Adelaide University Internships - Cecilia Mao
Welcome Cecilia!
Cecilia Mao joined our Media and Communications Team for her Adelaide University Undergraduate Professions Internship on July 25 for Semester 2, 2022 - 28 September 2022.
Cecilia completed a 150 hour internship remotely and onsite at the Connecting Up office, initiallly 15 hours a week over 3 days with (5 hours remotely on Tuesdays), two days onsite and/or remote at 6.5 hours and 3.5 hours around classes (flexible). A portfolio link to blogs posted by Cecilia is here>> https://sacommunity.org/blog/20669
Internship Experience
Cecilia's placement with SAcommunity was an example of how an internship allows students to explore their career options, gauge their interest in a field, and how learning more about and participating in the various tasks and responsibilities of a role can help to guide career goals.
In this case, Cecilia's internship and work experience highlighted her interest, skills and motivation in the visual design aspect of marketing and social media, with visual content over written content. Staff and the team were able to respond to her interests, and a mostly remote internship, with a program plan, online training, mentor and media tasks pivoted to accommodate these needs within the branches of media & communication.
Work Experience
Cecilia had the opportunity to participate in team meetings, staff meetings and all staff events either in-person or remotely. She attended two of the monthly Wednesday SAcommunity Team Meetings on the 3rd August 2022 in-person and 6th September 2022 remotely. She also participated remotely in one of the Infoxchange (IX) Lunch and Learn initiatives from the People and Culture team, titled 'Emotional Intelligence at Work (15/9)' presented by Sophi Bruce from the School of Life.
These fortnightly lunch-time sessions started on the 30th August 2022 and are hosted by a range of external consultants on topics to support people in their work-life. They are attended by staff, volunteers and interns across Infoxchange offices in Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide, providing interns with a chance to learn new skills and meet staff across the broader organisation.
Jean Mui, Digital Event Manager - Connecting Up, provided mentorship for Intern Cecilia Mao
Infoxchange Mentor Meeting Experience
As part of her internship, Cecilia met remotely with her self-chosen Infoxchange staff mentor Jean Mui, Digital Event Manager, Connecting Up on the 6th September 2022. Jean's role is responsible for planning and managing various programs including online webinar and workshops, online learning management programs, premium membership and other educational related programs and services at the Connecting Up office.
Jean has an extensive professional career in marketing and management with skillsets in Marketing Strategy, Brand Management and Social Media Marketing, and these are key areas of interest for Cecilia. Jean Mui was able to provide relevant career information and advice to assist Cecilia with her future plans in the business, media and marketing industry.
Cecilia's five take-away messages from this meeting were:
1. Project management is an important part of an organisation to promote the company, and it is usually closely associated with the sales team.
2. There are three steps to plan a event, including pre-event planning, during event management, and post-event evaluation.
3. LinkedIn is always a helpful tool to look for new people, and referrals from a reliable person can help with finding a candidate.
4. Communication skills can be built by being involved in an active speaking environment, try to attend group meetings frequently to improve your communication skills.
5. Practice is the key for success, and it is good to look for internship or volunteering opportunities in the career pathway you are interested in.
As part of her internship, Cecilia met remotely with her self-chosen Infoxchange staff mentor Jean Mui, Digital Event Manager, Connecting Up on the 6th September 2022. Jean's role is responsible for planning and managing various programs including online webinar and workshops, online learning management programs, premium membership and other educational related programs and services at the Connecting Up office.
Jean has an extensive professional career in marketing and management with skillsets in Marketing Strategy, Brand Management and Social Media Marketing, and these are key areas of interest for Cecilia. Jean Mui was able to provide relevant career information and advice to assist Cecilia with her future plans in the business, media and marketing industry.
Cecilia's five take-away messages from this meeting were:
1. Project management is an important part of an organisation to promote the company, and it is usually closely associated with the sales team.
2. There are three steps to plan a event, including pre-event planning, during event management, and post-event evaluation.
3. LinkedIn is always a helpful tool to look for new people, and referrals from a reliable person can help with finding a candidate.
4. Communication skills can be built by being involved in an active speaking environment, try to attend group meetings frequently to improve your communication skills.
5. Practice is the key for success, and it is good to look for internship or volunteering opportunities in the career pathway you are interested in.
Connecting Up Provided Training and Development
Cecilia has been learning more about media and digital marketing in the not-for-profit sector online, focussing on her interest in visual design and social media, and was provided access to training and educational webinars, workshops and webcons provided by Connecting Up and was provided with assistance to select those training programs of interest to her.
Cecilia was able to access this years' Digital Marketing Webcon 2022, a webinar conference on topics including:
Session 2: Facebook and LinkedIn as cause community building platform by Kate VanderVoort from Social Mediology
Session 3: Learn how to design with Canva presented by Yvette Adams from The Creative Collective
Session 4: Dive into Facebook and Instagram Advertising presented by Alecia Hancock
Alongside other related digital marketing webinars such as:
How to Overcome the 7 Biggest Mistakes Not for Profits Make on Social Media ~ Alecia Hancock
How to create a winning social media strategy ~ Rubina Carlson from Refuel Creative
Become a Canva King or Queen ~ Yvette Adams from The Creative Collective
Instagram & TikTok for Nonprofits ~ Alecia Hancock
These relevant training webinars were provided to assist Cecilia to understand more about the not-for-profit sector and their media and marketing needs. Helping her to prepare visual content for the SAcommunity media channels, to assist community groups to promote their services, activities and events. 
Cecilia Mao created images in Canva to support SAcommunity storytelling articles and community event calendars
SAcommunity Media Project and Interviews with not-for-profits
Cecilia has exercised her skills and interest in visual design by creating images using Canva from service's provided and free stock photos, to promote existing SAcommunity stories on the blog sacommunity.org/blog across other media channels.
Her beautifully crafted images were used for the PLEG Eco-Market on Facebook, the Prospect Community Garden re-opening on Instagram, for the September Events Calendar on Instagram and Facebook, the NOSSA Spring Show on Instagram and Facebook, the Indonesian Students Society (PPIA-SA) on Instagram and Facebook and Legacy Week on Instagram and Facebook and for the Australian Plants Society SA to reach different audiences in these online media channels.
A collage of images created by Cecilia for the SAcommunity Facebook, Instagram and website blog to help community organisations promote their community events.
Intern Cecilia Mao (Media Team) at the Connecting Up office. Cecilia contacted organisations by phone and email to publish upcoming events and created community event calendars
Cecilia contacted a number of other community service groups by email and phone using SAcommunity email and telephone training templates, to seek permission to publish their upcoming Not-For-Profit community events. These communication activities enabled the collation of the SAcommunity September Community Events calendar along with media intern partner Taylor Alland, and Cecilia collated the October Community Events calendar independently.
She also requested and posted media releases taken from various organisations for the SAcommunity website blog such as: The Adelaide Telangana Association Festival of Flowers, Dungeons and Dragons at City of Port Adelaide Enfield Libraries, Nature Festival, Walk4Brain Cancer, Oz Asia Festival and The Australian Plant Society before utilising BeePro to arrange the stories for the SAcommunity October eNews, the stories and eNews draft was edited by staff before being published and is available >>here SAcommunity News.
Cecilia Mao on Zoom with Dian Dini Primadani, the President of the PPIA-SA.
Cecilia interviewed the President of the Perhimpunan Pelajar Indonesia South Australia (PPIA-SA) alongside her Intern Coordinator in a group Zoom meeting. Using the SAcommunity media interview template she was able to learn more about the organisation's work in supporting and uniting the Indonesian student community in SA.
The interview was recorded, a draft created by Cecilia, edited by staff, returned for comment and feedback from the PPIA-SA before it was re-submitted for a storytelling article on the organisation >>here. All these activities were undertaken to allow the organisation to reach new audiences and potential cause communities and supporters through the SAcommunity September eNews released to subscribed members >>here.
Adelaide University Interns: Jesslyn Danli (Data Analytics), Fahmid Kibria (Media), Cecilia Mao (Media) and Julia Koh (Data Analytics)
"It was a great experience completing my internship with SAcommunity at Infoxchange. As part of the media and communications team, I had the opportunity to explore in various activities that I’m interested in. I published an article for PPIA-SA, where I went through the media process of planning and interviewing, which was something I had never experienced before. It was also a fun experience contacting and speaking to different organisations for media purposes. It was interesting to explore BeePro to create an e-newsletter."
"The best part was having the opportunity to be creative and exploring with canva, and creating visual content for social media channels. SAcommunity allowed me to learn and grow. The webinars and lunch&learn sessions allowed me to gain knowledge, and understand that emotional health is as important as completing tasks at work."
"The internship opened by eyes to what I can do as opposed to what I thought I could do. It was nice to be around an office and making connections with people. I’m expecting to complete my bachelor’s degree by the end of 2022, and move forward to further study on Juris Doctor for my master’s degree. I believe the experience I have gained in SAcommunity would be helpful for me when applying for jobs in the future." ~ Cecilia Mao
Intern Cecilia Mao collated the October eNews in BeePro, the eNews was edited before it was released in Campaign Monitor providing statistics on engagement (this is a statistics screenshot only a few hours after release).
Return to Welcome New Volunteers and Interns Semester 2, 2022
