LILAS Wellness Summer Internship Reflections
As another season draws to a close and we prepare for the beauty of autumn leaves, LILAS Wellness wants to celebrate the incredible accomplishments of our interns this summer. We’ll really miss working with them day to day, but we’re also so grateful to have them still be part of our community. Here are some of their thoughts on their internship experience:
Starr Shapiro, Sales & Marketing Intern
1. How did your LILAS internship experience shape your understanding of wellness?
My LILAS internship encouraged me to treat all aspects of wellness equally. Going into the internship, I was aware that things like social and emotional wellness were just as important as physical wellness, but I definitely did not check in with those aspects of my wellness enough. My experience with LILAS showed me how important it is to reflect on all aspects of wellness consistently.
2. What skills did you start to develop and/or sharpen?
I learned how to use iMovie! I also learned about all of the different elements that go into shaping a brand and making sure every element, from something as little as the packaging of the product to something as big as the company's presence on social media, is in line with one another and spreading a consistent message.
3. What accomplishment from your internship are you most proud of?
I am most proud of the way I helped lay the foundation for the LILAS YouTube channel. When I arrived, the YouTube channel was just starting out, so I am proud of the way I was able to work with the rest of the team to figure out what the ultimate goal of the YouTube channel is and really get it up and running. I'm so happy that the work I did will help influence the way the channel is run for years to come and that it will be filled with the perspectives of women with all different backgrounds and experiences.
4. How has your LILAS experience influenced your future academic and career plans?
I am not exactly sure what I want to do in my future career, but I know that no matter what it is, things I learned during my LILAS internship will stay with me and help me navigate other jobs I have in the future. I now have a lot of knowledge about what goes into running a small business so that if I ever want to start one myself, I can have my LILAS internship to thank for giving me insight into how it is done. Most importantly, my time at LILAS showed me what a supportive work environment truly looks like. From day one, I was treated with respect and was being asked for my input, which made me know that I was valued as a member of a team. I was always given helpful, encouraging feedback and knew I could go to Deeksha or another member of the team if I ever had any issues or needed help. I hope that I am always lucky enough to work in this kind of a supportive environment, but if I am not, I will have the confidence to speak up about it knowing how I was treated at LILAS, who set the bar so high in the best way possible!
5. Do you have anything else you would like to share?
I am truly going to miss everyone I worked with at LILAS! I was surrounded by a bunch of smart, kind, and passionate women this summer and I will always be grateful to have gotten the chance to work alongside them. Also, I am so happy that I can keep LILAS in my life by continuing to use the pain relief patch! I'll admit, I was skeptical about it at first but it truly does work and I highly encourage anyone who hasn't tried it yet to do so.
Anupriya Seksaria, Marketing Intern
1. How did your LILAS internship experience shape your understanding of wellness?
Even before I officially began the internship, I explored the LILAS website and took the wellness survey, which explained to me what wellness really means. Initially, I thought that wellness is just a construct which helps define someone’s mental wellbeing. However, after writing Instagram captions, reading Kyra’s blog posts and even being a part of Starr’s YouTube video, I have learned that wellness is much more complicated than its surface understanding. One’s emotional wellness is determined by their ability to handle stress and adapt to change. One’s social wellness is about forming meaningful connections and relationships so that one has the required support system when they most need it. While one’s occupational wellness is all about workplace happiness and satisfaction. The survey on the website specifically, not only made me realise how an abstract concept like wellness can be easily explained to everyone but it even taught me which spheres of wellness I need to focus/work on.
2. What skills did you start to develop and/or sharpen?
I would group my glows into two categories: research and creativity. Whether it was working closely with Rahul on several research projects like writing a paper on a potential multipack launch, or just reading through government websites to complete market research for Canada, Singapore and Australia, or even taking the email marketing course… I was exposed to so many platforms that I had never used before. While I have written several research papers in college and high school, I had never really focused on consumers and the firm’s perspective. I want to study consumer psychology in the future, so I thoroughly enjoyed this internship.
My creativity really bloomed when I began writing Instagram captions. Initially, I struggled to understand our minimalistic aesthetic, but over time I got comfortable with it. Soon, writing those captions and maintaining the Instagram feed became a pastime rather than work.
3. What accomplishment from your internship are you most proud of?
Something I’m most proud of is definitely my primary takeaway from this internship: In order to have a successful brand, you need to be more than a brand. The reason LILAS stood out to me was because of its emphasis on community. It taught me how successful marketing is not only a quantitative aspect but it's more qualitative than we realise. Yes, profit, loss, number of consumers, etc. is important. But, forming long term relationships is more fruitful than having a one-time customer.
4. How has your LILAS experience influenced your future academic and career plans?
Working as a marketing intern really helped me further my interest in consumer psychology. I am currently a psychology and economics major, to amalgamate my interests in behavioural/social sciences. The social media aspect as well as the research aspect of the internship, made me think from a consumer’s and firm’s perspective, doing a sort of cost-benefit analysis for both these stakeholders, which is basically what I want to do in the future.
5. Do you have anything else you would like to share?
I would just like to say how thankful I am for Deeksha and Rahul to have given me this opportunity and the rest of the interns because I learned so much from each one of them. Hopefully, we will soon be able to meet in person, once COVID is over!!
Juliana Furigay, Product Development Intern
1. How did your LILAS internship experience shape your understanding of wellness?
Through my LILAS internship, I rediscovered the importance of addressing wellness in my day-to-day routine. Holistic wellbeing is a conscious and continual pursuit, so I actively strive to maximize it in my life. For me, this means journaling in Central Park, carving out time to catch up with friends, taking control of my budget, and purchasing workout gear and dietary supplements. I have gained the understanding that wellness is a journey, not a destination – and I will continue to improve my lifestyle and mindset with this awareness in mind.
2. What skills did you start to develop and/or sharpen?
As the product development intern for LILAS, I was tasked with devising and executing our product pipeline. Through this experience, I strengthened my market research and analytical skills.
3. What accomplishment from your internship are you most proud of?
I am most proud of the fact that my work will result in tangible products that women around the globe can use to achieve their health and wellness goals. I hope that these products will inspire women to take ownership of their wellness, regardless of the present-day gender inequities in healthcare.
4. How has your LILAS experience influenced your future academic and career plans?
I hope to pursue a career in the future that will allow me to foster a population empowered in their health and wellness. I hope to apply my analytical and problem-solving skills to make the informed decisions necessary to actualize this goal.
5. Do you have anything else you would like to share?
I am incredibly grateful for my LILAS internship experience, and I look forward to seeing our brand’s vision come to fruition soon!
Kyra Ann Dawkins, Marketing & Communications Intern
1. How did your LILAS internship experience shape your understanding of wellness?
Working at LILAS has really fortified my understanding of wellness as something that is much more holistic than I'd ever considered before. Before my internship, wellness had two warring connotations in my mind. One one hand, I thought it narrowly pertained to diet and exercise. On the other, I assumed wellness was a more abstract concept that was strived for, but never truly attained. Now, I'm able to recognize wellness's nuances. I've really started to reflect on how my wellness journey is unique but also influenced by communal elements. LILAS has provided a space for me to learn about women's health and wellness at-large through sparking much-needed conversations that I wouldn't have gotten to experience otherwise.
2. What skills did you start to develop and/or sharpen?
I love to do research and to write, so I'm glad I was able to do that in my role! I think that the regular production of content has really helped me refine my ideation and articulation processes in my writing in general. I also have developed a new appreciation for the power of social media in engaging audiences and the ability to analyze our progress through comprehensive data.
3. What accomplishment from your internship are you most proud of?
I think I'm most proud of the creation of the Community Spotlight series. I really love how LILAS Wellness is being intentional in supporting other women in the wellness space, knowing that communal progress is essential. I look forward to interviewing more people for the Community Spotlight series in the future. I learn so much from other people's stories and I hope our audience does too.
4. How has your LILAS experience influenced your future academic and career plans?
LILAS has definitely shown me that no matter what my future holds, writing will absolutely be a huge part of it. I've been so grateful to use this skill set, which has been sharpened in this role and is transferable to other spheres as well. I also know that LILAS has set the bar really high for my future work environments. If my future colleagues and supervisors are even half as supportive as the people at LILAS, I'd be more than lucky.
5. Do you have anything else you would like to share?
PLOT TWIST. I'll still be posting blog content for LILAS beyond the end of my internship! You'll all have to endure my endearing quirkiness for at least a bit longer. I'm so happy to be part of this caring and motivated team and I look forward to LILAS Wellness's bright future.