Social Impact Internships: Christine Sinn (’27)
My name is Christine Sinn, and I am a rising sophomore majoring in Course 15-3. Thanks to the PKG Center, I had the privilege of interning for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) at their Washington D.C. headquarters. As an intern for WWF’s Markets Institute, I tested and refined an idea to create national funds from our global agricultural trade proceeds to promote food production sustainability.
Looking back to the first day I stepped into WWF’s headquarters, I recall the incredible nervousness I felt about the summer. This summer was my first foray into exploring sustainable finance and anything related to agriculture. While I was thankful to have the opportunity to tackle the problem of agricultural production sustainability, the enormity of the problem definitely weighed heavily compared to my limited experience in the field. This nervousness was also complemented by an apprehension about how I would fit into WWF. I chose to major in finance to learn how people can use money to fund creative initiatives and impactful ventures. Therefore, coming to MIT, I wanted to have the chance to explore some sort of “finance for good” endeavor, and I will always be thankful that PKG and WWF have given me that first chance. However, I did receive comments of pleasant surprise at work that “a finance major would want to work for an environmental nonprofit,” and I recognized that perhaps it wasn’t the clearest jump.
Nevertheless, the people at WWF kindly welcomed me to the team and gave me great guidance to learn and contribute to this important project. I began to establish roots at WWF, make headway into my research, and find meaningful friendships with mentors and fellow interns. One of my favorite parts about being in-person this summer has been the number of lunches and coffee chats I’ve had with people in various departments at WWF. Learning more about the people that make up what we now recognize as the World Wildlife Fund has definitely been a privilege. I met a former IT professional who now actively conserves our forests, an MBA intern from Sweden concentrating in public policy and management, and a lifelong food advocate improving food supply chain management and global metrics measuring our environmental impacts (my supervisor!). As I learned why people chose to help our planet and how they came to WWF, I realized how different everyone’s backgrounds were. The path to conservation and more broadly, positive impact, has no preset pipeline or exclusive invitation. Everyone can make an impact using the skills and passions that speak to them.
Realizing this, I started to dive headfirst into everything I could do for this funding project. I asked many questions (ask my supervisors), used my experience with economics research to create miniature market simulations, and posed new ways to map historical commodity trades amongst countries. Throughout my internship, I became more confident in my ability to jump into a new idea or initiative and contribute as much as I could, while racing to learn more so I could do more. In some sense, my previous lack of experience in the field made me a more understanding participant. I understood how a global project championing sustainability required both rigorous research and clear communication to convince people who haven’t engaged with these issues before. By the end of my internship, I am thankful to say that I have helped our team make fruitful steps forward, presenting my work to the greater WWF community and preparing foundational data for a partnership with Brazil to establish a pilot program of this funding idea.
As my journey exploring sustainable finance and creating better markets with WWF came to a close, I wanted to find what’s next. The taste of working to solve a large-scale issue was infectious, and I was eager to keep chasing that thrill. I asked my mentors for advice on where I can go next and was let down by their response: get more education. What?! I was initially astounded. But as I did more research into the professional backgrounds of people who I admired, I realized the wisdom behind my mentors’ words. People working in social impact finance or tackling global challenges as founders or researchers pursued many forms of education, united by the same passion to thoughtfully learn about problems that spoke to them. From formal PhDs to years of volunteering to “conventional” career leaders reshaping their workplaces’ missions, every person’s path was marked by a thoughtful depth that taught me that life is a marathon, not a sprint.
So like Po, who found an empty scroll at the critical moment of the first Kung Fu Panda movie, I learned that there is no easy path or “royal road” to solving problems. This summer was special, like an enticing sneak peek into the ending of a good story. But I’m only at around Chapter 5, and the journey takes work, many years of learning and retrying, and a spirit of ambitious patience. I am happy to say that I am returning to MIT this fall, to indeed“get more education.” I’ll be taking more classes in finance, developmental economics, and globalization. I’ll be pursuing more experiential learning opportunities to see what other challenges and opportunities are out there. Most importantly, I’ll be more openminded than I was on my first nerve-wracking day, knowing that every role we take in our work on this world matters.
Tags: Social Impact Internships, Social Impact Internships 2024, Social Impact Internships Summer 2024, Summer 2024
