"This summer, I worked assisting operations for the startup non-governmental organization RisingStarEdu and was exposed to a variety of different aspects of the business including marketing, event organizing, and internal operations. The organization focuses on promoting education equality in the Asia-Pacific region, a mission I was actively involved in. For example, I tutored 10+ students and connected 50 students with other tutoring and studying resources through my initiative. I also recorded video lectures so that other students could watch them even after I completed my internship, and I assisted other team members in developing strategic partnerships between our NGO and governments, universities, and other organizations to collaborate.

I think my major and studies at Columbia allowed me to meaningfully contribute to the internship program. First of all, as a computer science major, I could teach students programming languages and record some lectures for future use. My quantitative analysis skills also allowed me to offer unique insights when drafting a research report on education inequality because I was able to prove the arguments through reasoning and data analysis, which made our report more concrete. I also have a business management concentration at Columbia, which helped me to get the most of this internship by providing theoretical knowledge of business operatations. I could then understand how to read the financial documents within the firm, analyze the underlying indications, and put forward strategic insights for the long-term development of the company.

One of most challenging part of this internship was the pandemic and transitioning to online teaching. Due to COVID-19, many students were not able to attend in-person classes. Even if they could, their parents were really concerned about the health risks and would not allow them to do so. In light of the situation, we decided to work with teachers and volunteers to deliver online teaching methods. This was challenging because it was the first time, and we needed to ensure that every student could get involved in the virtual classroom. We therefore needed to redesign our teaching methods and teaching styles to create a more interactive lecture. In the end, we succeeded in delivering quality education to students from underrepresented backgrounds, and our experience inspired future tutoring sessions that would benefit our initiative in the long term.

My key takeaway from this internship is that in order for a nonprofit to reach its social goals, we not only needed to put forward and organize the short-term initiatives, but we also needed to care about the long-term sustainability of such initiatives. Usually, nonprofits lack resources, people, and funding, so it is critical for them to develop a long-term feasible plan to fulfill their missions. Furthermore, they also need to develop strong relationships and partnerships with other similar stakeholders to maximize their impact. I believe the experiences I gained from the internship will allow me to contribute meaningfully in class discussions when I take more classes at Columbia, and will be a valuable resource for my senior thesis. "