Xinyi is studying accounting at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and joined the VACorps program in January 2021 where she participated in a remote internship at a fin-tech company. 

“Due to the pandemic, I returned to my hometown Hong Kong, and I started to look at remote internship opportunities online. That’s when I received the college’s email about VACorps’ Remote internship abroad in South Africa, and I thought it would be a valuable opportunity to get experience working with a company and understand more about South Africa’s culture and business environment. The experience turned out to be beyond expectation. I much enjoyed my internship, as the team has a vibrant and supportive ambiance, and it made me feel that my opinions are valued. Furthermore, my supervisor, who was also the company’s CEO, had also been approachable and frequently communicated with me to ask about my progress and answer any question. She provided various working opportunities to me beyond accounting works, which helped me to reconfirm my interests in business analytics. During the three months, I got to step out of my comfort zone by presenting my analytical findings through weekly meetings. This experience enabled me to polish my presentation skill that was once one of my weaknesses. Overall, I improved professionally and personally through this internship opportunity, and I will miss the wonderful team at my internship site, and the supportive VACorps staff.”