Mia Caballero
Photo by Brissa del Mar
By Zoë Eitel
When Mia Caballero was searching for her next internship, she was specifically looking to add a non-profit to her work experience. She has now been interning for the AIDS Foundation Chicago for over a year, working on their social media.
Mia’s goal with her internship is to help others get connected to the resources they need and create content for the AIDS Foundation’s social media that followers will find informative and engaging.
“I always want any work I do to somehow help others. Even if it is me posting something to Instagram and providing resources to our housing resources in a link, I still feel good about that because I know that it could possibly really help someone gain access to resources they didn’t have before.”
Going into her interview for AFC, Mia was nervous because of how much she wanted the job. Afterward, she was discouraged after not hearing back for a couple of weeks, but when she reached out to follow up, she got some happy news.
“It turns out my supervisor who interviewed me emailed me back asking if I could start next week, but he sent it to the wrong email!” she says.
Social Media Intern at AIDS Foundation Chicago
BA Public Relations and Advertising 2021
Since she started in January 2020, Mia’s role has become remote in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. With her internship being in social media, it hasn’t been a hard transition, and she feels lucky that AFC kept her on. She does miss going into the office and being able to get in-person help or just talk to her coworkers.
Mia has stayed at AFC for so long partly because of how much she enjoys the team she is on and how collaborative they are. As a social media intern, it was essential for Mia to create a good relationship with the team’s graphic designer so tasks would get done well and in a timely manner.
“I am someone who needs visual examples or has to actually do the thing in order to learn it. Having first-hand experience in a non-profit working on so many different projects has honestly taught me so much more than memorizing something I won’t remember a month from now in class.”
“I feel like I’ve grown so much thanks to AFC treating me as an actual employee and giving me real work that is beneficial,” she says.
Something else that Mia has enjoyed about AFC is how diverse the environment is, which has made her more comfortable working there. She will be looking for similar environments in any future opportunity she has.
“I had three other internships besides AFC, and AFC was an office I felt extremely comfortable going to and felt extremely welcomed,” she says.
Mia’s internship at AFC has supplemented her DePaul education by giving her real-world applications for some of the things she’s learned in class as well as teaching her things that she never would have learned in a classroom setting.
“I am someone who needs visual examples or has to actually do the thing in order to learn it,” Mia says. “Having first-hand experience in a non-profit working on so many different projects has honestly taught me so much more than memorizing something I won’t remember a month from now in class.”
As she is taking her next steps in her career, Mia has been taking advantage of the Career Center’s resume review and reaching out to peer advisors and meeting with alumni who can give her advice about post-graduation life.
