Internship stories — Jeremin — Ngee Ann Polytechnic

I’m Jeremin Sng, a final year student pursuing a Diploma in Business and Social Enterprise at Ngee Ann Polytechnic. My aspiration in life is to open a restaurant. As of current, my internship at Make The Change as a community development and marketing intern has come to a bittersweet end.

In MTC, my diversified job scope has enabled me to experience disparate types of work. I have completed digital marketing tasks that range from product photography and videography to copywriting. Being given the autonomy to manage my own time has also allowed me to spearhead community projects. In particular, People With Dreams Community is one of the most memorable projects I have taken on while interning in MTC. PWDC is an incubator programme that aims to promote social inclusion in the workplace. Through this project, I was able to befriend many people with disabilities in our community and gain a deeper understanding of the PWD Landscape in Singapore. I interviewed lecturers and PWDs to find out how the PWDs were really doing in life. Many of them were seeking self-improvement and gainful employment. In fact, I produced a mini research paper on PWDs in Singapore to support MTC with their pioneering work in this field. With the interviews I conducted, I was able to create 4 different PWDC videos to showcase the inner struggles and strengths of our beneficiaries. This project was an eye opener as I got to interact firsthand with our beneficiaries and learn from them.

Overall, interning at MTC has been a wild journey. When I first started, everything was foreign to me. I had very little design background and had to start from scratch. However, the people in MTC were always there for me when I needed help. Aside from the constant supply of food from them, they would never hesitate to teach me when I am lacking. Their authentic approach to people has helped individuals like me grow.

Being able to intern in MTC has helped me learn many things. First of all, it’s never about perfection, but about engaging our audience. The community projects and digital marketing work that we do are not about achieving profits and quota, but rather about connecting and communicating with our audience. To raise awareness of social issues and to bring people together; to empower and transform communities through design.

Charity starts from home. Being able to witness a group of people practicing what they preach was a heartwarming experience. Because of them, I was encouraged to reach out and connect with our beneficiaries. Initially, I thought a company’s mission and values were simply sentences to describe who they are and what they stand for. But this experience has taught me that these sentences are in fact the binding agent and the common ground that brings the team together.

Psychologists have proven that people will eventually forget the information they acquire, but the feelings that they felt will never be forgotten. In this case, I would like to thank MTC once again for making me feel like home.