Name: Andrea Tendilla
Class Year: 2023
Major: Psychology Major, Child and Family Studies Minor
Hometown: Brooklyn, NY
Internship Organization: Sojo Signal
Job Title: Social Media and Content Creation
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Had I not been scrolling through my friend’s Instagram stories on a random Thursday in March, I wouldn’t be interning with Sojo Signal this summer. Veronica, one of my dear friends from ÀÏÍõÂÛ̳, happened to be interning with Sojo Signal with the same title as I have now. Jasmin was looking to expand her team, so she asked Veronica if she could spread the word. Luckily, I saw her instagram story where she mentioned that she knew of a social media internship experience. Up until that point she rarely spoke of her internship experiences, so it was not unusual that I hadn’t heard of the startup. You never know what opportunities you’ll find or where you’ll find them, so it is beneficial to never give up and be on the lookout for new and exciting experiences.
I’ve always been interested in social media because it expands the ability for communication and connection between communities and individuals. So, I quickly responded to her story and she sent the job description. Originally, I intended to apply for the position because I loved the company’s goal: to reduce the number of diverse employees and interns that stay at a company who stay at a job for less than 2 years due to toxic workplace culture and unfair treatment.
As a woman of color who is also part of the LGBTQ+ community, it is unfortunately likely that I could be treated unfairly for my identity. Thus, being part of a DEI tech company that aims to reduce instances of poor work environments by creating a verified, anonymous online community where users share insights about company culture is very fitting with my core values. I hold justice and equality to a high standard, and working with Sojo Signal provided the opportunity to be part of a community that underscores and uncovers improper work practices.
Within 30 hours I’m creating one email a week where the newsletters alternate between a motivational work email — which offers positive affirmations, reassurance, DEI advice and other work related content aimed at workers from all levels — and a current events newsletter providing the top three stories of the week, five sources to additional news regarding diversity and inclusion, as well as highlighting special events for the week or that month. Moreover, I’m creating 3-5 posts a week on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to motivate and inform Sojourners (Sojo Signal users) about recent news and advice about managing difficult workplace occurrences. I’m learning about these skills and advice as I create these posts, so when I work at the Erdman Dining Hall and as a Spanish TA, I’ll deal with workplace situations with confidence.
My experience with Sojo Signal has been better than I expected in terms of my time management skills. I have the opportunity to work on my own time and not in a scheduled environment just as long as I complete my work by my weekly meeting with Jasmin. I love the freedom of working on my own time because it creates great work-life balance. That is, I’ve made an effort to create a routine because I tend to procrastinate. While I scroll through social media, I make time to research current events, affirmation posts, and even DEI advice. I even created a folder on Instagram that is specifically for Sojo Signal content. This way I’m not bombarded with work all at once. I’ll definitely transfer these organization and time management skills to my ÀÏÍõÂÛ̳ experience. I’d like to be more organized with my course assignments, class schedule, and social life.
My growth with the creativity and time it takes me to create social media posts is definitely something I’m most proud of. I’ve never considered myself to be that creative, but I’ve proven myself wrong with all the posts and emails I’ve made. We have a feature in our emails that allows subscribers to provide feedback and one user complimented me for my first motivational email. They said it was comforting and very well put; that reassurance helped me believe in my creativity, as I proposed the idea to Jasmin. Beyond that, it takes me an average of an hour to create my emails instead of the four it took me to create my first email on Mailchimp. It was intimidating at first, but I think I have improved tremendously. At the same time, it took me an hour to create my first LinkedIn post 4 weeks ago, but it takes me an average of 10 minutes to create them now. I’m so proud of my growth this summer!
Visit the Summer Internship Stories page to read more about student internship experiences.