EF internship prepares student for life at university

Todsawan Tansuwan is from Thailand and will start her second year of the IB program at EF Academy New York in September. She dedicated four weeks of her summer to an internship at her local EF Academy admissions office, where she conducted market research, organized pre-departure meetings for new EF Academy students and planned a community service outing for recent graduates. Find out more about Todsawan’s experience as an intern:

I worked as an intern at the EF office in Thailand for about a month and my time there was both productive and educational. Although I had to wake up early to travel to the office every morning, the experience and expertise I gained throughout the internship was really worth the distance and the time. The main reason I chose to apply for the internship is because I was extremely keen to work outside my family’s business in order to become fully exposed to the experience of working. Moreover, I felt that it would be a great opportunity to understand how work is done behind the scenes and how the admissions teams deal with particular problems. I believe hands-on experiences are the most effective way not only to learn, but also to gain more responsibility as an adult. The experience at the office was brilliant and taught me about a lot of real-life situations as a working adult.

From working at the office, I learned a lot about communicating with customers and local businesses while managing my time and finishing the required tasks adequately. EF Academy required me to accomplish a large variety of tasks. First, I had to finish market research for the director to look at, which wasn’t just normal research – I had to analyze information and present my findings. I was very relieved and started to gain confidence in my analytical skills when my supervisor approved my research and used it in her upcoming meeting.

After the market research, I had to travel with Mr. John Dohrmann, our Teacher on the Road, to different schools in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. My main job was to answer any questions the students had about EF Academy. Apart from visiting schools, we also had Info Meetings at the office where I got to make presentations focusing on the international life at EF Academy. After the presentations, parents and students were really eager to talk to me and ask questions about EF Academy. At the end, they walked out of the room delighted to be a part of EF Academy.

Finally, my last job was to plan two events for the new Thai EF Academy students. The first event was graduation and the second was the pre-departure meeting. For the graduation, Kunanya and I decided that it would be a great idea for the students to give back to the local community, so we decided to take orphans out for a field trip. I had full responsibility for completing the task by contacting the orphanage and the theme park, asking for promotions and confirming the deadlines along with calling many people. Having to organize this event allowed me to learn how to be patient and I acquired the ability to work and communicate with other businesses. The next event, pre-departure, taught me a lot about teamwork since I had to work with three other students to plan everything from presentations and games to little things like photo booths and prizes.

Overall, working at the EF Thailand office was an amazing experience. The EF Academy staff from my own department and other departments were super friendly and welcoming. They really made me feel like a part of the group and made me want to come back and work here again. The experience and life lessons I gained were memorable and I would absolutely go back to help out anytime. In the end, I felt that I had bloomed into a better person with greater sense of responsibility and ready for life during and after college.