Week 1 of my Virtual Internship

As the first week of my virtual internship comes to a close, I can attest that is has already been quite a learning experience. For the next few weeks, I am interning for Expatri ACtion which is a language school based in Aix-en-Provence, France. Most of my work will be related to social media, such as updating the business Facebook page for both aesthetic and content purposes. So far, I have scheduled some future events which I also created a new image for. I also have made some general updates such as adding to the “About” section of the page, to include some other services offered by Expatri. Meeting with my supervisor and planning my work for the (upcoming) week(s) has been an interesting process. Since she is based in France and I am in Arizona, I have to be much more attentive to when I am communicating with my supervisor. Also, since the business targets individuals in Provence, I have to consider the best time to post on social media in order to achieve the most engagements. In order to develop content, I have been utilizing Canva a lot for creating graphics; I did not have much experience with the online tool prior to the internship, but I am slowly becoming more and more comfortable with using it. I am still in the process of developing a new cover image for the Facebook page, but have to wait for more information from the team developing the website. Moving forward, I will also be working on translating the website which is still in progress. As I work on other aspects, I will include more about in my future blogs!

Besides my actual internship, I am meeting on a weekly basis with my professor for the course to discuss any questions or issues that comes up. While I have not had anything come up so far, it is still very helpful and encouraging to have an additional resource as I navigate this virtual opportunity. While I do wish I was participating in-person and actually abroad, I do think this opportunity is helpful for preparing for future travel. While it pushed me out of my comfort zone, I joined a meeting with the web team to hear feedback/ updates on the website; most of the conversation was in French (which I am still learning) but I was able to catch a couple of points made. The meeting was an immersive experience that has forced me to think about how I would be able to keep-up in conversations if I were to physically be in France.