Throughout the summer, Skandalaris Center Summer Internship Program participants will be writing guest blog posts about their internship experience. Following is one such post. 

A Startup Summer

By Gillian Laming (EN ’21)

I’m Gillian Laming and I’ll be a junior at Washington University this fall. I’m studying Computer Science and Chinese, and this summer I’ve had the privilege of working at GiftAMeal. GiftAMeal is a mobile app that makes a donation to Operation Food Search every time somebody takes a photo at a participating restaurant. As an intern at a startup, I’ve gotten the opportunity to work on a wide variety of projects but have been primarily focused on doing sales trying to get more restaurants to join our program.

Working at a startup has been a very valuable and eye-opening experience. My decision to apply and ultimately accept this position at a startup was fueled by my desire to understand how companies work and develop skills that I don’t focus on as much during the school year. I’ve learned a myriad of different lessons this summer and come to a few key realizations. Firstly, I realized how much work needs to go on behind-the-scenes to make something happen. A lot of thought and effort goes into everything we do here at GiftAMeal. Something as simple as a survey for users is the result of hours of brainstorming and editing. I have a newfound appreciation for the work that companies do, and how challenging I imagine it is to be a startup founder. Secondly, although I’ve been told this for years, my summer with GiftAMeal has reinforced the importance of having connections and networking. I’ve seen firsthand through our work in sales the importance of an introduction and how valuable personal connections can be.

I’ve enjoyed working at GiftAMeal for a lot of reasons, one of the key reasons being that it is a startup. Even though I’m just an intern, I can see the tangible impact I’m making on the company. Yes, there are some days I wish I could just mindlessly sit in a cubicle, but I wouldn’t trade that for the experience I’ve had with GiftAMeal. Everything I do, from addressing envelopes to revamping website pages, has a direct impact on the company’s mission and success. There’s nothing more rewarding than implementing a change that you helped develop with the other interns, something we are able to do often at GiftAMeal. There are seven people on the GiftAMeal team this summer; everybody on the team pitches in to help when we’ve got a big project and gets excited when somebody makes a big sale. It’s nice to feel like I’m a part of something bigger while still feeling like I’m part of a close-knit group of people.

I couldn’t be more grateful for the experience I’ve had with everyone at the GiftAMeal team this summer and I’m looking forward to a great last few weeks of this experience.