AmbassadorsAt Work

The Cowrywise Ambassador Internship Program: The Journey So Far

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In May 2021, we recruited our first cohort of campus ambassadors. They were about 600 in total. Three months after, we recruited two of these ambassadors to intern at Cowrywise. Here is the story of our ambassador internship program so far.

A Short Story..

On the 10th of August, 2021, Cowrywise welcomed its first student interns to the office in Lagos. The interns, Oluchukwu Chiadika and Maryann Onuoha were leading the Cowrywise communities in their schools [Obafemi Awolowo University and Imo State University] and were now coming in to intern with us for four weeks. 

Oluchukwu, a then 400-level student of Food and Science Technology was just breaking into growth marketing and started her internship with the Cowrywise growth team. Maryann, a final-year student of History and International Relations was a budding content marketer and wanted to develop her skills with the content writing team at Cowrywise. They both resumed with beginner’s knowledge. Twenty months down the line, Oluchukwu is the Community Lead at Pillow while Maryann is a Content Marketing Manager at Mara. 

This is why we’ve created the ambassadors’ internship program; to equip our campus ambassadors with financial knowledge, tech skills and corporate experience as they start off their professional careers. The story of Oluchukwu and Maryann, our first set of interns, is just one of many. Here’s the journey so far.

Oluchukwu Chiadika and Maryann Onuoha at the Cowrywise office

A little bit about the ambassadors’ program

In this article, I explained how it’s easy to tell people to save and invest. However, most people don’t take action if they don’t know why they should. Nudging people to make wise financial decisions from a place of knowledge is the best way to go. This is what our ambassadors’ community is about. We are educating Nigerian students about money to ensure that they make better financial decisions. In addition to this, we also create opportunities for our ambassadors to learn tech skills and aim for global opportunities.

Over the years, we have scaled our activities to more than just personal finance. We now have virtual career development sessions, webinars and physical hangouts for our ambassadors every month. The goal has remained the same: to build a unique generation of Nigerian students who will carry the torch of personal finance and wealth building to every corner of the nation, all thanks to Cowrywise. 

Our Internship Program

In addition to the multiple online training sessions, we also offer two ambassadors internship positions at Cowrywise every other month. We started this in August 2021 and months down the line, we have had 16 campus ambassadors intern with us at Cowrywise. 

The first cohort

Oluchukwu Chiadika – Marketing Intern [now, Community Lead, Pillow]

Oluchukwu Chiadika joined us in August, 2021. As at then, she was a 400-level student at OAU studying Food Nutrition. She was just transitioning into Tech, specifically growth marketing. To fully understand the context of Oluchukwu’s internship at Cowrywise, it’s essential that we hear from her.

Oluchukwu Chiadika

Over a year after her internship, I reached out to Oluchukwu to know how the ambassador internship has helped her marketing career so far. Her response? Here:

The internship at Cowrywise helped me understand the different career paths I was interested in and in no time showed me my strengths and where I needed to work more on. With the internship, I was sure about roles I never wanted to venture into and was able to build a career map which is now very instrumental to my current role. 

Just after the internship, I went back to school and got three different job offers, which was mind-blowing and surreal. First of all, I was recommended by a colleague who trusted my work. I also picked up numerous certifications and of course, I learned transferable skills that are very evident and useful to my growth. I’m a lot more confident in my abilities, and it feels like a rinse-and-repeat cycle. From my experience, I’ve also been able to help other growth enthusiasts get started on their journey. 

I learned many things from the internship which remain useful to me till date. Paying attention to details, how to work better in teams, working without supervision and delivering quality; all these are things I picked up at Cowrywise. My self-leadership skill was sharpened and this still plays a huge role in my success today. 

Oluchukwu Chiadika, Razaq [CEO of Cowrywise], and Hannah Olaniyi [ambassador intern, October 2021]

About her career growth, she said:

Looking back, my career growth would not even be possible without the Cowrywise internship. The opportunity helped me grow faster than I could have imagined. The internship fast-tracked my career progression. I got my current role based on the experience I gained during my internship and I’ve had a great time here.

Oluchukwu’s story is a reminder of the power of hard work, determination, and the opportunities that technology can provide. At Cowrywise, we understand the importance of investing in the growth and development of our ambassadors to equip them with the necessary skills and knowledge needed to excel in the digital world. We continue taking on new ambassadors while also looking for the best way to ensure that they gain tech skills and are ready for the corporate world.

Maryann Onuoha – Content Writing Intern. [now Content Marketing Manager, Mara; 2022 Women in Tech Global Award Nominee]

Maryann Onuoha

While Oluchukwu interned as a marketer, her fellow ambassador Maryann also interned as a content writer. More than a year after, she has this to say:

Before my internship, I had dabbled into various career paths, unsure of what direction to take. I have always been interested in writing but had never seriously considered it as a career. During my internship, I was given the opportunity to work on various writing projects including creating blog posts, website content, and social media posts. As I worked on these projects, I discovered that I truly enjoyed writing and felt that I had found my voice as a content writer. The experience helped me understand the skills and knowledge required to be a successful writer and gave me the confidence to pursue it as a profession. The internship not only provided me with hands-on experience in content writing. It also exposed me to the different facets of the industry. I was able to learn about content strategy, SEO, and social media marketing, which further solidified my decision to pursue content writing as a profession.

On life after her internship:

After my internship at Cowrywise, a lot of positive changes happened in my career and personal life. Firstly, I was able to secure a job immediately after the internship. Though I was initially scared, I knew I could do it and I just needed to have faith in myself. The experience and skills I gained during the internship helped me excel in my new role and build a strong foundation for my career. During the internship, I also had the opportunity to explore in growth marketing which broadened my skillset and helped me move from being a content writer to a content marketer. This opened up more opportunities for me in the job market and expanded my professional horizons.

My confidence also skyrocketed after the internship, thanks to the experiences and skills I gained during my time at Cowrywise. I had the opportunity to plan and host the Google Developer Group Lagos (GDG Lagos )Devfest Lagos event twice, which is the biggest developer event in Africa with a total number of 4000 attendees. This helped me develop my public speaking skills and increase my visibility within the tech community. Every promotional content we put out was done by me. I also managed the social media page while we grew from 6000 followers on Twitter to 19.3k followers; our Instagram also grew from 0 to over 2000 followers.

Maryann Onuoha at the Cowrywise office. August 25, 2021.

Looking back…

Looking back, I can definitely tie a direct link from my internship at Cowrywise to where I am now in my career. The internship provided me with a solid foundation and skill set in content writing and marketing, which has been instrumental in my career growth. After the internship, I secured a job in content marketing where I was able to apply the skills and knowledge I gained during the internship. I was able to use my writing and marketing skills to create compelling content and increase brand awareness for my clients. This experience helped me to develop my professional network and establish myself as a skilled content marketer.

The internship at Cowrywise fast-tracked my career progression in many ways. Prior to the internship, I had limited experience in content writing and marketing, and I was not sure what career path I wanted to pursue. However, the internship gave me hands-on experience and training in content writing and marketing, which helped me to gain the necessary skills and knowledge to excel in my career. The internship also provided me with exposure to different aspects of the industry, including growth marketing, which broadened my skill set and opened up more career opportunities for me.

In terms of personal growth, the internship helped me to develop my confidence and communication skills. I had the opportunity to work with a diverse team of professionals and learn from their experiences, which helped me to become more self-assured and articulate in my interactions with others. I am grateful for the opportunity to have been a part of the Cowrywise team.

Subsequent cohorts…

Esther Olowoloba and Emmanuella Osas

Oluchukwu and Maryann set the pace for our internship program. They did great and every intern that followed knew there was a standard to uphold. The next cohort featured Esther Olowoloba and Emmanuella Osas. Esther worked with the growth team to churn out creative written content while Emmanuella focused on video content. During her time here, Emmanuella took over our Instagram page, creating reels steadily. One of those reels got over a hundred thousand views, making it our best-performing reel so far.

In her article about her internship experience, Esther mentioned that she learnt team spirit at Cowrywise. She wrote:

Dealing with people especially your mates can be tasking and this is where the team spirit comes in. From engaging the ambassadors’ community to organizing virtual events such as Club60 and Cowrywise Ambassadors Masterclass, I learnt a lot about working with people. I also learned how to be diplomatic and organized; I understood the concept of time management. 

I felt accepted and my self-esteem increased to a greater value. Educating people on investments such as mutual funds and savings plans is so easy for me now because I was open to learning and the Cowrywise team accepted me with open arms. I also celebrated my birthday at the Cowrywise office Has to be the best so far. Real love everywhere. 

Esther Olowoloba with her birthday cake.
Emmanuella Osas, UNIPORT ambassador.

Hannah Olaniyi and Omotayo Olasoji

These two were the third cohort of interns at Cowrywise. Omotayo basically picked up from where Emmanuella left. Given her prior experience in video content creation, especially on YouTube, Omotayo came up with various ideas on how to optimise our YouTube for growth. During this period, we were still trying to get the hang of video marketing at Cowrywise and her presence was very helpful in achieving this.

Hannah Olaniyi was the first design intern we would have. Back then in 2021, we were skeptical about bringing in a design intern. There were two major reasons for this. The first: Cowrywise is a design-driven company. This means every single asset that comes out of the Cowrywise design team has to be excellent. We understand that most of our ambassador interns are still new in their tech careers and they apply for internships to learn. Hence, we don’t put unrealistic standards on them. The second reason: technical roles such as design require a lot of hand-holding. We had to ensure that we had the necessary team setup to take on an intern. Thankfully, our then-growth marketing manager, Nonso Okolo was a creative designer. His presence, together with Feyi Sonubi’s was instrumental in giving Hannah, our first design intern an impeccable experience. After her, we’ve had two more design interns.

Hannah’s time at Cowrywise was remarkable. After her internship, she went ahead to lead the Cowrywise Ambassadors design team (which has produced two more interns). While still a student at Unilag, she currently works as a creative designer for a startup in Lagos, a testament to the effectiveness of the ambassadors’ internship and to her dedication to excellence.

Omotayo Olasoji and Hannah Olaniyi

Olaoluwa Adesakin and Eniibukunoluwa Oyesanya

The fourth cohort: Olaoluwa, a student of the University of Ilorin came in as a design intern and Eniibukunoluwa, an Obafemi Awolowo University student, came in as a video marketing intern.

Before interning at Cowrywise, Eniibukunoluwa created videos for her beauty brand and shared on her Instagram page. Coming to Cowrywise, she wanted to repurpose her video creation and editing skills for Cowrywise and see if she could transition into video marketing. One major thing we are particular about with the Cowrywise ambassador internships is that the interns who come around find clarity after their one month at Cowrywise. This could mean figuring out that they liked their time at Cowrywise and want to continue that career path; or that they have experienced what it means to work in a corporate world now and would not be interested in that. While `Eniibukunoluwa’s path was of the latter, her contribution to the Cowrywise video content remains precious to us.

Olaoluwa, who also interned during this period, worked closely with our creative designer, Kizito Isifeh.

Before Olaoluwa, we noticed that we did not have a lot of male interns. We later discovered after taking a poll in our ambassadors’ community that most of our male ambassadors were applying to the Engineering team, an internship track that was not yet open then. Olaoluwa was our first male intern.

In this article where he talked about his internship experience, Olaoluwa wrote:

I worked on several projects together with the creative designer and other members of the growth team. I created social media designs, in-app Cards, illustrations and motion designs. One project that I loved so much was my first isometric illustration. This was something I had never done before and I was so excited to create it. In 4 weeks, I went from not knowing how to use Figma to using the same tool for several project.

Working with a team can be difficult; sometimes you wonder if you are doing it all wrong. However, the growth team at Cowrywise made it easy. My direct managers checked in on my progress frequently and introduced me to multiple productivity tools. Opportunities like the Cowrywise campus ambassador internship are rare. I’m grateful for the chance to contribute to the value created at Cowrywise.

Olaoluwa is now a Brand Communicator at Naijaways.

Eniibukunoluwa Oyesanya and Olaoluwa Adesakin

Morenikeji Odebiyi and Tolulope Oyejinmi

Tolulope joined the Cowryiwse support team as an intern in September 2022. Before then, we had never had a support team ambassador intern. However, we saw the need to create room for this given the rising interest in tech support as a career. In our ambassadors’ community, we have a small group of students training to be product specialists who saw the need to intern with the Cowrywise support team. One such person was Tolulope, a Law student of the University of Ibadan.

About her internship, Tolulope wrote:

I came in to understand how customer feedback affects product development, the importance of prioritizing customer satisfaction, collaborate with team members on projects and basically learn as much as I can about customer experience. To achieve this, I worked with the best team at Cowrywise. They shared their knowledge and time. They made extra efforts to make sure I got a hang of things. They reassured me when I panicked. Again, I worked with the best team.

Tolulope Oyejinmi

Morenikeji joined the growth team to work as an SEO content writer. About her internship, she wrote:

If anything, interning at Cowrywise is the best thing that has happened to me this year [2022]. Before then, I had always been writing but still, I was amazed at how much work goes into writing for the Cowrywise blog. It was more than just putting words together. It was about writing to achieve a particular goal, to send a particular message across. And in my case as an SEO content writer, my writing was majorly to optimise for search engines such as Google. Working with the entire team on different projects exposed me to various aspects of growth marketing. As someone who is new to the industry and still trying to find my foot, this diverse learning and working experience really helped in my decision-making. In the end, I settled for SEO Writing.

Morenikeji and Felix Akinnibi, SEO Specialist at Cowrywise.

Timileyin Joel and Simisola Jentry

These were the last set of interns we had in 2022. Timileyin joined us as a growth marketing intern. During his time here, he worked with our SEO specialist, churning out amazing SEO articles. He also worked with the Cowrywise Ambassadors community leading the community efforts and facilitating community initiatives. After one month, he was initially retained for an extra month during which Timileyin focused on marketing strategy, awareness, acquisition, and retention campaigns whilst developing himself as a marketing generalist. More interestingly, Timileyin now works as a Growth Associate at Cowrywise.

Simisola Jentry came in as our first-ever data intern. As the first data intern ever, we had to create a new template for her and thankfully, our data team was up to the task. About her internship, Simisola wrote:

My data analyst internship has broadened my perspective on how I can apply my analytical skills to the field of actuarial science, which has made me more competitive in the job market. Specifically, the experience has enabled me to explore the role of data analytics in actuarial science, which has become increasingly important with the rise of big data and artificial intelligence. To further expand my knowledge in this area, I am currently conducting research for my dissertation on predictive analytics in actuarial science. Additionally, I am organizing a program themed ‘AI in Underwriting: Improving Efficiency and Accuracy’ to explore how machine learning and other forms of AI can enhance the accuracy and efficiency of underwriting in the insurance industry.

Despite not having the opportunity to work since then due to my academic commitments, I strongly believe that the experience and skills I gained during my internship at Cowrywise will be highly beneficial in my future career pursuits. The internship, however, challenged me to hone my data visualisation skills, which is one of my top learning priorities now. I learnt about analytics engineering which is the process of building and maintaining the infrastructure and systems that support data analytics. I learnt how to design and build data pipelines that efficiently and securely transport data between different systems, as well as how to optimize queries and data processing algorithms for improved performance. I also learnt so much about communication, collaboration and personal branding. I have experienced significant development in my soft skills.

At Cowrywise, I learnt how to design and build data pipelines that efficiently and securely transport data between different systems, as well as how to optimize queries and data processing algorithms for improved performance. I also learnt so much about communication, collaboration and personal branding. I have experienced significant development in my soft skills. I definitely am not the same person I was before the internship. My approach to problem-solving and my learning priorities are now different.

Simisola Jentry during her presentation at Cowrywise.
Timileyin Joel during his presentation at Cowrywise

Nmabuobi Oba and Favour Onojodofia

Nmabuobi joined us as a motion design intern. This was the first time we were taking on a motion design intern. Nmabuobi came in for a one-month internship but she and her colleague Favour did so good we retained them for an extra month.

She wrote this about her internship at Cowrywise,

At Cowrywise, I worked with Yeni and subsequently Kizito, the creative designer, to create video assets with Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects for our campaigns. I also learnt to figure out how to best reach our target audience with video campaigns. I learnt how to work in a team and to communicate my ideas effectively in an environment that encouraged that. I learned to produce excellent work whether an audience of 1 or an audience of 70,000 people would view it. This is very important.

I partook in weekly roundup meetings with the growth team to discuss progress on our campaigns and learnt tips for creating content for your intended viewer as well as the importance of marketing and its strategies to help your product to reach the right audience. I am glad that I was able to start my media career at Cowrywise with an amazing team, healthy work culture and an amazing set of people to work with. I know I have been blessed and I am glad I got to intern as an ambassador.

Nmabuobi Oba

Favour interned with the growth team as an SEO content writer. During her two months here, she wrote a total of thirty-two articles on the Cowrywise blog. For someone whose first experience with SEO was during this internship, this is commendable.

In her article on the internship, Favour wrote:

Although I’ve been doing content writing for a while before the internship, I couldn’t say the same for SEO writing. But look at me, I feel like a badass SEO content writer. I learned a lot in 8 weeks and I am astonished at how much I could do. Working in a cross-functional team in real-time has always been a dream of mine. Here, I didn’t just get to experience that, I got to experience it with the best team ever. Working with the growth team to brainstorm ideas for campaigns and brand marketing has taught me so much. I understand better the effort that goes into product marketing and how every detail is important in your commitment to excellence. I’ve learned to not settle for less because it is convenient, but to push for the best because that’s what you’re known for. I learned about freedom and responsibility. Nobody was breathing down my neck about meeting up with my deliverables but I knew it was expected of me and I learned to deliver at the right time. It’s just part of the culture you meet at Cowrywise and somehow it becomes a part of you.

Favour Onojodofia

14 interns, one word: growth

All these stories have only one thing in common: growth. At Cowrywise, we are confident that every single ambassador that has interned here has learnt something to help them with their career. We may not see it yet but we know in the months and years to come, it will be obvious. We are committed to their growth. We are constantly reworking our internship program to allow our male ambassadors who are mostly interested in engineering roles to also benefit.

Our commitment to wealth building is closely tied to empowering Nigerian students with career advancement opportunities. We do this because we know it is easier to build wealth when you’re financially stable and a good career can give you financial stability. This is why we equip our ambassadors with the necessary [tech] skills to start their careers.

Currently, we have about 3000 ambassadors across the nation. If you’re a university student and these stories have inspired you, apply to be an ambassador here.

Cheers to many more years of growth! 🎉

Not a student but still inspired? Why not drop a comment and share this post?

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