Labs, Coaches, and Projects…Oh My!
MAIP is an indescribable experience. I would know because I just tried and failed multiple times.
For those of you who don’t know, MAIP stands for the Multicultural Advertising Intern Program and it is designed for multicultural students pursuing the advertising field. I first heard about it through a peer of mine as she had been part of the MAIP 2020 Fellowship class. She encouraged everyone who qualified at our school to apply for MAIP, which amounted to around four people.
A kind of reminder of how much diversity I lacked and craved within my institution.
You would not believe how ecstatic I was to find out that I had made it through all three rounds of the application process. It was one of the most intensive application processes I have been through and I am proud to say that it paid off.
The last round of the application process requires a company to choose you as their intern. I was the most nervous for this round believing that no company would find me, much less choose me from such a large pool of quality candidates. Being proved wrong was such an eye-opening experience and the rest of this story can be found in my other blog!
As for the other parts of MAIP, let’s start with this: there are a lot.
In orientation, the full program is truly laid out in all of its glory. As mentioned, each fellow has a full-time internship that takes place during the work hours of the week for ten weeks. Each fellow also receives their own personal coach who would help guide them through the summer and set up their materials for when they need to apply to the real world. During the weeks of the program, the fellows are required to attend what they call “MAIP Labs” that bring an industry professional to speak to the fellows. These labs happen about two times a week and are two hours long. Last but not least, the fellows participate in what is known as “Summer Projects”. All fellows are broken into teams, being divided into groups with each member representing a department in advertising so each team can become its own mini-agency. The teams are then briefed on a client from a professional agency and the teams have two weeks to complete the full campaign. This is a competition between the groups and everyone strives to put their best work forward!
Now I’d like to break down my experience with everything the program specifically offers.
First would be my MAIP coach and my plans for future endeavors. I really like this aspect of the program because it feels very personal and you are given valuable time with someone who knows what their doing because they’re doing it! You know what they say, if you want to be somewhere, follow the footsteps of those who got there first. Anyway, I have enjoyed my time with my coach and she has given me advice that best fits me and my goals for life. In a larger presentation where career advice is usually given, it’s generally broad so that it can apply to everyone. While this is great and also very helpful, there’s nothing like receiving advice from someone who’s job is to get to know you and specifically you.
Entering the creative world has been daunting because I feel like I lack the knowledge and experience that many other people have. When I have attended seminars before in which they discuss how to get started in the creative industry, it feels like many people already understand it and I am left with questions that feel like I am the only one who needs the answer. Having my coach around to provide me with those answers that I was looking for have boosted my confidence in finding my place in the industry. I don’t feel as lost anymore and for that, I am extremely grateful.
Next on the list would be the MAIP labs. These labs are informative, enriching, and a rare resource if not for the MAIP program. These two hour lectures are virtual and it mostly makes me wonder how it is done in a year that hasn’t been impacted by the pandemic. This is a question I hope to find out next year, but for now it remains a mystery to me. I don’t mind it being virtual, but I definitely miss that face-to-crowd interaction this past year as I’m sure many of us have. Regardless, every speaker does a great job at presenting to a glowing screen with hundreds of small faces that aspire to be just like them.
My favorite part of the MAIP labs is when we get to use the Zoom breakout rooms and discuss amongst a smaller group of fellows. For better or for worse, I am a very talkative person and I like having that personal time with others to hear their experiences and share mine when asked. If there is a conversation, I love to be apart of it. I will listen when someone wants to talk and I’ll talk when someone wants to listen because a dynamic conversation between two people is all that’s ever needed to keep me entertained.
Every fellow is busy working with their 9-5 internship and it can be hard sometimes to get to know others in the program. In the limited chances that I do, it has been a wonderful experience each time and it gives me hope towards a successful future in advertising that will become more diverse. Every fellow I have talked to has been filled to the brim with a desire to learn and bursting with creativity and talent. This is reflected in other ways too in the MAIP labs, for example, the fellows ask questions to each agency that are direct and blunt with the intention of truly challenging each speaker on their dedication to diversity. These moments are some of my favorites even though it can sometimes get uncomfortable. It’s moments like these that remind me that change happens when we break out of what’s comfortable and my fellow members are already pushing those boundaries.
Fellow members that I had the opportunity to work with most were those in our summer project group. The summer project requires each team to create a campaign, each with a two-week deadline and the projects occur twice. When our group first banded, it felt a little bit clunky and awkward. We were tasked with becoming an agency but many still didn’t know how they fit into one. Regardless, we pushed forward as a team to embrace the new challenge together.
Our first assignment was to create a campaign for Jollibee’s (hypothetical) chicken wing launch. Keep in mind, we were still full of rough edges and major kinks, so we did not hit the ground running despite our best efforts. With guidance from our team coach, we began to start working on the campaign, each task taking a little longer than it should and communication falling flat more often than it should.
It’s at this point in time that I would like to issue an apology. If anyone from Team 16 is reading this now, I hope you accept it. I would like to apologize for being a little too eager at the keyboard. I found myself being extremely vocal in the group chat with the hopes of increasing the communication and getting things done. My goal was to normalize reaching out for help or showing other’s that I was available to discuss the project if they needed to. While I hope it was helpful, I re-visit our group chat and see that my messages seem tenfold in comparison to responses. For better or for worse I am talkative, most of the time it is to show others that they can be too.
Our first projected couldn’t have been finished closer to the deadline. In many ways, it came together overnight. If I were to give it an analogy, the project was Cinderella and our team was the Fairy God Mother, and we transformed her for the ball. Except in this case, Cinderella didn’t transform back into her raggedy clothes at midnight. We submitted it with a huge sigh of relief and we’re extremely proud of what we had accomplished.
Two weeks later and we enter the second round of the summer projects, this time our clients were Izze, the sparkling juice brand. We were stoked, many of us fans of the drinks prior to the briefing. Now that we had had our first go at working as an agency, we were now a well-oiled machine. With our edges know smooth and our kinks removed, we were truly hitting the ground running like we had all dreamed of and we weren’t the only ones who thought so either.
In this round of the summer projects, we were picked as a finalist. You would not believe how active our group chat was the day we found out…not to mention we had one day to prepare a presentation in order to woo the judges on presentation day.
With one day to accomplish it, we all got to work. The other three presenters and I put everything on hold for a day to write, rehearse, and revise.
As for the presentation, it could not have gone better. Even with our minor speech-flubs, or our tiny technical difficulties, I could not have asked for a better executed presentation from our team. The only thing left to do is find out what we placed as, which will be announced next week! I’ll be sure to update this blog as soon as we find out so stay tuned!
As my MAIP experience comes to an end, I reflect on my journey and I can see how far I’ve come. I think about everything I have gained: life experience, agency experience, networking lessons, friends, and so much more. I am grateful for my time in MAIP and could not be more proud of my fellow class of 2021 for not only making it through but making it through in a year like this one. While this is only a “See you later” and not a “Goodbye”, I am honored to be a MAIP 2021 fellow.
