Student Story Maike

I chose this internship because it was a great opportunity for me to gain experience in sustainable agriculture and marketing. This internship allowed me to explore real challenges that cooperatives and coffee farmers were facing and to come up with suitable solutions. In addition, I wanted to experience a new culture and way of living. Furthermore, I also wanted to learn more about the coffee industry. I drink coffee daily but still had little knowledge of how it is produced. So, I also thought this was a good opportunity to learn more about this.

I was told about this internship by my study coach, she has worked for this company before she started working at the HAS. So, she connected me in with one of the employees at Agriterra in Kenya. I first scheduled a teams meeting with them to get more information about the assignment. They then asked me to send them some reports that I wrote to assess my writing style. A few weeks later I already got an email that they would like for me to come to Kenya!

During this internship I had to create 4 marketing strategies for 4 coffee cooperatives. So, I started with creating questions to interview people that held different positions within the cooperative. I did all these interviews times 4, since I worked on 4 cooperatives. Once I gathered all the data, I analyzed it and used different marketing models to create the strategies. I presented these strategies to the cooperatives and asked them for any feedback. After this I created action plans with them together with my supervisor to implement the marketing strategies. Based on this I created a marketing plan with all these elements for each cooperative.

In addition, I worked on a business case for intercropping for farmers. In this case, I discussed which crops could best be grown along with coffee and which benefits each crop has. I really got to utilise the knowledge I'd gained at the HAS.

The office is in Nairobi, but the cooperatives are located in Kericho, which is a 5-hour drive from Nairobi. When I was doing field work, I travelled to Kericho on Monday and started with my research on Tuesday morning. In the morning I had some breakfast in the hotel and was on the road around 8.30.

These cooperatives are located on remote locations, the farthest cooperative was about 2 hours away from the hotel. Once I arrived at a cooperative, I first greeted everyone and sat down for a coffee or tea with them. After this, my supervisor and me discussed with them what the plan was for the day. Then we went straight to work. To develop a good marketing strategy, I needed the opinion of some members of the cooperative to find out what they thought of the organic fertilizer.

So, we were off again to visit these farmers. I visited and interviewed a total of 5 farmers in the morning. Then it was time for lunch, this was either at a hotel or restaurant nearby or at the cooperative itself. After lunch we went to visit the next cooperative or continue interviewing at the same cooperative. This was different each day. This interviewing I did until Thursday then traveled back to Nairobi on Friday morning.

I then spent the following week in the office working out all the information I had gathered. So, every week and even every day was different, this makes the internship very fun and interesting because you don't know how your day is going to go.

In general, I didn't really run into any challenges that caused me to get stuck on occasion. Only a few small ones that I solved quickly. For example, I faced a when interviewing these farmers or members of the cooperative. Some farmers could not speak English and that was totally fine because I had a translator with me, but what happened was that this person was not always able to translate exactly what has been said, because the questions I prepared were sometimes quite detailed. Even the translator sometimes did not understand because his English was not very advanced. For this language barrier I decided to rephrase my questions during the interview. So, I asked the questions in a very simple way so that the translator could easily translate them. This led to the response that I was looking for.

Also adjusting to local work styles was difficult. All these members had their own schedule and ways of working. So, sometimes I found myself in situations where the person that I needed was not present and I sometimes had to wait for a very long time for this person to show up. In this moment I felt like I was wasting my time. I solved this quite fast after talking with my study coach about it. I decided to take my laptop with me to the cooperatives, so that I could already start analyzing the information that I already did have. As a result, I was still able to make good use of my time.

I really appreciated the cultural experience of working in Kenya. Meeting new people in local areas was very special to me. I got invited to their homes for lunch or dinner and could really see their way of living. This was a very educational experience for me because they introduced me to the food they eat and the traditions they have.

In addition, adapting to a different work environment, and seeing how agriculture operates in a rural setting made this internship very meaningful and gave me a lot of insights.

I also met people from all over the world while I was in Nairobi and had so much fun with them. We went on a lot of trips across the country, like visiting some safari parks or we hiked some hills or mountains. We also went out for dinner or drinks multiple times a week!  

This internship really pushed me out of my comfort zone. It made me realize my strengths, such as adaptability and curiosity. It also taught me to be independent and to be responsible. I had to take ownership of my work, make decisions, and manage my time effectively. This experience strengthened my ability to work independently while also collaborating with others.

This was also the first time for me to solve a problem in a real-world situation. During my internship, I had to deal with real challenges. I had to understand why farmers were hesitant to use bio-solutions and find marketing strategies that actually worked for them. However, I quickly realized that the solutions weren’t always simple. Things like financial limits, traditions and logistical issues all played a role in farmers' decisions.

This experience broadened my horizons because it showed me that problem-solving isn’t just about coming up with ideas – it’s about understanding people, their environment, and their challenges. I learned to adapt my thinking, be more open-minded, and focus on finding practical solutions that work in the real world.