Say hello to our summer interns: Hey, Amanda!
Ever wonder who’s helping to keep the drumbeat of our social media going? Who’s the magic behind our SEO? Who’s got her finger on the pulse of our analytics and insights? Please help us welcome Amanda Mier to the team this summer!
Amanda is our social media maven and comms extraordinaire (though her resume will probably say Social Media + Communications Intern). She’s a Junior at UC Berkeley, with a passion for purpose-driven content creation and outreach, and we love working with her. We can’t wait to see all that’s possible through her thoughtful and creative support this summer!
Do us a favor? Head over to one of our social channels (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn) and say hey to Amanda!
Name: Amanda Mier
Role at WEA: Social Media + Communications Intern
Hometown: Richmond, Virginia
Fun Fact: I taught myself Hebrew in six months before my Bat Mitzvah (and immediately forgot it all).
Why did you want to intern with WEA? I love writing and knew I wanted to gain experience with content creation, but I also wanted to be engaged with and passionate about the work I’m doing. WEA presented an intersection of two things I care deeply about, and two of the most pressing issues facing our world right now: climate change and women’s rights. I feel like a lot of people only consider the deteriorating ecological situation as a problem hurting the physical earth, but that can compartmentalize and ignore the communities of already vulnerable women who are negatively impacted by climate change. WEA focuses on this intersection, and that’s what drew me in!
What’s your go-to strategy for lessening your environmental/climate footprint? It’s really small, but I am working on being more cognizant of how many pre-packaged or disposable products I am buying and consuming. When I was younger my grandparents (who lived on a self-sufficient farm) would always talk about the dangers of conspicuous consumption, and now that I’m older I am recognizing the sheer quantity I use and throw away in a week, so I am making an effort to minimize the amount of plastic I buy and reuse whenever possible.
Tell us about a woman who inspires you. Agh. I hate being cliche, but I am really inspired by my mom. She grew up on a farm in the foothills of Northern California without running water or electricity and ended up getting her Master’s in Public Policy from Berkeley (Go Bears!) before having kids. She returned to work for a non-profit to de-stigmatize depression in children and teens, and now she is in law school to become a public defender. I think she emblematizes how you can accomplish anything you work for, and how you can find your passion at any age.
What’s your favorite thing to do in the Bay Area? I love walking around the neighborhoods in Berkeley and looking through used book stores! Another of my favorite things to do is BART into San Francisco with my friends and spend the day picnicking and window-shopping in the Haight-Ashbury. I do not hike, because I cannot walk upstairs without getting out of breath, but I’ve found that the views are amazing when my friends force me to exercise.
Any community events coming up you’re excited about (bonus points if it’s women-led/organized!) I’m really excited to volunteer for Kamala Harris’ campaign here in the Bay Area!
What are you currently reading / watching / listening to? I just consumed all of Fleabag, Phoebe Waller-Bridges’ masterpiece of a TV show, in one sitting and was left heart-wrenched by the combination of quick humor and one of the most accurate portrayals of grief I’ve ever seen. It’s only two seasons and twelve episodes total, so if anyone has six hours to spare I highly recommend. I also loved the second season of the podcast In the Dark, which focused unflinchingly on the flaws and racial biases in the criminal justice system. It was really eye-opening.