Interning with CERO was an interesting experience as it is a co-op that is based solely in Massachusetts. Hence, even though I had a vision of expanding CERO’s operations to other states, I was told that CERO did not want to do so. Therefore, with all of the projects I worked on, it was important that it fit CERO’s mission of engaging and revolutionizing the community. One project that I worked on was creating a marketing strategy through their social media accounts, website, and emails. Another project was working with financial models and understanding their business model. In addition, working with the CRM, I worked to develop analytics for sales growth and partnerships. I also worked to develop the organization’s culture, as CERO did have some issues with human resources as people were getting fired and tensions rose among the staff. Nonetheless, I also worked to understand the essence of co-ops, as that was something very special and important about this organization.

I am an economics major and sustainable development minor. Throughout my internship I used my sustainable development minor in the creation of effective social media posts. Whether creating a one-pager to explain the benefits of composting or thinking of efforts that one can implement in their homes, it was an interesting experience as I had to learn how to use Canva to create the beautiful posts. With regard to my economics major, I used the skill of critical thinking to help think through CERO's business model. As they had not yet made revenue, we had to think of ways that CERO could change its business model to help drive cash flow. I used the knowledge I learned in class and implemented it in real life examples with CERO. I had also taken one MBA course called Launch Your Startup, I and used the learnings from that course as a lens to explore CERO.

One main challenge that I faced was working with one staff member in particular, who was not open to potential solutions I proposed. I raised this issue with my manager, who mentioned that this individual had issues with some others in the organization as well. Therefore, this person and I did not work together throughout my internship and I was challenged with identifying work boundaries and understanding when to listen and when to provide recommendations. I learned that it is important to understand one’s team and how to work with each person specifically.

My goal is to be a serial entrepreneur, founding various startups that have one main goal: tackling climate change. I have already started this journey and founded a startup called Throworg, an app that works to reduce waste with an accompanying waste management system that will mitigate waste into different avenues. It has a mission similar to CERO. Unfortunately CERO was not able to be a profitable business even though it had a great impact on the environment, but I hope to take my learnings from this summer and implement them into my future startups.