OPINION: What we learned during our summer internship | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
September 14, 2023
Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service invites community members to submit opinion pieces of 500-800 words on topics of interest to central city Milwaukee. To send a submission for consideration, please email info@milwaukeenns.org. The views expressed are solely those of the authors.
High school talents from BrandLab Milwaukee worked with the innovative teams at the Yodelpop marketing firm and News414 for a 10-week summer internship.
The goal of the collaboration was to foster creativity and empower the emerging generation of marketers and journalists to have their voices heard. The interns tackled the challenges of mastering the technical nuances of social media marketing while championing the importance of voting in local elections.
Aryana Lopez, senior at Pathways High School
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My sophomore year was when I first learned about The BrandLab. They had us pair up with someone, take a random item (my item was mascara), and repurpose it. Then we had to explain the item’s purpose, why it’s useful, who we’d market it toward. This brought a new light to my eyes because it was something that could use creativity and thinking.
BrandLab’s mission to diversify the marketing and communication industries in Milwaukee stood out to me. Everybody wants to see themselves in advertising. You are not assigned to a certain role in life. Marketing can help people see things differently. It’s a chance for you to reach certain people and let them be aware of what they are capable of.
Especially in Milwaukee, when there’s such a diverse community, you shouldn’t only show the “nice” parts, the other sides are beautiful, too. And we have to show that.
Through News414, we heard from people who had felt so alienated in their work field because it was dominated by white people. But once they found that diversity, they felt like they could actually breathe and be themselves.
They didn’t have to work 10 times as hard just to get to the top. They could just be who they are and be seen for what hard work they do. It was so nice to hear these stories because they were relatable and felt so real. It’s important that we learn this today so that we can change tomorrow.
I am forever grateful for this experience because not only have I realized my passion with marketing, the process of everything from making a video to making a social post, and taking ideas together, but because of all the knowledge that’s been passed to me from Yodelpop and News414.
I’ve never felt more welcome than I have with my team. I related to them and I also just felt comfortable in general. I wish my experience didn’t feel so short; towards the end I felt more connected to all of my fellow interns.
Mariana Rojo, junior at Oak Creek High School
I never really felt comfortable striking up conversations with people. I joined The BrandLab to learn more about marketing and to gain new skills. But I never would have thought I was going to learn how to interview someone.
Working with News414 doing interviews has really helped me open up and feel more comfortable doing things that are out of my comfort zone. When I did my most recent interview with a former alderperson, I noticed how much more comfortable I was compared to the first time I had ever interviewed anyone. When I was first interviewing people, I was very nervous, forgetting what I needed to say. But when I interviewed the former alderperson, things flowed much better.
I am glad I was able to gain more confidence when meeting and talking to new people. I have learned a lot of new things here from how to write a proper email to learning what an alderperson is and does. With Yodelpop I learned how to make social media posts that are engaging to the people who are going to see them.
The BrandLab internship has not only helped me prepare for my future by teaching me money management and professional skills but also to grow as a person. I believe that The BrandLab’s mission of diversifying the marketing and communication industries in Milwaukee is very important because it will help people of color like me feel more represented so that they feel more motivated to work in these industries. I really enjoyed doing this internship and meeting all these amazing people.
Astashia Wiley, graduate of Pathways High School
Knowledge is power!  One of the biggest reasons I applied to The BrandLab was because I wanted an opportunity to learn new information about a wide variety of things, and I knew The BrandLab would provide me with the experience I was looking for.
I learned many new skills during my internship this summer, but the one that will stick with me is developing my elevator pitch. The more I practice it, the more comfortable I become with speaking about myself and sharing the knowledge I have acquired with complete strangers. I now feel confident that I can make a great first impression and knock someone off their feet with my elevator pitch.
Many things surprised me during my internship with Yodelpop and News414. One being how much I’ve learned. I didn’t know what to expect coming into this internship, but everything has exceeded my expectations.
I never expect to go out and conduct interviews with Milwaukee residents and leaders and use the knowledge that I learned on the importance of local elections to help educate others who may not know how big of a deal local elections are.
News414’s mission of closing the information gap through service journalism in Milwaukee is important because knowledge is power. There have been many situations in communities where things could have turned out just a tad bit differently if they just knew more about what to do or who to reach out to in that current situation
The BrandLab mission to diversify the marketing and communication industries in Milwaukee is important because everyone deserves an opportunity to share their perspective, and it’s hard to figure out the best direction or the most efficient route where you can not only learn but eventually become successful. BrandLab helps guide you with this. Different perspectives and backgrounds can transform a good idea to something fantastic. Diversity in the marketing and communication industry will benefit because of it . We just have to be open-minded about the knowledge diversity brings.
Amaya Wiley, junior at Pathways High School
Being an intern with The BrandLab was an eye-opener. I was constantly exposed to new opportunities and experiences throughout the program, being able to be in a professional settings.
Every day there was something new to learn. These opportunities helped expand my mind.  The BrandLab allowed me to be who I am and express my thoughts with others. I felt comfortable in who I am and it felt like family.
A few things that I learned that I can apply in the future is connecting and being more open, with a better understanding of people. Everybody that I met in the internship does something different. They came from a variety of businesses. Being surrounded by different types of people helped coach me to be a better person.
From learning about how to manage my finances to writing a professional email to hearing a former BrandLab intern talk about expressing products in new ways, I learned a lot.  The more people I talked to, the more they introduced me to new ideas and opened my eyes to different types of jobs and lifestyles that will work for me and for my future. I hope the lessons I have learned will continue to help me in the future to work in professional environments and potentially own a business for myself.
Alena Vue, senior at Hmong American Peace Academy
During my time with Yodelpop and News414, we learned about community norms and agreements. The one that stood out the most was to seek to understand rather than be understood.
For example: Listening to someone else’s point of view on a situation before saying your own point. This phrase stuck with me because I never truly know what other people are going through, and I should always seek to understand.
I applied to the program because I had originally wanted to get out of my own community and The BrandLab gave me that opportunity. It allowed me to take that first step outside of my community where I didn’t feel as suffocated.
Working as an intern also allowed me to explore different career opportunities aside from the medical field, which is a career path my community wanted from me. The thing that really surprised me was the energy and welcoming environment I experienced.
I thought I would suffer from impostor syndrome during this internship because I would be the minority once again. But I was proven wrong. Everyone was nice and welcoming despite my blunt honesty and fearlessness of speaking up about things.
They had sought to understand me before they judged me for the way I was. That is the purpose of The BrandLab: to create diversity in the marketing area because its leaders knew how it felt to be the minority. If more workplaces were as welcoming and inclusive as The BrandLab, then other minorities wouldn’t feel the need to stick to only jobs that they felt welcomed in. Jobs would diversify and people would bond so much better.
The importance of closing the information gap through service journalism for Milwaukeeans is to educate the public and get advocacy out of them. It is also important to diversify the marketing and communication industries in Milwaukee so that people who do seek to be in these industries won’t feel discriminated against and feel like an impostor because they’re the only one of their kind. Any step in creating change is one step to a better world without violence and discrimination.