After completing half of high school on Zoom, I very much doubted the possibility of enjoying a virtual internship and walking away with life-long friendships. However, I took the diiVe into the deep end, and seven weeks (and many stakeholder interviews) later, I logged off our close-out session with a few tears in my eyes, six incredible new friends, and a part of my brain solely dedicated to fun facts about ocean education.
There are truly no words to fully encompass the diiVe experience, but I will do my best to convey it through my memories. During the first two weeks, I felt like the lifestyle vlogger I always aspired to be — waking up at 7:00 am, making coffee and a yogurt bowl, turning daunting consulting lectures into aesthetic notes, and going for walks at the nearby beach after work. Come July 4th, I was officially a consultant for the Two Oceans Aquarium Education Foundation and had the opportunity to spend my summer making a difference in the sustainability sector … but I had no idea where to begin.
That’s the beauty of diiVe — every new phase of the internship comes with a new challenge to overcome and diiVers learn that they are more than capable to do so. My team and I had so many quick turnarounds from our business discovery to our final presentation and each time required more research or interviews to be done — which was not a good feeling coming into the weekend. Even though we came out of those intense grind sessions with a bit of whiplash, the feeling of accomplishment from working through them together and submitting a much better deliverable was so worth it.
A similar feeling emerged every day when I logged on to my team meeting: pure vibes. I would say good morning with a huge smile on my face and my Californian troopers (who were up since 5:00 a.m.) would always match the energy. It was moments like our early laughs from our random daily check in’s and side banter in the Zoom chat dominated by dancing man emojis that made us more than a consulting team. Maybe it was fate that brought us together — the right colors grouped at the right time — but I’m so grateful that diiVe facilitated a space that simultaneously nurtured new friendships and accelerated my personal growth.
Ashley Ganesh is a rising sophomore at Brown University studying Business Economics and International and Public Affairs. She did diiVe to gain tangible consulting experience to determine if she can see herself pursuing a career in this field while making a positive impact.
