Being an intern at ECDI brings different things every day. Right now, we are focusing our efforts in the Women’s Business Center to support businesses affected by COVID-19 and creating partnerships to better reach the Hispanic demographic.

Last week I was invited to go to the Guadalupe Center with Edgar from the Women’s Business center to meet Ramona and learn about the center and the services they provide to the community. They primarily support the Latinx community on the west side, with services such as social workers, an immigration lawyer, and a food pantry. They are interested in partnering with SBA and ECDI in order to bring in house business classes. A partnership would be very beneficial to better reach the Latinx community, a goal ECDI currently has.

We also went to visit a client in her bakery, Le Vieux Lyon French Bakery Café, to see firsthand her success and talk about what else she might need. She served us macaroons, tarts, and cupcakes! Her bakery is lovely, and her treats were delicious.

I love experiencing firsthand how much the Women’s Business Center truly cares about the success of their clients. ECDI may not be globally known or a household name for the work they do but they are constantly trying to figure out how to better support the community. I thought about this during our learning session this week, marketing is an important aspect of any company; but in the Women’s Business Center it is evident that they are more focused and passionate about marketing their clients’ businesses.

The rest of my week has been focusing on the community garden. Monday, I spent the entire day outside building garden beds, handling soil delivery, and planting fifty different veggies into our new beds. The most exciting part was that we had some members of the community stop by and tell us they loved the new garden beds! I have gained a lot of knowledge about marketing this week through the garden too! I met two people who work in marketing, and they taught me specifically about ECDI marketing. I have been religiously studying the branding guides to assure that the flyers, event emails, and garden signs fit the standards!

Overall, I cannot believe how much I am working on and how much I am learning. I am so grateful to all the staff that have been so essential to my experience thus far.