STEP Reflection: Fund That Flip Internship

My STEP Project was a summer internship at a company called Fund That Flip, a real estate startup in Cleveland Ohio that provides hard money to loans to real estate investors. As a Demand Generation Intern, I worked closely with the marketing team and was able to explore various areas of marketing throughout the summer. My main focuses during this internship were social media management and content creation, which included a wide variety of tasks such as market analyses, blog posts, and graphic design.

This internship was able to give me my first true professional experience and the chance to see what it’s like to have a full time job after graduation. While I have had some professional experiences in the past, this was the first time I truly felt like an adult in the business world, and it was definitely intimidating at first. Being at a startup, I was expected to learn a lot in a short amount of time and was often given minimal information regarding tasks in the hopes that I would develop a stronger sense of critical thinking and independence. While I struggled at first, I feel that I made immense progress by the end of my internship and was able to complete a project that I presented to the entire company. This real world experience helped me see that I really do enjoy marketing and could myself working in a similar job upon graduation. I was also able to form great connections with some of my coworkers and learn that a full time job doesn’t have to be work 24/7 – there is actually a lot more enjoyment and genuine friendships that can be built if you are able to find the right employer.

Additionally, I really valued this experience as I was able to prove to myself that I have what it takes to succeed in the corporate world, and I believe that this will give me a much greater sense of confidence in my abilities moving forward. I struggled with confidence early on in this experience, but through time I began to see that I have the knowledge and capabilities to be an asset to the team. Overall, this experience really helped me to see that marketing is not only something I enjoy, but is also something that I feel I can be successful in.

The connections I formed with a few of my coworkers, particularly the marketing team, really helped me to succeed this summer and grow as a marketing professional and on an individual level. Throughout this internship I often held one-on-one meetings with my boss where we discussed the areas in which I felt I was succeeding, areas that I felt I could improve, and what some of my recent highs and lows were. These conversations really helped me understand some of my weaknesses and insecurities which allowed me to work on these aspects of myself, and they also allowed me to recognize some of my strengths and reward myself for a job well done. I think this transparency between myself and my boss was one of the main aspects that helped me to grow as a professional and as an individual. 

On a bigger scale, the marketing team met every single Friday to have a ‘Retro’, where we discussed what feelings we experienced that week, our ‘goods’ and ‘bads’ of the week, and shared any new ideas we had. I was surprised to be part of a team that felt so close and bosses that seemed to actually care about our development and wellbeing, as the corporate world often has a reputation for being cold. These weekly meetings once again helped me to tap into how I was feeling and learn how to effectively communicate this to my team, and this helped us all understand one another better which ultimately creates a stronger team.

Lastly, the main activity I worked on throughout the summer was my intern project, which was a Fund That Flip Content Library. For the duration of my internship, I created a content library that was able to be used by the entire company and was meant to be particularly helpful for affiliates or territory managers in the company. This content library included a photo library, an events calendar, social media content ideas, market analyses, and an affiliate calculator. At the end of the internship, I presented this project to the entire company and was met with incredibly positive responses. This aspect of my taught me so much about marketing and helped me provide a tangible result that the company will be able to use. These three aspects of my internship allowed me to learn a lot about myself and use this knowledge to become a better coworker and a better marketer.

The transformation I had throughout the summer is incredibly valuable for my life as I am now a graduating senior preparing to enter the professional world. Prior to this, I felt very out of my element and often thought that I simply wasn’t good enough to be a successful marketer. This internship helped me grow a lot more confidence in my abilities and allowed me to gain experience in various areas of marketing, and this will undoubtedly be a huge help through the rest of my professional journey in life. Luckily, I was offered a full time job from Fund That Flip and will be joining them upon graduation. I am so excited to stay with a company that facilitated this amazing growth, and I’m confident that I’ll only continue to grow and improve in the future!

Final IA Reflection

For my final E-portfolio entry, I decided the watch the film “The Farewell”. This film was very interesting as it explored the identity crisis the main character Billie felt as she was constantly being pulled between her American identity and her Chinese identity. After coming to the United States as a child, Billie was seemingly able to balance both of these identities without much conflict growing up until she received news that her grandmother is terminally ill with lung cancer. Billie shares a close relationship with her grandmother and becomes even more distraught when she finds out her family is planning to hide this diagnosis from their grandma. Her family explains to Billie, “Chinese people have a saying; when people get cancer, they die. But it’s not the cancer that kills them, it’s the fear.” Later in the film, her uncle explains that he understands why she has such a hard time with this- in the United States, everyone thinks very independently while in China, it’s all about family. They don’t tell grandma because they believe it is their duty as her family to carry that emotional burden for her. Billie is constantly conflicted between these two worlds, and while people constantly bombard her with questions about the United States and ask which one is better, all Billie can bring herself to say is “it’s different”. I thought this was a really interesting ethical conflict the film explored, and I liked seeing how different cultures handle it differently. It’s hard to say which is right and which is wrong, as it’s easy to understand where each side is coming from in this situation.

While Billie never completely seems to come around with this idea, she never ends up telling her grandmother. She questions whether she should stay in China and take care of her grandmother, and even ends up breaking down to her mother at one point as she tells her how she never quite felt secure or as happy after they moved to the United States. In a scene at the dinner table, a tense moment occurs where her mother and another family member seem to be in disagreement about whether China or the United States is a better place to raise their family. Billie obviously feels caught in the middle of this argument and even pops in the conversation, pointing out that the United States isn’t perfect and has its own problems, such as gun violence and healthcare.

Looking past the cultural themes of this film, it is largely a film about the importance of family and how they will do anything for eachother. It had many comedic moments throughout, but also many bittersweet and touching moments, such as the ending as we watched Billie and her family drive away from her crying grandmother as they headed to the airport. Overall, I really enjoyed this film and the messages behind it and would definitely recommend it to anyone.

 

IA Spring Reflection

On February 8th, I attended the Vietnamese Culture Show which was created by the Vietnamese Student Organization. I attended with my friend and his family who are Vietnamese, so I really enjoyed getting to see different parts of their culture and hear what they thought of the show. The show began with a traditional lion dance, which symbolizes good fortune and wisdom, and is meant to chase away evil spirits and bring happiness. It is often performed at big events such as weddings, festivals, and various holidays. In this case, Chinese New Year had recently happened so they celebrated with the lion dance and the passing around of red envelopes, which typically contain money inside, but in this case they held candy. Next, a group of students performed a traditional fan dance. I was very impressed with how in sync they were and how beautiful the dance was. The next few acts consisted of multiple vocal performances. One duo performed a modern Vietnamese song, but the next few acts all sang traditional Vietnamese songs. One aspect of the show that I really loved were the traditional clothes that the students were wearing. The garment is called an Ao Dai in Vietnamese, and it a consists of a long dress with slits on the side and satin pants underneath, which are often different colors to compliment each other. Many of the outfits were completely breathtaking, and at the end of the show all of the students performed a fashion show to display all of the clothing they had. All of the proceeds of this show went towards an organization called messengers of love, which aims to provide physical, emotional and educational support to underprivileged children living in Vietnam. The funds go towards scholarships, holiday care packages, English classes, workforce preparation, summer school, safe shelter, and clean water programs. Throughout the show, they created their own video to show a portrayal of student who received the support of messengers of love and one who didn’t, and how these students helped one another achieve their goals. I thought the message behind the VSA show and what the stood for was amazing, and I was glad to be able to contribute to such a good cause while watching such a great show at the same time.

IA Reflection #3 (Fall ‘19)

On December 3rd I attended the climate change theatre action event held at Thompson library, which was a campus event. This event was put on by a theatre class at OSU, and they performed eight short plays that highlighted the current culture around climate change and the dangers of it in hopes to create more awareness. Many of these plays were metaphorical, and once you thought about what it could mean, they were obviously calling out things such as skepticism, the government’s role in climate change, media coverage, and people’s hesitancy to change their habits to help make a difference. The first play, titled ‘Polar Bears Falling From The Sky’ was very directly taking aim at some media in the United States and their tendency to downplay the urgency of climate change, or just not cover it at all. In the play, polar bears had recently fallen from the sky as an impact of climate change. Even so, the local news station was doing everything in their power to twist the story to make it seem like this was the result of anything except climate change (or that it just didn’t happen). This was certainty showing that no matter how outrageous, extreme, or obvious something could be (like polar bears falling from the sky), people in the US will still try and find any way to deny it. One of the plays that’s took a metaphorical approach was a play that began with a woman and her husband outraged over the quality of their amazon purchase and vowing to never purchase from them again. As this was happening, their apartment was flooding and the husband was begging the wife to flip the light switch on so they could see around them. However, the wife refused to turn on the light switch, making as many excuses as she could about why it was pointless and wouldn’t do any good, while she also continued to purchase more items from amazon for things that she really didn’t need in that moment. While this one was up for more interpretation, I saw amazon as being big corporations that are obviously negatively contributing to climate change, and while we know that they’re hurting the Earth, we still continue to buy from them and support their business. I interpreted the light switch as climate change solutions, and to some people (the husband) it seemed like the obvious solution in that situation but he wife insisted that it wasn’t going to help or that there was no point in doing it. Each play had its own importance and they were all really interesting to try and interpret. Overall, I thought this was a really thought provoking event and something different, as I don’t typically attend theatrical performances.

Fall Reflection #2

On October 20th, I attended the screening for the film, “American Factory”. This was an academic event. As the screening originally planned in Smith Steeb had issues running the film, I went back to my dorm and watched the film myself on Netflix.

Being completely honest, I went into this film with the wrong mindset; I automatically assumed that a documentary on a glass factory in Dayton, OH would be slightly boring and I would have to push through the movie as best I could. However, quickly into the movie I became extremely interested and ended up finishing the film before I knew it. In this documentary, a General Motors plant shut down in Dayton, resulting in the loss of thousands of jobs. When a Chinese company, Fuyao Glass decided to buy out the plant and build their factory in Dayton, many people who lost their jobs were thrilled and saw this as a huge blessing. The Chinese management worked with the American management to help get the company on its feet, and the Chinese plant workers began to work with and form relationships with the existing American employees. While the relationship between these two seemed to be going well at first, cultural differences, specifically in work culture, began to arise and create conflict. 

Fuyao Glass was not making a profit; they were quickly losing money, and they needed a solution quickly. The Chinese management and employees felt the American employees were lazy, didn’t work enough hours, and were not as efficient as they were in China. This in itself is true; workers in Fuyao companies in China often worked seven days a week and did not get to visit home often, but they were incredibly efficient. While the United States does have a heavy work culture, it is still not quite as strict as the Chinese workers seemed to expect. The American employees soon began to raise concern and disdain at their working environment and conditions, wanting to form a union in order to protect their rights. The company was strongly against this idea, and after weeks of tense meetings and questionable practices (often firing employees who supported the union, but citing it as the result of a different reason), the union vote was overwhelmingly voted no. The documentary seemed to show the company attempting to work with the employees more towards the end, but it did not make it completely clear if a true solution or compromise was ever reached. 

This film really showed just how different the work culture is in China and the United States; while I do believe that the work culture (shown in this specific documentary) in China is simply too demanding for a human, I can see and understand the pros and cons of it from different perspectives. It was really interesting to see how two cultures work together when very suddenly put together to move towards one common end goal, so I would definitely highly recommend this documentary to anyone looking for an interesting film.

Reflection #1 (2nd Year)

For my first event of the semester, I decided to attend Jacob Caponi’s event on genocide in Rwanda. I ended up learning a lot of historical background and really surprising facts that I’ve never been taught, so I ended up really enjoying this event and the academic aspect of it. Jacob was very knowledgeable and passionate about the subject, so it was nice to learn from him and his research.

Historically, I had never heard about the Rwandan genocide so it was something completely new to me. We first talked about how Rwanda began with the Kingdom of Rwanda, until Colonial Rule began in 1897. The colonists made an effort to turn the two main social classes of Rwanda, the Tutsis and the Hutus, against each other in order to insure that neither would rebel against colonial rule. This created tension between the two groups which continued to build until 1994, when the Hutu president’s plane was shot down, resulting in his death. Many Hutu extremists blamed the Tutsis, and this one event began the genocide of the Tutsis that ended up killing roughly 1,000,000 people in 90 days. It was a gruesome 90 days of murder which included many being lured into churches seeking refuge only for it to become a killing ground moments later, often with 10,000 people being killed at once. It was hard to listen to some of the information, but events like this will hopefully allow humans in the present to learn from the past so these atrocities never happen again.

Jacob also spoke some about his research in particular, which was very interesting. He said one thing that really surprised me while discussing what genocide was, which was the fact that ever country in the world recognizes what the United States did to the Native Americans and African Americans as genocide except the United States. Looking into what classifies something as genocide, it’s very clear that the two events were acts of genocide so it’s disheartening to hear how the United States doesn’t want to take responsibility for their actions, although not surprising. He discussed his specific area of research, which was about women in Rwanda and how they are coping and re-entering Rwandan society after the tragedy. We touched on feminism in Rwanda, and how they have a top-down approach to it, contrary to our own. Rwanda also has the most women in parliament than any country in the world, which I thought was really interesting. Overall, this was a really educational event that I’m glad I attended and was able to learn more about.

Reflection

I attended DEALL Language Fest on April 19th for my last IA reflection of the year. I wasn’t positive what it was going to include, but I have always had an interest in learning about different languages or just language in general, so I knew I was going to enjoy it. I joined the event about an hour late due to conflict with another class, but I was stil able to watch about two and a half hours. When I walked in, a video of a traditional Chinese dance was being shown at the front of the room, with the lecture hall almost completely full of people. After the video ended I learned that it was an event showcasing the different Chinese, Japanese, and Korean courses in the university and projects they chose to do throughout the year. Two Japanese courses came up and showcased their videos, which were both really humorous skits that had the whole room laughing. It was really cool to see how the students in the videos were so fluent in Japanese, many of them saying that had never learned it before OSU. I think it’s amazing how just a couple years of rigorous language learning can make such a huge difference. Soon after, a Korean class came to the front and presented their project, which was Korean poetry and Chinese literature. For this project, three students read the same exact poem, with the line first being read in Chinese, then Korean, and then English. It’s really interesting to hear how the same exact sentence is translated into different languages, and how that effects how the poem might sound or the feeling it portrays. The poems themselves were beautiful, and they also gave a small lesson about the authors. Next, a girl from a Japanese course come to the front of the room and sang the opening song to a popular anime. Everyone in the crowd seemed to be familiar with it and clapped their hands along or sang with her. Multiple other students sang songs from their respective languages, which were all amazing to listen to as they were also really talented singers. A few moments of fun and interactive segments were thrown in there, with a Korean class hosting a Korean culture trivia presentations, complete with prizes of Korean snacks. Unsurprisingly, people began sprinting out of there seats to answer as soon as it approached the K-pop section of the trivia. They finished off the night with the OSU dance group J2K, who performed dances to Korean, Chinese, and Japanese songs. Finally, the professors who put on the event handed out multiple awarded and scholarships to different students. Everyone in the room was very supportive and happy, and it created a really nice environment and fun way to spend my evening.

Spring Reflecrion #2

On February 2oth, I attended Global Fluency Training by the Columbus Council on World Affairs. I was admittedly nervous going into this because I didn’t know how intense it was going to be, but as usual, it was extremely fun and I learned a lot from it. The presenter was Brad Gosche, who is the vice president of Education and Communications at the Columbus Council on World Affairs. I really enjoyed Mr. Gosche as a speaker, as he was engaging, humorous, and made everyone feel very welcomed and comfortable. He began the evening off with an activity as he taught us to say a few basic introductory phrases in three different languages, and then had us talk amongst one another using these phrases. It was a little difficult, but was also very fun. He then dove into the presentation, talking to us about things such as the definition of culture, what is means to us, why it is important, and the difference between stereotypes and generalizations. I thought this was particularly interesting because while I knew there was some difference, I could never put it into words. While generalizations are based off of research or facts and are generally not judgmental in nature, such as saying it is an important part of Japanese culture to bow to one another, stereotypes are not based off of any sort of facts and are often judgmental. We did many interactive activities throughout the two hours, which was a great way to set up the event to keep everyone engaged. In one of the next activities we did, we were tasked to listen to a tape and write down the answers to questions that we hear answered. However, when he played the tape, we could not understand hardly a word that was being said (it was played in old English). The experience made you feel slightly frustrated and stressed, and was meant to simulate what it may feel like for someone who speaks another language but is surrounded in an English speaking environment. Mr. Gosche then dove into what was called the Hofsete Cultural Dimensions, which consists of six aspects and is meant to show how each culture is unique in different aspects to let us interpret and understand how this could affect their values in the workplace. We were asked to rank the United States in each category as we see fit, and then learned about a few different countries rankings in each and discussed how this could effect their behavior or values within a workplace so that we could be respectful and accommodating of this. It was really interesting to see just how unique working culture is in each country and how we could make simple changes to be able to adapt and work with these differences. Overall, I really enjoyed this event and thought it gave me a lot to think about and left me with a lot of information that I did not know before. I would definitely recommend this training to anyone who was thinking about attending.

Spring Reflection #1

On Saturday, February 2nd, I attended KSA’s annual Korean Culture Night as a Non-IA event. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but as I arrived I could quickly tell how popular of an event it was on campus with the line wrapped around the inside of the union. We all slowly streamed into the performance hall and took our seats, with popular Korean pop songs playing over the speakers while we waited. I will admit to singing along to most of them and probably annoying my friend sat beside me. As the event began, they started to play videos of their own version of a popular Korean drama, and it was easy to see how much effort and dedication this club put into their event. The first performance of the night was a group of girls who performed a traditional fan dance, which was really interesting to watch as I’d never seen any type of fan dancing before. Next, a group of older adults came on stage with multiple types of drums and instruments that I’m not able to name, and played traditional Korean music for the crowd. The music started off soft but eventually became very loud and intense, and it was fun seeing the musicians on stage be so immersed in their form of art. Taekwondo club also decided to join this event, performing a set for the audience that made me feel even more inflexible than I already am. After these two events there was a mixture of different dancers, singers, and musicians. Some groups danced and sang to different Korean music, breakdanced, or just sang with the accompaniment of a guitar or a piano. One of my favorite acts of the night was a violinist, who was accompanied by a piano player and performed different Korean pop songs flawlessly. Finally, the closing acts were Queen of Aces and TPOK, OSU’s two Korean pop cover groups. Introduction videos were shown and they soon began there sets, which I was really impressed with. These groups obviously put a huge amount of time and effort into their passion, and I really respected them and felt glad that I was able to be their and support them. As the event came to an end, I honestly was a bit sad because I’d had such a great time. The club that put on this event, called the Korean Student Association, calls this their biggest event of the year and I could see why. KSA aims to promote the education of Korean culture to its members and the university community, which they definitely succeeded in doing. Music is something that I love, and it’s always fun and interesting to hear and learn about the different music of other cultures. I would definitely encourage anyone to attend this event next year or other similar events, as it was truly one of the most enjoyable nights I’ve had in a while.

Reflection #3

I attended the event “Gigs for Guatemala” on November 29th, which was eligible for an IA credit. This was an event that I was interested in going to before I knew it was for credit within the program, as I always love seeing different live acts and I was happy to support such a good cause. Throughout the program, a woman spoke about the many different girls that we would be helping through our donations that currently lived in Guatemala. Many of these girls live in dangerous towns, where gun violence, gangs, and sexual assaults are common. They are not given many opportunities to achieve their dreams, but with the program “Champions in Action” that they are a part of, they are given the chance to grow out of poverty and follow their goals in life. This event was put on by AWOW, or Advocates For Women of The World, so many of the acts were very female oriented and empowering, which was amazing to see. A wide variety of acts performed, such as comedy improv groups like “Fishbowl Improv”, bands like “The Manatee Room,” dancers, acapella groups, and a spoken word poet. Some of the acts that really resonated with me were “Inaayat”, an Indian dance team who combines acting, music, and dance, and Sabsie Ali, a spoken word poet. The Indian dance team was a beautiful show where no words were spoken, but they were able to tell a powerful story simply through their facial expressions and movements. Sabsie Ali performed two of her spoken words that she writes which covered topics such as misogyny and bisexuality, and I was shocked at how emotional and intense it was, as I had never seen a spoken word poet before. I also really enjoyed how they incorporated different cultures into their acts, giving a wide variety of performances. Ohio State is so diverse with so many different clubs and performers, I think events like this should always be able to and happy to have many different performances from different backgrounds and cultures for their audience to enjoy. After attending this event I’ve been really interested in joining AWOW, and I plan on attending meetings in the future to see if it is a good fit for me. I love their message of helping and empowering all women around the world, and I am excited to hopefully attend more events or even join in the future.