Ieva Steponaviciute ’17 (right) maps strategy in a photo from the MERAKI Facebook page.
Colgate students are participating in internships in a variety of fields and locations this summer. This post is by Ieva Steponaviciute ’17, an undeclared major from Kaunas, Lithuania, who is interning with MERAKI.
This summer, I am interning at a fashion brand called MERAKI in Vilnius, Lithuania. After a long time thinking about where to apply for internships, I decided to find out what it was like to start and run a business. I Skyped with the new fashion label MERAKI after finding out that they were looking for help, and I secured a spot for the summer.
The company was created by Lithuanian entrepreneur Vaidas Būdvytis and his South African wife, Laurelle. Naturally, everything they do breathes wanderlust, joy of discovery, and a mingling of cultures. MERAKI makes T-shirts and shoes with Lithuanian and South African ethnic materials. It also imports loafers and Zulu jewelry from South Africa.
My official title is the sales/marketing intern, so I do a lot of things related to how our brand represents itself. I was given the task to come up with names and descriptions for all of our products for our website, Facebook, etc. Later, I coordinated a product photo shoot for our web shop with another intern, and did some editing on the photos afterwards.
My other tasks include writing and editing our press releases to submit after events, researching and contacting boutiques where we could sell our products, and typical office responsibilities like mailing out orders. Currently, I am compiling a list of boutiques in Lithuania and abroad that we are going to contact going forward.
I also have just finished running my first event: Our brand participated in a forum/festival called the World Lithuanian Youth Gathering, and I was responsible for executing a workshop during the event. From brainstorming ideas and managing a budget to finding people who could run the stand with me during the festival, I was able to see the project through from start to finish.
Because MERAKI is a relatively new brand, I have been given creative license and freedom to explore different areas of the business. I’ve had a very exciting first month and a half with MERAKI, and going into my last couple weeks, I am very curious to see what else I will experience here.