Internship Experience - Raffles Girls' School

Written by Phoebe Wong

from Raffles Girls' School (Secondary)

Growing up, I always thought working a 9-5 office job would be much too mundane for me. Yet, my internship at MTC was anything but. Over the course of 2 weeks, I was able to learn valuable skills, create meaningful content and be welcomed into a warm, genuine organisation. With the help of friendly colleagues, a fellow intern and the seemingly unending supply of Mentos candy in the office, days spent in the MTC office were great. Thinking back, the candy I ate would bear similarities to my overall experience at MTC - both were refreshing and sweet.

I found the work done at MTC to be refreshing as the way this organisation was so multifaceted was nothing like I had seen before. I enjoyed how my work at MTC allowed us to reach out to a wide variety of clients/beneficiaries through different means - eg design, workshops, etc. The first few projects assigned to me were centred around students - namely, educating them about staying safe online. I shortlisted entries for a competition about using GIFs to demonstrate understanding of being safe/smart on the Internet. In addition, I also worked on adding content to and updating slides about this program. Before this, I rarely saw GIF-making and art as an effective form of education, but it was refreshing to learn how MTC used design to teach.

Apart from working on student-centred projects, MTC also gave me the opportunity to help them with environment-centred projects. I did up a proposal for a company about fulfilling Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Prior to this internship, I had a brief understanding of the SDGs, but working on this task allowed me to internalise them. In turn, I learnt more about ethical, sustainable business practices. Apart from that, I was also tasked to set up MTC’s TikTok account and start working on content ideas for them. As an avid user of social media myself, it was pretty fun to put my ‘knowledge’ of current trends to good use (who says scrolling on TikTok is useless)! I also got to think about content creation from a business/corporate perspective, and this brief foray into corporate TikTok creation allowed me to develop my skills in communicating ideas effectively.

It was heartening to work alongside truly kind people, and have an overall sweet experience in this internship. I was given the opportunity to learn as well as create, and it was made better by being surrounded with amicable coworkers. In the process of making an introductory TikTok for the MTC page, I got the chance to hear from some coworkers about their work at MTC, and it was great to see how they felt positive and passionate about what they did. I enjoyed having such a friendly working environment to grow and develop!

My experience at MTC was nothing short of fulfilling and I am incredibly thankful for this opportunity!