GRIP, Internships Abroad Halfway Point Blog

Social Impact in Buenos Aires, Argentina

For the past 4 weeks, I have been interning at a company called Matriarca located in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This was possible through Penn via GRIP as I was accepted and am currently a part of the ‘Social Impact in Buenos Aires’ cohort. Matriarca’s mission is to create sustainable value chains which is realized through the commercialization of authentic, handcrafted products from under-resourced indigenous regions. Matriarca will also often fuse the materials from different indigenous communities to create an authentic, innovative, and unique product. All of these products promote a sustainable line of production and development in indigenous communities.

Matriarca is a very small company comprised of less than 10 employees. The day-to-day is extremely busy for the hardworking employees with numerous tasks to juggle all at once. As a result, some issues are bound to arise. This is where I and another Penn intern enter. One such issue that Matriarca has been experiencing is that the traffic to their website is at a standstill. Week after week, traffic has not been increasing, and in fact has been slightly decreasing. My role is to analyze the website data and curate a strategy to grow the number of viewers that visit the Matriarca website.

Apart from performing my specific role, I really enjoy collaborating with my local Argentine (also referred to here as Porteños) co-workers. For important meetings or check-ins, we usually speak in English as they are practically fluent while I am only conversational in Spanish. However, it is always fun to make small talk with them in Spanish which is a great way of improving my skills and also learning Argentine slang. I enjoy working at Matriarca, but I also enjoy working in Buenos Aires in general. I would say that in Argentina, the work culture is typically more laid back. For me personally, I am supposed to arrive to the office at 10 am, but the time I leave can vary depending on when I feel my work for the day is done. Additionally, there is often small talk throughout the day which I think makes the work environment more relaxing and comfortable. I wish the work culture in the US was more casual as it is in Argentina.

Overall, I am really enjoying Buenos Aires and working for Matriarca. I have already made so many new friends, both local Argentines and other international students, and I am looking forward to the second half of the summer!