Summer Internship Spotlight: Marcela Colmenares, (MBA’22): Microsoft

Each year, our students spend their summers in Washington, D.C., across the nation, and around the world working in corporate, nonprofit, and government organizations. Meet a few of our graduate and undergraduate students in our 2021 Summer Internship Spotlight series.

Marcela Colmenares, (MBA’22)

Product Marketing Manager Intern, Microsoft

Tell us about your summer.

I spent most of my Summer as a Product Marketing Manager intern with a Cloud Intelligent Automation team at Microsoft. However, one of the most exciting parts of my summer was going on my first fly fishing trip in Montana! 

How did your internship relate to your professional or personal interests?

I’m interested in solving big problems through business, for as many people as possible. I’m also attracted to entrepreneurs who can roll up their sleeves and do whatever it takes to succeed. When I started my internship, I was scared about the bureaucracy of such a big company, but I was lucky to land on an extremely entrepreneurial and innovative team that is trying to solve a huge problem: How to ethically save time and money to improve Cloud marketing operations by using intelligent automation tools, and how to transmit this knowledge to as many customers as possible. This experience taught me a lot about where the industry that I want to join (Tech) is going. 

How did you find the internship?

I applied through MCV, after attending an MBA conference. 

What’s the most interesting or impactful thing you did or worked on?

In my life, I’m most proud of helping low-income Venezuelan students attend United World Colleges. In my career, I’m most proud of helping my team at the Inter-American Development Bank help Latin American governments provide basic services to about 5M displaced Venezuelans. (which coincidentally includes many members of my family). Finally, the most impactful thing that I worked on during my internship was developing an ROI model to help my team measure the impact of all its automation projects (dollars and costs saved)

What did a typical day look like?

A typical day during my virtual internship included attending meetings, working on daily tasks, and going rock climbing in the afternoons. 

Any advice for other students?

Start early, be curious, and bring energy. Energy is contagious, and it’s very obvious and sad when it is absent. I believe every team wants someone who is and looks energized about what they do, someone passionate.