Category: Summer 2019 internship

For the second and final week of my internship with Sustainable Living Lab, we were given the task to plan our posts on Instagram for the rest of the month.  We decided that since our company was dedicated to the environment and SDGs that we should post on every significant environmental date. So firstly, we had to search up these dates and choose which ones our company most related too so as to avoid becoming a social media account that solely raises awareness.

As shown in the picture above, we had to write captions that would appeal to our audience and attract more people. However, we had to avoid sounding casual so as to seem more professional. We first got together and listed some points on what we really wanted to achieve from this post. I then also used Canva to make our Instagram post and also some infographics we could post on our Instagram story.

an example for the post is :

an example of the story is:

By being more active on our social media account, we aim to draw attention to our company and our work so as to grow. We are also fairly new company so raising awareness about us and our mission would be difficult but by using a large platform such as Instagram, we are working to make connections with other companies to build relationships which would also aid in our growth.

With my time at Sustainable Living Lab, I took part in hosting the Hackathon 2019 which took place in the Science Centre from 27th to 29th June. I did not know what the event was about previously, so, first of all, I got exposure to this. I learned that children (14-18) from many different schools come together in a group of max 3 people, with the aim to build something towards an SDG. They need to pitch this idea with a prototype by the last day (29th) and they then proceed to the next few stages in order to win luxurious prizes for their invention. I was shocked to see how many students knew how to do computer programming, software development and graphic design. This entire experience was very unfamiliar because I have never taken part in events like these before because I was never particularly talented in this area but to see how innovative these people were, really inspired me and opened my eyes to how creative this event was.

In preparation for this event, SL2 was responsible for the stationary equipment, layout and equipment. So we had to manually put every piece of stationery into the stationary bags which consisted of pencils, penknife, scissors, tape, post-it notes and a booklet which we also had to fold and staple.  We also had to bring some technological equipment like wires and batteries which I helped in organizing. Personally, I did not know the name or function of most of the equipment but there were people all around me to teach and explain to me. I had to count how many we had so as to understand how many more we needed. I also helped in cutting up the many stickers that we would give the participants.

On the first day, I was responsible for giving out materials to everyone and their groups and taking their attendance. I feel that I was comfortable with this task because I am sociable and did not find it difficult to talk to the people there to answer their doubts or questions about the Hackathon. However, having so many people to interact with would get overwhelming at times especially due to the lack of my expertise in this event. There were also so many students to give the materials to so I had to ensure that each person got what they needed (a wrist band ticket, power bank, stationary pack) and also mark their attendance. However, there were more people to help.

Furing the event, I was given the task of being in charge of social media. This meant that I had to take photos to post on our company istagram account, and also photos for the Instagram stories. This was personally in my comfort zone because I am so familiar with Instagram and how to get eye-catching photos.

Above are some photos I put on the Instagram story to raise awareness of the event and also SL2’s participation in it.

Above are some photos I took and edited for the Instagram page. 

The Instagram page had 53 profile visits in the last 7 days. On the photo on the right, you can see that all those profile visits were on Thursday, the first day of the Hackathon in which I was responsible for. By doing simple things like making hashtags, we made the Hackathon more interesting for our followers. I feel that I did my task successfully because I was able to increase our level of activity on our social media page which will play a very big role in the future of this ‘start-up company’ if we keep up the account.

Overall, this hackathon allowed me to learn and try to many different things such as learning about technological equipment to interacting with participants to activating the social media account. I was able to explore my interactive side by walking around and talking to the groups about their innovations and helping them come up with creative ideas. I was also able to gain an interest in events like this by understanding how they allow the participants to be innovative and understand pressing global problems at the same time which is amazing for young minds because they can grow up and actually make inventions like this.