by Fiona Yuan
When I entered Britebound™’s office space on the 21st floor of 33 Arch Street, I was ready to be surprised and discomforted. I just received my high school diploma a couple weeks ago, and this internship was the start of a long journey of career exploration without the pressures to conform to a certain image.
As the public relations and communications intern, I assisted my team in searching for new initiatives or programs that align with Britebound’s mission and drafted posts that would highlight them on Twitter and LinkedIn. I also wrote longer-form articles about some of Britebound’s grantees on Medium, and advertised incoming events for the website and social media. Additionally, I had the privilege of sitting in on meetings with the PR team and company partners to listen to partnership plans or how Britebound could maximize the publicity of their work in rethinking K-12 career education.
It’s now looming toward the end of the internship, and before I leave this space and move into my college dorm, I wanted to share a couple lessons I learned from this experience and about myself in the process.
1. The institution you end up at does not determine your future.
The college process for me was a recent searing pain. Having attended a feeder school to one of the most elite universities in the nation, college preparation was at the core of instruction. And it worked — many of the upperclassmen I knew ended up going to T20 schools. Subsequently, for the last few years, I put college on a pedestal — I thought that working harder or persisting more through the rigor would land me a school like Harvard or Yale. But life doesn’t always work out the way you want it to — I didn’t get into any of the schools I dreamed of attending.
Fortunately, taking part in an internship puts the purpose of attaining an education to the test — the name of the school does not dictate how dedicated, hard working, or skilled you will be at your profession. I had the privilege of meeting people from a range of careers in this company, and the diversity in schooling regardless of the career itself encouraged me to think about education outside of the norm that has been taught to me. To step out of the traditional thinking of prestige and perfectionism takes a lot of self-awareness and courage, especially when it feels that so much is on the line at such a young age.
2. Work culture matters.
The work environment here at Britebound broke every stereotype of what I thought a traditional office setting would be like. Boring, dark, with closed-off cubicles and burnt out workers? Seems synonymous to a 9–5 office job.
But I was taken aback by how happy people are to be here! I can tell that fostering a healthy environment is one ofBritebound’s values. There is a hub where you can relax with snacks available, a spacious and colorful space, a beautiful city view, and the freedom to work in the office or at home. My experience with Britebound taught me the importance of considering the work culture of a job or industry — I doubt I would enjoy working at a place that was more cutthroat and competitive rather than cooperative and understanding. It could make the biggest difference, and gives me more reason to produce work that I’m proud to be a part of.
3. New environment = new me.
Outside of work, there are perceptions from friends, family, or mentors that I’ve often felt obligated to live up to. This could dictate how I act and what I choose to do, even if I don’t want it for myself. Fortunately, my intern identity is separate from the people from school or home — these lives don’t need to intersect if I don’t want them to. I found this internship to be the best opportunity to practice being more confident and mindful, especially in a professional space where impressions are important. The motivation to be the best version of myself, not only professionally, was encouraged as I took advantage of the fact that there was a lack of people in the workspace that I knew previously.
Internships are important because it is not often that you have the opportunity to remove yourself from the community you’re familiar with. Developing a better sense of self and taking ownership of my growth came more naturally and easily in this new environment.
4. I care about the mission and the greater impact.
I like to lead my life with purpose. If I don’t feel that greater sense of purpose, I can’t give it my all. And I don’t like it when I can’t give things my all. Britebound’s mission is to ensure that future generations won’t be forced to choose a career without adequate guidance. It’s exactly the experience I and many of my friends went through — afraid that we would choose the wrong path because we were given so few resources to be confident in what we wanted to pursue after secondary schooling.
I care about making an impact in issues that are personal to me. My internship with Britebound taught me that I will find greater satisfaction with a job that attunes to my moral values and experiences — the driving force will be what motivates me to wake up every morning and commit to my work.
5. I crave exploration.
Perhaps only after I left high school and entered Britebound’s workspace did I truly understand how suffocated I was under a restrictive education system. How can one possibly explore under so much pressure to succeed? What if we instead branched out and valued people for experimenting instead of being excellent at everything they do, especially so early on?
After going through this internship and learning more about Britebound’s mission, I’m more empowered to forge my own path and try new things even if it is extraordinary and out of my comfort zone. Luckily, going to college is that perfect opportunity to explore, as with the new environment, I won’t feel as much urge to do what everybody else is doing.
Final thoughts.
I am so grateful to be a part of this journey with Britebound and for my manager for guiding me through the process. Unfortunately, while I do not think I will be sticking with public relations and communications in the years to come, I love writing and will continue to write. I’ve written so much these past years (I was a newspaper geek in high school) and find it to be incredibly fulfilling, but I want to use my time in college to make up for my lack of exploration in high school. Architecture is a professional pursuit that I’ve always wanted to give a try. I love using my creative brain and exploring how the manipulation of spaces can emphasize certain cultures or feelings. I’m also on the search for more hobbies to diversify my scope of knowledge.
All in all, this internship was incredibly valuable to me — the lessons I learned through my experience will follow me no matter what career I ultimately choose to pursue. Again, I want to thank my managers, the managers of the internship program, and Britebound for letting me join their silly shenanigans.
