The Impact Lab Course promotes inclusivity and creativity, giving all full time and exchange students the opportunity to apply for an internship throughout their university years. By offering students the chance to work with emerging social ventures, it exposes them to new career fields while equipping them with professionalism and communication skills.
We recently spoke with Clemens Friese, a third-year exchange student from the Netherlands studying international business. He is currently working for Clearbot as a Marketing intern. Read the interview to find out more about how the internship inspired Clemens to pursue his future social impact journey.
Can you give us a brief introduction about yourself? Which year are you in and what major are you studying? What do you do to relax or self-care?
Hi, My name is Clemens. I’m 22 and from Germany. I’m studying in the Netherlands for international business as a third-year student. I’ve reached the final year of my Bachelors and am currently on exchange for one semester at HKU.
What really helps me to relax is to meditate. That is something I’ve picked up during the pandemic and I can highly recommend that to everyone. I try to do it almost daily. I think it’s very interesting and helps a lot with stress. It’s not as spiritual as most people think. Other than mediating, I go on jogs.
Why did you apply to Clearbot?
Clearbot was personally the most interesting company as they have a very high-tech product with huge potential, and they are using that technology to solve water pollution. Although there are a few companies attempting to solve this issue as well, there’s still not a lot of action happening in that area. So I think Clearbot is very interesting.
Tell us about your experience at Impact Lab thus far. What are your roles and responsibilities in Clearbot?
At Clearbot, we are working together in a team of two, both working on the marketing plan and the general communication strategy. We have a lot of freedom, which is very cool. There aren’t weekly tasks that repeat themselves. We finished a report two weeks ago where we looked at channel strategies, and now, we are working on implementing them, asking ourselves how we can attract attention and generate leads for Clearbot through clear and compelling storytelling.
What is your one major takeaway from the Impact Lab experience? If you had previous internship experiences, how is Impact Lab different from them?
Compared to previous internships, the freedom Impact Lab provides is very interesting. With only so much time, you get to learn how to prioritize what is really important whilst testing out the possibilities.
How has this experience benefited your personal growth? Has it influenced your way of thinking about creating social impact, whether personally or through your future work?
I would say that this experience confirmed my view and interest in working in a startup, especially a social startup. It’s just great because you’re not getting into a fixed organization where you don’t even have to question the status quo since internally that doesn’t exist. There are just so many opportunities in a social startup. I enjoy this internship a lot as the whole experience has confirmed what I believe in.
If you could solve any one world problem/issue, what would it be? Why?
That’s a tough question. There’s a lot of issues in the world right now even though people believe that the world is generally getting better. Right now, I’d say the war in Ukraine. I would like to relieve the people from the suffering and help rebuild everything that they’ve lost. The war is something that is very shocking to everyone at the moment. But then overall, of course, climate change, because it is such an urgent matter and we can not postpone it any longer. It’s definitely something our generation will have to deal with a lot more than the current generation.
How are you dealing with the new Covid restrictions? What is the main thing that you have learnt from the pandemic so far?
I really don’t like remote working. I like quiet, collaborative work. When everyone is sitting in front of a screen, it gets a bit harder because you’re lacking a lot of the in between interactions where a lot of ideas tend to be created. With what I’ve learned, I think I mentioned at the beginning that I’ve picked up meditation during the pandemic. Taking a bit more care about yourself is something that you have to actively do.
Who do you think should take the Impact Lab Course?
Pretty much for everyone. I think everyone can gain from the experience. Of course, I think you should bring a bit of proactiveness depending on the task as it might not be so straightforward and some interest in social issues. But I think, knowing that you’re on the way of doing something and helping others, it will bring satisfaction to everyone and the experience in general. In university, you can only learn so much with the theories and frameworks. Everyone can benefit from the application of these theories to real-life situations.
What is your advice for future Impact Lab students?
Apply for it. The Impact Lab Course gives you more freedom than other internships so make use of that freedom to create social impact.
