July 29, 2022 · 3 min read
To celebrate National Intern Day, we asked the interns of C Street to reflect on their experience with our team, valuable skills they have gained, and our mission to advance DEI in Corporate America:
"As an intern at C Street’s DEI Advisory team, I am uncovering the role of corporations in driving diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and understanding the corporate world’s organizational management and economic and social impact. With a DEI lens, I am strengthening key assessment skills – facilitating focus groups, building survey questions, researching business benchmarks, etc. – and utilizing driving data-driven evidence to measure corporate DEI engagement efforts and offer recommendations. Client engagements have allowed me to become more agile and collaborative to meet unique business needs, and the DEI Advisory Team has encouraged me to lead new areas of engagements (all while continuing to inspire DEI efforts in our everyday lives)."
Candice Handjojo, Intern, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
"Working here at C Street is a wonderful opportunity for me. It helps me work under the auspices of good faith and character and promotes a meaningful future for humanity. It is the most rewarding thing I could have ever done with my life because it helps me prioritize the salient identities of marginalized communities and allows me to work with people who care."
Jorell Banks, Intern, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
"I see my internship with C street as a means of contributing to an emerging, more inclusive, and forward-thinking world of business and entrepreneurship. Being surrounded by and learning from my majority-female co-workers at C-Street has taught me that the workforce does not have to look or feel one way.
The environment is not only collaborative but inviting. Each person I have been lucky enough to get to know at C Street approaches their work with a sense of responsibility, eager to use unique voices to further the growth of the company. As cheesy as it sounds, it would be impossible not to feel inspired throughout this internship."
Grace Chaikin, Intern, Strategic Communications
"DEI in Corporate America isn't prioritized by everyone. Being able to work at C Street means a lot to me because I get the opportunity to help make DEI a priority. The most rewarding thing about my experience here is that C Street is a female-majority company, and I am able to work with many people who look like me and share similar views as me."
Nianne Rivers, Intern, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
As Erika James notes in her feature on Word on the C Street, now more than ever students are making conscious choices about where they want to be employed based on whether they see companies as moving the needle on certain societal issues. In my experience, working at a company that was impact driven and aligned with my values was my number one priority when looking for an internship for this summer. On an internal level, working at a company who is clear and consistent about their commitment to DEI has meant feeling comfortable being my authentic self in the office from day one – an experience I haven’t necessarily felt at other firms. Externally, knowing that my work may have a similar effect on another employee at their firm has increased my passion and enthusiasm for the day-to-day work and made my experience this summer immensely rewarding.
Cameron Nelson, Intern, Business Development