The Impact Lab Course is our effort to nurture impact-driven young leaders by equipping them with transferable workplace skills, the knowledge and mindset to be responsible global citizens, and the critical thinking, collaboration, and leadership skills to navigate the future of work.
At Foundation for Shared Impact (FSI), hearing about students’ fruitful experiences of the Impact Lab Course reaffirms our belief in the power of youth, which continues to inspire the work we do for the award-winning course through entrusting youth with important roles and responsibilities.
Read our interview with Zi-yee Teoh, Olivia Hai-yue Yu, and Stefan Oliver Micsa as they recount their rewarding internship experience with FSI’s Community Business Support team. Find out how their internship has helped them realize the privileged position they are in to help others, and why they think every university should have a course like Impact Lab.
Tell us a bit about yourselves, Zi-yee, Olivia, and Stefan.
Zi-yee: I’m currently studying economics. I’m an exchange student at The University of Hong Kong (HKU). My home university is the University of Edinburgh, where I’m doing my third-year study.
Olivia: I’m a fourth-year student at the University of British Columbia, studying finance. I’m also currently an exchange student at HKU.
Stefan: I’m also an exchange student. I’m from Germany. I study at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. I study business, to be precise.
Why did you register for the Impact Lab Course, and why did you choose to work at FSI’s Community Business Support (CBS) team?
Zi-yee: I registered for the Impact Lab Course because I wanted something different from what you usually do in the classroom. I felt it was very important to equip myself with professional skills, so that I will feel more prepared when I’m looking for a job. I also really enjoy doing volunteer work during my free time, which I think Impact Lab was the best combination.
When I was looking through the job descriptions, I felt that FSI’s Community Business Support team was one of those that were really flexible, and I felt that there were a lot of tasks that I can learn from.
Olivia: I registered for the Impact Lab Course because I’m interested in pursuing a graduate study in the public policy area, and I wanted to gain some hands-on experience in supporting local communities and diverse groups, which isn’t something that I’ve experienced before.
FSI’s Community Business Support Program really appeals to me because it aligns with my interest in social entrepreneurship and empowering communities through business training, consultation programs, and providing access to resources.
Stefan: I stumbled upon FSI’s Impact Lab Course in an email. As an exchange student at HKU, I actually got a lot of emails early on, and I figured, that sounds interesting, why not give it a try?
I co-founded a startup back in Germany, where I was working in HR. I had a lot of interactions with people, and over time, I have come to understand other people’s cultures and I realized that knowledge is very valuable.
Coming all the way to Asia for the first time, I was lagging a little. I figured Impact Lab seems to be an incredible opportunity to get together with a diverse set of people and learn from the very best that are interested in creating positive social change.
FSI’s Community Business Support seems to be the place to be to have an exchange with as many people as possible, and I was lucky enough to be one of the three candidates that were picked. It was an incredible experience.
What are your roles and responsibilities as a CBS intern?
Zi-yee: The work assigned to the three of us overlapped, so there were a lot of collaborative spaces. One specific task that I was given and on which I spent a lot of time was building up the GuideFong project, which is an online business directory for local ethnically diverse businesses. I was in charge of helping to improve the UI/UX of the website, which is something I’ve never done before and never thought I would come across. It was a really exciting task for me.
Olivia: My main responsibility was providing consultation services to ethnically diverse entrepreneurs. This includes understanding their business challenges, designing solutions, and directly assisting them with their practical needs to solve their micro-business challenges they encounter. For example, building websites and helping them with some marketing materials.
I also helped with different tasks like hosting workshops and producing toolkits and guides. For example, I produced a guide on how to shop on Taobao, as well as a search engine optimization guide by working with a skilled volunteer from UBS.
Stefan: As Zi-yee mentioned, the most important and the biggest project we worked on is GuideFong. We collaborated a lot and pooled together our creativity to make the most out of our work together. We worked on the interface to make it more usable and a joy to use from an aesthetic perspective. I worked a lot on the data side on the backend, trying to add new businesses and clean up the data that was there.
A task that I was exclusively responsible for was the licensing research. We had a mentee entrepreneur who wanted to open a restaurant at home, and I had a chance to dive into that, to figure out the feasibility and the licenses he would need.
Now that you have completed your internship, what do you find to be different or similar to your initial expectations?
Zi-yee: I’ve previously done internships before, and my expectation was actually quite low towards Impact Lab, because I understand that whenever a company takes up an intern, it is additional work for them as much as we’re helping them, because they have to guide us.
But my experience at Impact Lab just surpassed my expectations. I’m happy that I have so many tasks to work on, and especially the variety of tasks that I get to try out. I didn’t expect myself to be able to pick up new software like Wix, Airtable, and Notion. These are the things that are really practical.
I didn’t expect that with the tasks we did, we could actually produce an output – we actually have a website published for GuideFong! So I think the entire experience has been really amazing.
Olivia: Going into the internship, I expected to gain some experience in supporting people from diverse backgrounds as well as holding some larger programs and events.
I think the reality did match my expectations. There were tasks that I wasn’t familiar with and I had to learn from the start, but I was able to apply my skills in the real-world context, and we were able to help host some larger events as well.
Stefan: Impact Lab has fully fulfilled my expectations. My expectations ultimately were just to learn something new. Something I gathered from my time as an entrepreneur is that you can never know enough, and there are these seemingly unnecessary things that would end up being very valuable. And I think that has turned out to be very true.
I came in here and I thought, I’m a great intern, I’ve worked with a consultancy, I’ve done all of that entrepreneurial stuff. The Impact Lab experience turned out to be all different: it’s all new, you’ve got to go back to the drawing table, you’re facing different challenges, you have limited budgets etc. It’s been a great experience, all things considered.
What are your major learnings from the internship – soft skills, hard skills, new knowledge, new perspectives etc.?
Zi-yee: A few soft skills that I’ve learned, which I think are very important in the work setting, would be communication within a hybrid setting. For our work at Impact Lab, we meet once a week for our in-person meeting, but the rest of the time we are doing our work at home, so it’s like a hybrid setting.
I learned that it is important to actually over-communicate to keep my supervisor updated on my progress, so that it facilitates the efficiency of the team.
Another thing is having the flexibility to work on different tasks and managing the time I spend on each task. My working style used to be focusing on one task and that one task only. But being in the CBS team, there are a few things going on at the same time. There’s the Mentorship Program for Ethnically Diverse Entrepreneurs, there’s the GuideFong project, and then there’s some ad hoc direct business support. So I learned how to manage my time, how to segregate the 10 hours that I do in a week into each project.
The hard skills that I have learned are mainly Wix, a website building software that we used to build the website of GuideFong. It was like a whole new concept for me. How do you arrange the data and how do you want it to appear on the website? I never knew that what you see on a website actually takes such a long time to build, even if it’s just a small box! So I think these are the really interesting hard skills and soft skills which I actually didn’t expect myself to pick up.
Working at Impact Lab made me learn what kind of team dynamic I enjoy working with, and I would say that I’m really lucky that I get a bunch of really amazing teammates and supervisors. I have learned that I want to work in a team where everyone has a good bonding together, and everyone is open to new ideas, and everyone is open to communicate. I got a lot of constructive feedback during my time at Impact Lab. There are definitely traits that I want to look for when working in a team in my future career.
Olivia: I have learned so much through this experience. My consultation skills improved very much through the Mentorship Program with the mentees. At the beginning, my documentation and communication styles were not that good. At FSI, we work with a lot of different stakeholders involved, so clear communication and documentation is very important. I received a lot of constructive feedback from my supervisors, which I think is great because I got to know the areas that I can improve on.
I also gained technical abilities like website building, because I’m actually helping one of the mentees to build his auto-recycling website.
Interacting with the entrepreneurs gave me a deeper appreciation for the obstacles the under-served communities face. A lot of that isn’t something that I was aware of before. I think it was a great opportunity to broaden my perspective overall.
I was planning to pursue a master’s in public policy, and this internship really helped me to determine my goal of pursuing a master’s degree. It was really an empowering experience.
Stefan: Back in Germany, the way I used to do things was all just here in my head, nobody else needed to know what exactly I’m doing, I didn’t have to update people, people only cared about the end results. And now people care about every step along the way. That was very tough for me to get used to. I think I’m still not great at it, but I’m definitely trying to improve, and it’s been a massive learning curve in that sense.
Working at the CBS team made me realize the difference a great team can make. I’ve been a part of many teams in my life, and I think we’ve all been there where we’re like, teamwork is just not for me, it’s better to just to stick to myself, I don’t want to work with anybody. But this has totally changed during my time at Impact Lab. We have an incredible team where you can rely on other people. Ultimately, everybody is more productive, and the outcome is better than if everyone had done it individually.
My Impact Lab experience has shown me what a privileged position it is to start your own business. I went to business school, so of course I’d know accounting and all these things. But I’ve learned that it’s not a given. It’s not hard for me to give that knowledge to someone else, and I think I will seek different opportunities to do that down the line and be able to help these entrepreneurs that can make a massive difference.
What were some of the memorable moments from your internship?
Zi-yee I remember this time when me and Stefan were on campus and we were working on the GuideFong website. We were crunching, we were like, how do we want to make this work? And then boom, at just a click, it worked! And the two of us were just like, wow! The satisfaction that comes from knowing that you have put in a lot of effort into something and it finally worked, and you can see the end result, it was really fun.
Another memory would be going to a business outreach in the Chungking Mansions. It really felt different knowing that you have listed these businesses on GuideFong and then actually going to Chungking Mansions, seeing the businesses right in front of you and meeting the founders; it was a feeling that I can’t describe. It’s like you don’t know the impact you’re making until you really see them. I would say these are the few sweet moments that I had working at Impact Lab.
Olivia The Chungking Mansions outreach was definitely a memorable moment for all of us. It was a whole new experience. I think none of us had similar experiences before.
Another memorable moment for me was helping a Pakistani entrepreneur with her halal dessert shop. I helped her for two months and we were able to produce logo designs and stickers and some toolkits for her. Seeing her excitement and gratitude first hand was really motivating, and I wasn’t expecting that. This experience really affirms my passion for empowering people through social entrepreneurship.
Stefan I remember when we were coming up with a logo, the neon light, for GuideFong. I had the idea of making it flicker, and Zi-yee actually brought that to life. We showed it to Vivian (supervisor) and she loved it. And now it’s on the website for everybody to see! It is great to see an idea in our head translated into reality.
Meeting the ethnically diverse entrepreneurs and hearing their stories was a great experience. We would propose that they do something, and the next time we heard from Vivian, the entrepreneurs actually did what we proposed and it worked out. As students, we would produce work that rests with the teacher or the professor and never sees the light of day. So that was incredible to see, and I’ll never forget those moments.
Has your Impact Lab experience influenced your future study or career plans?
Zi-yee I thought I was just going to do groundwork like a normal intern, like data entry and stuff. But as a CBS intern we were able to have a project where we had the autonomy to decide the direction, what logo we wanted, what design we wanted, how we wanted the whole website interface to be.
I definitely was a little uneasy and we were scared at first. We were like, oh would Vivian like this? And obviously, she’s always very open to it, which we’re very grateful for. It’s definitely more motivating knowing that what you’re doing is important, which is what kept us going with the project, because we know our work is taken seriously, which I’m really grateful for.
Olivia Once we’ve received a new task that we had never done before, we would be a bit nervous and uncertain at first. But later, when we worked together through collaborative efforts, once we saw the results, it was really motivating and we actually gained confidence through this process.
Stefan Before, in my business, when I had an idea, it was my idea, nobody’s going to come in and say, no, we’re not going with this idea. Now we have deadlines that are real and someone else has to like the idea too. You have to put yourself into their position and see things from a new perspective.
Would you recommend the Impact Lab Course and CBS internship to others?
Zi-yee 100% I would recommend the Impact Lab Course to others because I think Impact Lab is something very special that you don’t always get to come by in your university studies – it’s not like every university is flexible enough to allow you a placement with an NGO as a substitute for what you usually do in your class. Out of the five courses I take, Impact Lab is the one I love the most, because I feel like I’m actually learning something practical, and I know that what I learn right now is going to pay off in the future, when I step into the professional field. So I will definitely recommend the course to people who are open to learning new things and making new friends from different cultures.
Specifically for CBS, definitely, 100% I will recommend it because within this team, you really get to take on a variety of tasks. It is also a good balance between working independently on your individual tasks but at the same time networking with people. We get a lot of chances to network with the local ethnically diverse communities, learn about their businesses, we also got to sit in business workshops where we personally learned a lot as well from the content. So I would say that if you’re looking for varieties and lots of opportunities to learn, and if you’re not afraid to take up responsibilities, then CBS is definitely the place to go.
Olivia I would definitely recommend the Impact Lab Course to others who are seeking hands-on experiences in driving social changes. This course provides the perfect combination of classic knowledge and real-world skills, which really helps one to broaden their perspective.
I would definitely recommend the CBS internship as well, especially since we have such a great supervisor in Vivian. She really provides us with a lot of support and constructive feedback. I’ve learned so much from her. Working with entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds was really an eye-opening experience and it allows people to make tangible positive impact while developing critical skills.
Stefan I joined the Impact Lab Course with the expectations of working with other people, learning new cultures, and really making a difference. When I go through that list now, I can put a little tick in all those boxes.
And the great part is – and this is coming from someone who has done several internships in his life – it gives you all the insights, it has consulting in it, it has communication in it, it has all these individual aspects in it. It allows you to make a difference while still enjoying your student life. This opportunity is super unique that every university should have a program like that.
