkers who assign me tasks, all with loose deadlines, and none of them are aware of my full workload. I’ve had to be my own boss, scheduling out my days and ordering tasks by priority level. I’ve also had to be a self-advocate in cases where I have too many tasks or I need to prioritize another tasks over one I was just assigned, which has helped improve my communication and confidence in general.
Global competencies come into play every day in Madrid. Something that has helped me consistently is being open, staying in a learning mindset and welcoming new information. This has also looked like asking open-ended questions rather than leading with assumptions. Being open not only means being receptive to information, but being comfortable sharing and expressing myself. This has manifested in my relationships with my coworkers, which has been an adjustment since these relationships are a lot more personal than those in the US. Being open and having humility also means knowing it’s okay to ask for help, whether it’s asking for clarification on directions from a supervisor or asking someone to repeat themselves so I can better understand Spanish. An important life lesson I’ve gained from this experience is to feel confident and assured when I have knowledge to share, but aware and humble when there’s things I don’t know. This balance has been essential as I’ve been navigating life in Madrid in the workplace and beyond.