Intern Journals: Q&A with Tatiana Lieberman

You joined Concordia at an exciting time – right before our 2018 Americas Summit. How do you think that contributed to your overall internship experience?

I think it was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience. A lot of internships do not offer the opportunity to go to Colombia, but it was an in-the-moment decision for the team, and we never expected that interns would get to participate. I think that it added a dynamic component and it was really fulfilling to get to see all the hard work that we all put into the Summit come to fruition. We had been working on different roundtables, strategic dialogues, and Day of Engagement, and to actually see them come together was really interesting.

What have you learned so far during your time at Concordia? How are you hoping this experience will help you in the future, both academically and professionally?

1. 1. I am an animal science major [laughs] at Cornell, so I did not know a lot about working in a non-profit startup environment coming into this, and I feel that each day I learn something new. So far, I’ve learned how to work at a fast pace and how to meet deadlines, but Concordia has also taught me how to interact with people at a higher status level and how to be respectful no matter what the situation is. We’re a small team that has a lot of impact.

As a partnership development intern, what’s your outlook on what lies ahead for Concordia in the coming months?

I am very excited to see how the Annual Summit’s programming will fall into place, but also to see how a lot of partnerships are being developed as we build our relationships, target new organizations, and broker partnerships between companies that would not otherwise interact. It’s very interesting that we make sure that if a company needs help in that sense, that they come to Concordia. I think it’s really cool to see them accomplish a goal that they want to achieve.

What advice would you offer to future Concordia interns?

1. 1. To be prepared for anything [laughs]. I think that anything can be thrown at you, and you can be helping with a lot of different things. The office is dynamic and moving all the time, so you just need to be eager to help anyone when they need it and not shy away from anything. If someone needs help, they may not always ask for it, so make sure to be proactive and ask them first, it’s really helpful to them.