/ Feminist Theory at Equidad Subscribe

As a Women’s and Gender Studies major, I have always wanted the opportunity to intern at a feminist nonprofit organization.  However, I was a bit worried that because of my proficiency in Spanish, I would be inadequate for the position. Although Spanish was my first language, my Spanish is casual and informal. Moreover, I had never spoken it in a professional setting. However, my supervisors were very understanding and took the time to translate and explain words I did not understand. I was able to practice my Spanish and familiarize myself with feminist theory in Spanish.  

I really appreciated the projects I was able to work on at Equidad. Not only was I able to create posts for social media such as Instagram and Twitter, but I was also able to translate captions into English. I learned about all the necessary planning that goes into executing a well written caption and how to schedule posts to receive the best possible engagement. While learning how to manage social media, Equidad also offered workshops where I was able to learn about feminist theory in Spanish. I learned about being aware of my own prejudices and stereotypes when creating social media posts and about allyship as a privileged person. With each new workshop, I was better able to understand the aim of Equidad. 

During my first big solo project, my supervisors and I ran into a misunderstanding. They had assumed that the instructions were clear and defined and I had assumed something differently. When I submitted the project, my supervisors asked me about the final results and why I was missing certain key features. That is when we realized that there had been a misunderstanding. However, my supervisors navigated this issue with kindness and patience. They understood why I had been unsure about the instructions. After that, after we had meet over zoom to discuss a new project, they emailed me with a list of written instructions.   

One of the many things I learned at Equidad was how to be flexible. As an organization, Equidad partnered with many different organizations and would create social media posts to campaign alongside different nonprofits. As a result, sometimes we were suddenly told that we had to switch to a different campaign and that we needed to create social media posts that had to be ready to post the next day. Thus, I had to learn how to stop what I was working and to pivot. Sometimes it meant hurrying to reach a deadline or working on two projects at once. 

Working at a nonprofit organization or NGO requires a set of specific skills. At Equidad I was able to hone these skills such as flexibility, thinking outside the box and being creative with the resources at hand. In the future, I hope to work at a feminist NGO in the future and put to practice all the invaluable experienced I learned at Equidad this summer.