Letters from an Intern: Claire Primack designs for social good

Our first letter comes from Claire Primack. She recently finished six months at the Portland office as a New Media and Branding intern. Now, she's moving to New York City to work full-time in the field of visual design.

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When you graduate from college, you’re offered a plethora of free advice from many well-meaning people. One piece of advice I received was to make sure I did not have too high of expectations for my first job.

Fulfilling work, strong relationships, and lots of laughter were certainly not what I would have predicted in my first position. Kiva simply exceeded all my expectations.

As my internship comes to a close, I am extremely grateful for my experience here. I worked as the design intern on the marketing team, but I also had the chance to work with employees from all different teams in the organization.

Prior to this internship, I got my degree in advertising at Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia. My dream has always been to use my design and advertising skills to promote good in the world, so this was my moment to explore how I can put those skills to work at a nonprofit!

During my time at Kiva, I had the chance to work on a handful of different projects, both locally and globally, with my dear friend and intern partner Casey Miller. We had the opportunity to interview and meet borrowers from all over Oregon, as we were based in the Portland office. This was a wonderful experience as it showed me first-hand how much positive impact a Kiva loan can have on someone’s life.

Our Office Vibe Manager, Eli, always knows how to bring the positive energy.

I also got to help design and art direct a few big campaigns and created lots of general social content. In my first month at Kiva, Casey and I were tasked to create invitations, banners, brochures, and other assets for the Kiva Protocol launch event held in Sierra Leone. This was an extremely fast-paced project that ended up being a huge success. It was amazing to see photos of the event with the President of Sierra Leone standing in front of the banner we created. I absolutely loved coming up with content for social good and the mission of financial accessibility.

I formed relationships with many very special people who I have spent countless hours of quality time with inside and outside of work. One of my favorite parts: Lunch Club. There were five of us in Lunch Club at the Portland office and we lunch together twice a week, rotating who cooked the meal. I really enjoyed the time spent sharing delicious food with my fellow Kivans. Getting to work alongside so many wonderful people at Kiva was truly a blessing.

Working with the two other interns in the office, Claire Zambon and Casey Miller, was so much fun.

All in all, I am immensely thankful for my internship experience at Kiva and it’s been a great opportunity to create content for meaningful caused-based work. I gained a great deal of unique knowledge and personal growth from my time with Kiva, and it’s safe to say I’m leaving the organization as an individual with strong expectations and sense of self.

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