*This is a continuation of my last post, which outlined some of the basic information about Sage Corps and what I did my first few days in Amsterdam with my cohort!* This post primarily focuses on the second half of the program, which is where we really jumped into working with our start-up organizations. My cohort of 12 was divided into three teams of 4 and we worked with 3 different start-ups: Project Fearless, PR Lab, and Pikaplant. I was on the marketing track with Pikaplant and really had an incredible experience. I'm a junior journalism major at Ithaca College and I had no previous marketing experience whatsoever, so I had no idea what to expect as an intern. I will say that Sage Corps prepares you incredibly well for working with the start-up. To be perfectly honest, I didn't make it through all of the training modules on their website, but I did do all of the modules attached to the Project Proposal & Deliverables that my team received prior to flying to Amsterdam. Throughout the experience, I found myself saying "In the modules, they referenced ___," so trust me, they are really helpful. (As a bonus, those modules were through LinkedIn Learning, so now I have several skill certifications I can display on my LinkedIn profile). We had Monday through Thursday to prepare for our presentation for the CEO on Friday, and within those four days, we were asked to deliver the following: 1. A coherent 2020 Social Media Marketing Plan 2. Estimated costs for marketing channels. 3. Competitive market landscape 4. Recommended recurring revenue streams/models Our work days ran from approximately 9 to 5, but due to some flexible hours (we ended early on Monday to go the Van Gogh Museum due to a mix-up with ticket dates, and attended a professional development panel with female start-up leads at 4 p.m. on Tuesday), my team met for some short periods in the evenings to make sure we stayed on track to meet the deliverables. Sage Corps Day 5: First Day at Pikaplant This day was intended to let us dive deep into research, make sure we understood the product goals, and to get a rough outline developed for what we would be producing throughout the week. As a team, we met with our CEO in the morning to ask a few questions, then worked on our own until after lunch, where we re-convened to provide an update of what had been accomplished. On our first day, we:
We left Pikaplant around 2:50 in order to head to the Van Gogh Museum, which was absolutely phenomenal. Although — much to my disappointment — Starry Night wasn't at the museum (it's kept at the MOMA in NYC), I loved getting to see the progression of his work and how he both was influenced by and influenced other artists. His style of using texture, color, and brushstrokes created profound art pieces, and I'd definitely love to revisit the museum again someday! We had a few hours on our own to decompress and explore, then the cohort reconvened to go on a Canal Boat Tour at 8 p.m., where we heard more about the history of Amsterdam and some fun facts about the city. (Did you know that over 1,300 bikes are fished out of the canals every year and that — at the lowest estimate — there are over 600,000 bicycles in the city at any given time?) Once the canal tour was over, we headed back to the hotel, where I worked on this blog post and prepped for the next day of working with Pikaplant! Sage Corps Day 6: Project Work & Female Founders Panel Tuesday ended up being a deep dive into our project — we met with our CEO right before lunch & gave us a lot of feedback on the work we had done so far, but we definitely had to pivot a bit in our approach. We ended up being pretty happy with the brainstorming and rough outline we were able to get done, which set us up for a really great workday on Wednesday! Jacob Gordon, our amazing City Lead, also coordinated a panel of all-female founders of start-ups in the Amsterdam area, which was super cool to listen to! The four women on stage talked about everything from the hardest part of being an entrepreneur (it's not a 9-5 schedule & there aren't benefits when you start out) to how to deal with sexist comments in a workplace. Our cohort had 8 guys and 4 girls, so it was great to have a chance to discuss how the men around us could act as allies in the business world (and beyond). Sage Corps Day 7 & 8: Project Work Days I didn't separate these two days because their tasks were very similar in scope. By Wednesday evening, my team had:
Sage Corps Day 9: Presentations & Wrap-up The group met at 8:30 in our hotel lobby to take the tram to Impact Hub, the start-up space we were using for our presentations, together, then split off to practice our presentations/grab breakfast from Albert Heijn. Although we were all pretty nervous, the presentations ended up being a little more low-key than we were expecting because of how great our CEOs were & because of how close the cohort got. Each group presented for around 30 minutes, then answered questions from audience members, other CEOs, and our city lead, which was a really valuable learning experience to help us think on our feet. Once presentations wrapped up at 1 (which was a weird feeling, because after putting 40 hours of work into 4.5 days, it feels almost anti-climactic to be done), we didn't have anything officially scheduled for Sage Corps until 7:30. My roommate and I checked out the Albert Cuyp Market, which had the booth of the original Stroopwafel, and picked up souvenirs for some people at home. After that, everyone in the program went their separate ways (I went to a bookstore, which I 10/10 recommend as a way to decompress) until dinner! Dinner was at Oresti's Taverna and was a super fun experience — it was great to reconnect with everyone in the cohort (besides the panel on Tuesday, most of us had only seen the team members we were working with over the past few days) and to celebrate the end of a really phenomenal program. As I'm reflecting on the program two days after it ended, I can say with absolute certainty that the Sage Corps Start! Program far exceeded my expectations. As a Sage Corps Fellow, I was able to grow both personally and professionally while working with a diverse team of students from across the United States (we had students from California to Maine, so we literally spanned the map of the country).
Although I wasn't originally sure how much valuable work we'd actually produce in 5 days, it's so exciting to see how enthusiastic the Pikaplant team was about the research and analysis that we conducted and the CEO asked us to consider acting as remote consultants while he is implementing our suggestions. I had never done any official marketing tasks before and literally had no idea what a competitive market analysis was until I did the modules that Sage Corps emailed to us in our project deliverables, but my experience in Amsterdam has given me tangible skills I can add to my resumé, along with a level of confidence in myself and ability to learn quickly that I can bring into any job interview or workplace that I encounter in the future. I'm also much more comfortable navigating in a new city, learning on the fly, using public transit, and getting outside of my comfort zone than I was before I came to Amsterdam. Sage Corps provided exactly the right amount of free time, work time, and tourist time to allow us to gain valuable workplace expertise without missing out on all the incredible sites (and sights) the city has to offer. Our program fee funded our hotel, the two dinners, our travel expenses (like tram passes), tickets to both Van Gogh and the Rijksmuseum, the excursion to the Zaanse Schans, and a canal tour with the history of Amsterdam, which was incredible. Jacob (our city lead) kept us logistically on-track, provided guidance as we worked through our start-up deliverables and finalized our presentations, took care of navigating and organizing, and was hands-on without being overbearing. It was obvious that the Sage Corps team cared about allowing students to have something as similar to the semester-long study-abroad experience over the course of 9 days, and they both met and exceeded that goal. Sage Corps connected me with a network of peers and professionals that I am excited to continue to stay in touch with. I have a unique internship experience and a strong skillset to accompany it that I can add to my resumé that will make me more competitive in the job market. Most importantly, however, Sage Corps gave me the ability to get outside of my comfort zone and into a city that will always be an incredibly special place to me. and I cannot wait to see what doors the Sage Corps Winter! Start Amsterdam program will open for me in the future.
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Let's get something straight: I've never had the travel bug.
Ever. As a kid, traveling was stressful. I'm very much a homebody, I love routines, & I like knowing exactly what to expect in an experience. I particularly dislike doing new things alone and have gotten very good at going just to the edge of my comfort zone, then using the buddy system to make a challenge a little less overwhelming. During my freshman year of college, I sat in my dorm room and spent hours making 5 (yes, really) four-year plans. Among others, I briefly entertained the thought of double-majoring and triple-minoring — glad I nixed that one — & debated about going to Chile or Dublin to study abroad. With three minors, two ministries in Ithaca I adore, and a reality check of my Spanish skills (which, while not horrendous, are definitely not good enough to spend a semester in immersion courses for politics, counseling, and journalism), I had come to terms with the thought that I wouldn't spend time abroad. *Enter Sage Corps* I had spent the better part of a week writing & re-writing a cover letter, resumé, and application for a summer internship I wanted desperately. After at least 10 hours of editing and three friends (plus my mom) proof-reading, I hit submit, checked my email, and saw something from (what was at the time) a super random company called Sage Corps. They were running a Winter Start! Program in several different countries, including Dublin, Ireland, which has been on my bucket list for quite a while. Their application involved a few standard questions asking about my name and major, a resumé submission, had me rank my top 3 countries/program location preferences, and a brief (1-3 sentence) short-answer response about why I was interested in partnering with a start-up abroad. I totally expected to never hear anything after I hit submit, which is why I was shocked when I opened my email a few days later and discovered that I was actually accepted to their Amsterdam Winter Start! Program (there wasn't enough interest to run the Dublin one this time around). Saying I was highly skeptical is definitely an understatement: the program costs $2,500 (not including flights) & it seemed like a scam at first. I had 14 days to accept the offer to participate, and I spent a ton of time looking online at various testimonials, talking on the phone and emailing back and forth with Sage Corps representatives (including the CEO), and connecting with previous participants in the program. Eventually, I decided it was worth the risk, submitted the deposit, and crossed my fingers that I'd get something valuable out of the 9 days I would be spending in Amsterdam. Trying to prep for Sage Corps coincided with a super busy semester for me, I had to apply for a new passport and expedite it (because the one I got when I was 12 expired), and I didn't book my flights until Thanksgiving break, so I was a little stressed that something would go wrong or that the experience wouldn't be worth all the hassle. (One recommendation for anyone thinking about doing Sage Corps: definitely prioritize the logistics module and the ones that have you fill out forms! The logistics module goes over the schedule (so when you need to book flights), safety in your host city, and insurance info, so it's important to at least skim through). On the flip side, I can tell you with one hundred percent certainty that the Sage Corps Experience is worth every penny. Money from your deposit pays for your hotels, some forms of transportation (we received a 4-day tram pass to cover our transportation costs to our start-up), some "must-sees" (museum tickets, touristy destinations, etc) in your host city, and the costs for the Welcome & Program Close dinners. I'll go more into detail about the start-up internship experience in my next post — this one is already turning into a novel — but this one outlines what the first few days with Sage Corps looked like! Sage Corps Day 1: Welcome & Group Dinner The program starts and ends on the days that are officially listed on the program description (for us, it was January 2nd—11th) & it's totally fine to fly in then! If possible, I do recommend getting there a day or two early to avoid jet lag & familiarize yourself with the city, but most people (9/12 of those in my cohort) got there on the day our program started, so whatever works best for you is great :) The only thing officially on our itinerary (besides checking in to the hotel) was a welcome dinner at 7 p.m., which was a fun chance to get to know everyone! There were 12 members of my cohort from various colleges across the United States, plus a Sage Corps staff member named Jacob (who is wonderful) and a student named Luke who had previously participated in the 8-week Summer Start! program in Amsterdam over the summer. Our group clicked really well right away, so we all explored Amsterdam for a bit together after dinner and then called it a night. Sage Corps Day 2: Orientation, Meet with Start-ups, Explore! This was definitely a super great day. We met up at 9:30 in the hotel lobby, took public transit (Sage Corps covered day passes for everyone) to Rockstart (a local startup hub), where we introduced ourselves to each other, heard about some tips for safety/having a good time in Amsterdam, and got an overview of what Sage Corps had in store for us. After that, we set some personal & professional goals for the trip (mine are below as an example of what we did): Personal Goals:
Professional Goals (set during orientation meeting):
After orientation, we took a break for lunch/to meet up as project teams, then split up to go to our project hubs to meet with the team we would be working with the next week. That was a great time to go over the deliverables (outlined in the professional goals up above), ask questions as a team, and clarify with the CEO what he was hoping the presentation would deliver. We met back up at the Rijksmuseum around 4:30, but it was closing at 5, so the group decided to use the tickets another day and split up for the rest of the night. My group wandered walked through the Vondelpark (we'll go back in the daylight for sure), grabbed some light food/drinks, and visited the MOCO museum, which was incredible! After that, we walked around aimlessly just wandering/exploring as we meandered back to our hotel and got back right around 9:30, which capped off the day perfectly. Sage Corps Day 3: Excursion Day! We left our hotel at 9:15 & took a tour of at Zaanse Schans just outside the city, where we explored some windmills, a cheese factory, and a clog workshop. We started by walking over a bridge to get to the village, which still has some Dutch folk living in it (but has primarily become a tourist attraction). The first indoor stop on the walking tour was the clog factory, where we got to watch them carve a clog from a block of wood in approximately 5 minutes (even though it used to take 3 to 4 hours to carve one clog by hand). After the clog workshop, we had some time to explore the shops in the area, which was a great time to pick up some souvenirs for some family back home. I also ate the best apple & cinnamon sugar pancake I have ever had in my life (seriously, if you're ever in Amsterdam, get a pancake — the Dutch know what they are doing when it comes to breakfast!) After about 30 minutes, we met back up as a tour group and walked through a cheese factory, where we got to sample over 20 types of cheese! My personal favorite was definitely the smoked gouda – 10/10 would recommend. Post-cheese factory, we walked along the river again and got to go inside (and on top of) a working windmill :) It was super interesting to get to hear a bit more about the history of the area — for example, there used to be over 1,000 windmills along the river, and now there are only 13! We even got to see the windmill in action, where large stones were being powered by the windmill in order to crush rock to mix with oil (produced by the mill next door) to make paint. Once we got back to the city, we went to Foodhallen, which is a super fun food market toward the heart of the city with tons of different stands and varieties of foods. Everyone was pretty beat after that, so we parted ways as a cohort for the night. My roommate and I tried out a fun Italian place with some phenomenal onion soup followed by gelato, then made it an early night and came back to the hotel. Sage Corps Day 4: Free Day Although there was nothing officially on the schedule, we definitely used the day to our advantage. Because I had gotten here early, I had already explored some of the areas on the suggested to-do list, but there was definitely a lot more to see :) In the morning, I explored a bit on my own and found a café where I grabbed a light breakfast, then headed to a bookstore to pick up a copy of the Diary of Anne Frank. After that, I met up with some members of the cohort to go to a breakfast spot called Pannenkoekenhuis Upstairs, which was incredible. Once we had eaten brunch, a group of us made our way to the Rijksmuseum (absolutely a must-see if you're in Amsterdam) and took our time going through it to get a better sense of the art and history of the city. I hit a major wall after the museum, so I walked to the 9 Streets District toward the City Centre and spent two hours reading in a café called Bagels and Beans. Once I got back to the hotel, I took some time to catch up on emails, update my planner, and do a little bit of outlining on the objectives we needed to deliver for our start-up, which I'll go over on my next post! :) *Had the best intentions of making a well-thought out recap, accidentally hit the back arrow midway through the post, and decided bullet points would suffice well.* Pre-Amsterdam:
Amsterdam Part A: In-Transit
Amsterdam Part B: Tourism Day 1 (after traveling):
Day 4:
In total, I've walked 22.1 miles over the past 4 days (more like 25, but my phone died multiple times and stopped tracking my steps), have learned a ton about myself & solo traveling, and am super excited to see what the next week and a half with Sage Corps has in store! |
LizWriting, running, reading, and keeping it real along the way. Archives
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