Virtual Internships Abroad A Final Reflection

Unique Team Building - Brisbane, Australia 

It brings me a lot of sadness that my VIA internship has come to an end. This internship has been such a meaningful global experience and has been everything I was hoping for and so much more. I am grateful for all of the lessons and skills my colleagues have taught me and I am thankful for having this opportunity.

For the past few months, I have been interning at Unique Team Building, a company based halfway across the world in Brisbane, Australia. While I was brought on as a web development intern, I have been given responsibilities in both UI/UX design and development. As someone who has been interested in both areas and who has struggled to find career opportunities involving both, this internship was exactly what I was looking for. It has given me better insight into how both subjects work in tandem and has taught me that they are not mutually exclusive.

During the course of the internship, I was able to develop a multitude of technical skills. I used design tools like Figma, Adobe XD, and Adobe Illustrator regularly and I dabbled in several web development technologies including Javascript and content management systems like WordPress.

Perhaps the most valuable skills I learned during the internship were not technical but rather soft. Given the time difference between my home in Washington, DC, and my host organization in Australia and my commitments outside of the internship, I had to learn to be more organized and to plan my work ahead of time. It was often difficult to set up appropriate meeting times, so time management was essential. Communication was too, as I had to be proactive in keeping my supervisor informed on my progress and issues despite the virtual nature of the internship. Furthermore, I had to learn how to be more independent. I had to learn how to complete tasks on my own and I became more resourceful as a result. 

I have learned so much over the course of this internship and I am very grateful for the experience. It was incredibly rewarding to work with others in an international environment and my internship has solidified my interest in pursuing a career abroad. I feel more confident and better equipped moving forward in my career now, and I look forward to making the most out of all the opportunities, especially the international ones, that Penn provides.