Rena Arndt is supporting the CHANCEN eG team since this September as an intern in Application Management and Communication. This 12-month internship is part of her dual studies which she will graduate with a double degree as a Bachelor in business psychology as well as a retail merchant in Marketing Communication. In the interview, she explains why she as a working-class child especially identifies with CHANCEN eG, what she appreciates during the team meetings and which events are planned next.
Dear Rena, for a month now you have been part of our CHANCEN eG team. How are you liking your internship so far and which tasks are you enjoying the most?
Working as a member in CHANCEN eG has been a lot of fun for me until now. It is a completely new experience for me to be able to implement the knowledge I acquired at university in projects that I manage.
Unusually I started my internship a month early to work with Nathalie in Application Management and to learn from her. The interviews with our future students helped me learn valuable things about HR and also enriched me personally. Team meetings are always the part of the day I am looking forward to. Together we discuss projects or brainstorm across disciplines. Every opinion and every idea is welcome and taken seriously. Daily startup life is simply fun.
You currently study Media and Business Psychology. What made you choose your studies?
Initially, I wanted to study art history. To be sure about my dream I worked in art galleries, exhibitions, and fairs after school for years. I was always able to identify with art but I felt a little estranged in the world of artists. Casually I found out about the studies of “Media and Business Psychology – dual degree”. The degree offered many different fields of study that my 18-year-old self found very interesting. At that time I would have never imagined that I would major in Marketing and HR and choose them as my favorites for my career. I specifically chose a dual degree since a practical context to learned knowledge was very important to me. To spend the whole day in lectures and then repeat everything at home, has never been really interesting to me. In high-school, I had several jobs that I liked despite the hard work because the feeling of being needed pushes me. I feel the same about the dual degree. The double degree ( Bachelor and degree in Business Women in Marketing Communication) within 4 years is of course also nice to have.
Why did you choose a 1 year internship with CHANCEN eG?
To make a first step in the world of business and economics I mostly applied for internships in startups. To work in a small young team towards the big whole, implement my own ideas and to be excited for every growth of the company – that was what I was looking for in an internship. Originally I am from Cologne ( the most beautiful city on earth) where the startup scene is still in a very early stage. For that reason, I decided to continue my studies at our partner school in Berlin-Mitte after the 4th semester. In the application phase, I came across CHANCEN eG whilst researching online. As a working-class child with migrational background from Ukraine, I knew the difficulties of financing someone’s studies and I was able to really identify with the values of CHANCEN eG. For the first time in my application process, the social value of the internship was very relevant to me. Being part of an organization that could create sustainable change was suddenly the most important aspect of my application. In the interview, Nathalie and Florian offered that instead of the advertised 6-month internship I could do a whole year if I wanted to.
I was very happy about that since it was very important to me to become a important member of the team instead of having several work certificates from different firms. I wanted to take more responsibility, have my own projects and to get to know CHANCEN eG as good as I can.
Besides the Application Management, you work along with Nathalie in the fields of External Communication and Community Management. Tell us, do you have anything planned for the future?
At this moment we are planning a freshers day on the 25th of October with our engaged students of IPU. New students get the opportunity to chat with older semesters and can ask us about all their questions regarding CHANCEN eG. Together with students, we want to plan further activities. Meetings across universities are planned, too. I can’t say more about it but you can look forward to it!
