UniSA Internships Experience - Nada Soldo
Welcome Nada!
Nada Soldo joined the Media and Communication Team for her internship course, a part of her Bachelor of Communication and Media at The University of South Australia. Starting on the 28th of March 2023 and finishing on the 6th of June 2023.
Nada will complete 80 onsite hours for her internship in the SAcommunity service at the Connecting Up office a division of Infoxchange, completing between 5 and 12 hours per week. Nada’s SAcommunity portfolio of her published articles can be found >> here.
The SAcommunity Team encourages a focus on the interests of our volunteers and interns for the insight that their knowledge of specific community services brings. Much of Nada’s focus was on the Croatian community in Adelaide, using her media content creation, digital marketing and writing skills to promote this valuable multicultural group in which she is strongly associated.
Personal Biography
Nada is currently studying at UniSA in her final year of her Bachelor of Communications and Media, sub-majoring in Social Media. She works two paid jobs working in retail and at Campus Central at UniSA on a casual basis. Nada also volunteers for the traditional Croatian dance group, HFS Lenek Adelaide, where she has danced for 15 years, is in her 5th year of teaching in the organisation. She has been the social media administrator for the dance group since December 2018 and has been a committee member since 2021.
In undertaking her internship, Nada aims to understand how professional environments function and gain real-world experience in the media field, while making new connections and expanding her professional network. She plans to be able to use the knowledge and skills she has learnt at university in a real-world setting, and looks forward to gaining further experience in media and communication with the organisation.
Nada's future plans are to work in media or social media in the not-for-profit or multicultural sector. Her internship at Connecting Up, a service providing not-for-profits with technology-based, products, services and training, provides a perfect stepping stone for her career goal. In addition, her internship allows her to not only develop her own skills and connections, but assist her Croatian community not-for-profit at the same time.
Welcome Nada, we’re glad to have you!
Community Services Storytelling Project
Nada has been working on the SAcommunity Media and Communications Team project which involves writing news stories about various South Australian community organisations and not-for-profits for distribution via SAcommunity media channels: Website blog, eNewsletter, and social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, enabling services to gain different audiences and reach new cause communities. To undertake this, Nada has been using a range of tech and media-related tools and programs which include: Office365, Microsoft Teams, Slack, CiviCRM, BeePro and Canva.
Not-for-profits interviews and storytelling articles
Nada has always had a passion for not-for-profits due to her work with the Croatian community in Adelaide. Allowing Nada to work closely with her community to produce media blogs about their upcoming events. To provide content for the SAcommunity media channels she worked with members of the Croatian Club Adelaide and HFS Lenek Adelaide to create these stories. Using her knowledge and experience in content creation, social media marketing and communication she was able to create effective blog stories and posts for SAcommunity’s Website, Facebook and Instagram.
Nada also created a directory listing for HFS Lenek Adelaide so that it could be a part of the SAcommunity database. Councils, libraries and government can export data from the SAcommunity directory using the community service information for e-campaigns, and for notifications such as consultations, community grants, partnerships and events, and research which can provide benefits for the organisations listed.
Nada wrote a several articles for both community organisations including HFS Lenek Adelaide, with the Croatian Folkloric Arts Festival, and Lenek Zabava 2023 and the Croatian Club Adelaide, with the Croatian Wine Tasting & Food Pairing Night.
Find all of Intern Nada Soldo’s storytelling articles >> here.
SAcommunity March 2023 E-News
Nada created the SAcommunity March 2023 e-Newsletter using BEEPro for a promotional e-campaign release, with images, stories and graphics created using Canva.
The e-newsletter that Nada developed included SAcommunity March Community Events calendar she designed and collated with events and activities from blog stories created by Nada and the Media and Communication team, as well as a host of other news and events.
Intern Nada Soldo's mentor meeting with Grant Smyth, Communication Manager at Connecting Up over Microsoft Teams
Mentor Meeting Experience
Mentor meetings allow volunteers and interns to learn from the 180 Infoxchange staff about their career journeys, and ask questions to find out more about their chosen career fields. Infoxchange has staff working remotely and/or onsite across offices in Adelaide (Connecting Up), Melbourne, Brisbane across Australia and Christchurch New Zealand.
On March 26, Nada took part in her mentor meeting online with her mentor Grant Smyth via Teams. Grant Smyth is the Communication Manager at Infoxchange and manages all aspects of the annual Connecting Up Conference held in Melbourne, a national conference running in early May. The three-day event is aimed at not-for-profits to learn from technology leaders and gain new digital insights, strategies, and tools to increase their organisation’s impact and drive positive social change.
Nada’s meeting with Grant provided her with an insight into the professional communications space, and the perspective of the changes in media from a professional standpoint.
A few key takeaways Nada learnt during her meeting were:
a) How to be successful in her own career including, understanding the organisation she will be working for.
b) Focusing on being fantastic at one or two things rather than average at everything.
c) Grant also advised Nada not to fall into the trap of thinking she can’t climb in her career and that there are two ways, work hard and keep going, or be eager, hungry and go for the higher positions.
d) Nada learnt that a professional environment can be competitive and that others will not always give as much as you do, so while it’s good to be generous don’t expect it back.
Image: Grant Smyth, Communication Manager at Connecting Up
From Right to Left: Pankaj Chhalotre, Head of Connecting Up, Cameron Brown, web developer, Stathis Avramis, Volunteer Data Analytics Lead, Jordana Izquierdo, Data Analytics Intern, Wing Yi Wong, Media & Communications Intern, Nada Soldo, Media & Communications Intern, Chloe Le, Marketing Coordinator, Tina Vuong, Customer Engagement Manager, Rex Porter, Volunteer Information Management, Eric Jenkins, Account Manager, Rob Kalka, Business Development Manager, Sarah Rayner-Fry, Customer Support Coordinator.
Work Experience
Volunteers and Interns are welcomed to attend (either online or onsite) the monthly Connecting Up staff meetings to learn more about the organisation. Nada attended online on the 18 April 2023 with her first in-person onsite staff meeting on the 23 May 2023. The divisional staff meeting was a new experience for Nada as she was keen to learn about how the organisation's staff meetings were run. Meetings focused on the monthly tasks, with different teams across the organisation led by staff members reporting on their progress within the organisation. To learn more about the Infoxchange organisation as a whole, Nada stayed informed through weekly emails to all staff, volunteers and interns from Infoxchange CEO, David Spriggs, as well as updates from Yammer which are emailed through everyone.
Monthly Connecting Up Meeting
Online Meeting - 18th April 2023
Feedback: This was the first meeting where I had been a part of a professional workspace and I found it quite interesting. It is insightful to see how quickly the meetings move in an hour. I was introduced to what the Connecting Up team works on outside of the SAcommunity service, and look forward to attending the next meeting in-person.
In Person Meeting - 23rd May 2023
Feedback: The second meeting was much easier, with points about the SAcommunity program I understood. One part that I found particularly interesting from the team was regarding a marketing campaign and it was interesting to see the internal workings needed to put this together.
People and Culture
Infoxchange's People and Culture Team derives from the HR department and focusses on the relationships between people and their work for organisation success. The Team send out email updates highlighting staff members and current subjects and news across the organisation. They also run various Lunch and Learn events to highlight the work of various departments, and at times invite external speakers to discuss topics of interest or raise observance days for all staff.
Nada had the opportunity to be a part of the Day of Cultural Diversity where she had the chance to try different foods from the many different cultures represented in the Connecting Up office. During this Nada had the opportunity to say her elevator pitch, this is something that all volunteers and interns work on as part of their personal branding, and she could also listen to the other elevator pitches given by staff to understand more about them and their roles.
Infoxchange's People and Culture Team derives from the HR department and focusses on the relationships between people and their work for organisation success. The Team send out email updates highlighting staff members and current subjects and news across the organisation. They also run various Lunch and Learn events to highlight the work of various departments, and at times invite external speakers to discuss topics of interest or raise observance days for all staff.
Nada had the opportunity to be a part of the Day of Cultural Diversity where she had the chance to try different foods from the many different cultures represented in the Connecting Up office. During this Nada had the opportunity to say her elevator pitch, this is something that all volunteers and interns work on as part of their personal branding, and she could also listen to the other elevator pitches given by staff to understand more about them and their roles.
Training and Education
Nada has learnt about many different aspects of communication and media through watching training and educational webinars offered by the Connecting Up Digital Learning Platform. As part of her internship, Nada creates an internship schedule and selects from relevant webinars through the training and development online learning platform, which are freely available for interns and volunteers. Nada watched a series of relevant live and recorded webinars that explore a range of topics in the digital marketing space.
Nada has learnt about many different aspects of communication and media through watching training and educational webinars offered by the Connecting Up Digital Learning Platform. As part of her internship, Nada creates an internship schedule and selects from relevant webinars through the training and development online learning platform, which are freely available for interns and volunteers. Nada watched a series of relevant live and recorded webinars that explore a range of topics in the digital marketing space.
Relevant weekly webinars chosen by Nada include:
Week 3: Instagram for nonprofits (live) - Kirsty Wallett from The K Franc Social
Feedback: This webinar was very helpful, it reminded me of aspects of Instagram that I have forgotten such as how effective hashtags are and should be used in every post. There were new things that I found interesting such as you shouldn't just post and leave but interact with other accounts before and after you post. I run the Instagram for my community non-for-profit where engagement has been low and the webinar gave advice on engagement that is easy to implement that I will start straight away.
Week 5: How to Create a winning social media strategy - Rubina Carlson from Refuel Creative
Feedback: This training webinar was helpful as it clearly broke down the steps to achieve a social media strategy. A useful webinar for someone just starting to use social media and wondering about what to do to start out.
Week 6: Becoming a Canva King or Queen - Yvette Adams from The Creative Collective
Feedback: A very useful training workshop. I have been using Canva since primary school but the webinar covered many things that I either forgot about or have never used. Showing how useful the paid version is, was helpful as I have been considering if I should get it or not and I believe I have been convinced. The presentation was easy to understand and was presented well.
Week 7: 7 mistakes Not for Profits make on social media (and how to avoid them) - Alecia Hancock the Director at Hancock Creative
Feedback: Alecia Hancock's webinar was one of the most useful and effective webinars I have watched. Alecia communicated all her points really well and cleared up so many things about the use of social media. Having it in a list form made the content easy to digest and understand and has really made me think about how I am using social media and the way I am going to change after watching this.
Week 8: Getting Started with LinkedIn profiles - Yvette Adams from The Creative Collective
Feedback: Yvette Adams webinar was very helpful. I have always struggled with understanding LinkedIn and while I had done most of the suggested actions but I’ve either added to many things or not enough. During the webinar I was looking at my own LinkedIn profile and editing and changing things as I listened. I aim to work harder on my LinkedIn profile after watching this webinar as I can see how useful it can be.
Putting the Social in Social Media - Briana Graydon owner of Pink Cow Social
Feedback: Briana Graydon's webinar was very beneficial as it covered many things about social media engagement that I can implement in the social media channels I manage. There were smart tips on what to do when you get the engagement you’re looking for and it showed how there are many different avenues to grow the audience.
Week 9: How to use online tools to achieve your goals – Adam Pulford and Nina O’Connor
Feedback: This webinar explored the different ways to gain support and raise money for not-for-profits, providing a case study as an example which was very interesting and useful.
Interns: Rhea Rao (Media and Communications), Jordana Izquierdo (Data Analytics), Nada Soldo (Media and Communications), Ada Wing Yi Wong (Media and Communications)
A Message from Nada
My experience at Connecting Up is one that I won’t forget. I met some amazing people, heard many amazing stories and had the opportunity to learn from my mentor Grant Smyth, and all the Interns and Volunteers especially on the Media and Communications team. I have developed skills and had the amazing chance to share stories that I wrote on SAcommunity which is something I have definitely showed off and will continue to do so. My internship at Connecting Up has been such a positive experience I thank everyone for what I have received and for making me feel welcomed.
