After completing my first year of university, I was all set to board the “summer internship” train, like my fellow undergraduates. I currently study Economics and Politics, but aspire to be a lawyer in the future; however, I didn’t want to dive right into the corporate pool just yet. As cliché as it sounds, I wanted my first summer away from school to be one where I’d invest my time and resources into being an “agent of change”. Shortly after, I found CMCA online, applied for an internship, interviewed for it and before I knew it, I was being briefed by my mentor.
I was assigned to the content team in CMCA, and I mainly worked for one of their ongoing projects – Magic Box. This project involved creating life skill development teaching resources for migrant children in rural parts of India, in a fun and engaging manner. I helped in drafting 12 to 15-minute activity cards that revolved around themes such as diversity, social justice, health and hygiene, rights and responsibilities, gender equality and sustainability. Being part of content creation was no easy task; there were lots of complexities that were noticed only when someone read the content over. It was an endless cycle of re-reading, editing and re-writing. This process was made a whole lot easier because of the team I was attached to; they encouraged me extensively by providing several resources, patiently supporting me through the writing process, giving active feedback and making me a part of their super-fun brainstorming sessions.
Besides all the professional, transferrable skills I learnt, the skill I used every day of my internship was that of perspective. A lot changes when perspective is brought into the picture. We didn’t know how much these kids knew, how much they didn’t know; what their knowledge base was, if they knew of airplanes and trains or cities and countries. Having grown up in such a sheltered, stimulating environment, it was difficult for me to envision and create that environment for children from scratch.
CMCA was the perfect balance between professionalism and individualism.
The company culture is fun-loving, progressive and quite young – easy to fit in and easy to interact with. I was initially afraid that I would face what most interns face in their first few internships: unchallenging, full days of work with bare minimum knowledge of the organisation. In CMCA however, the team (and people outside your team) are eager to give you projects, raise your responsibilities and use the manpower to its maximum.
Throughout my five weeks at CMCA, my opinion was valued at every step of the way, and I, a 19- year-old, was treated as an equal.
All in all, every assignment I took up at CMCA, from modifying existing CMCA democratic-citizenship workshop modules into easy-to-use instructional modules compatible with technology for ApTech, to working with the Communications Team and creating a promo video for Magic Box — it was a wholesome and enriching experience. I’m grateful to all who’ve guided me throughout and I hope to utilise the perspectives I’ve gained over the five weeks during the next phase of my academic and professional life.
This blog is written by Sukanya Subramaniyan. Sukanya is a student who interned with CMCA.
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CMCA has been accredited by Credibility Alliance under the category “Desirability Norms” – for good governance, accountability, transparency and continuous improvements. Credibility Alliance is a consortium of voluntary organisations committed to enhancing accountability and transparency in the voluntary sector through good governance.
