From terminology calibration to value resonance: Ann’s internship report from the Association of African Entrepreneurs (AAE) in Africa

From February 1st to May 1st, 2023

1、 Main job responsibilities of internship

1. Full cycle management of publishing projects (core responsibilities)
   Topic development and review:
   Evaluate nearly 10 topic proposals and select 8 topics that meet the AAE’s dual criteria of “cultural expression x sustainable entrepreneurship”
   Lead the design of the ‘Africa Business Writing Topic Matrix’, categorizing topics into six major areas (digitalization/gender economy/informal markets, etc.)

2.Author Collaboration and Quality Control:
Establish a three-level content review mechanism: format pre-approval → cultural sensitivity screening → business insight rating

2、 Core Challenges and Solutions

Multi threaded project management pressure
Challenge: The scattered submission time of authors’ manuscripts leads to a very congested review process
Solution:
Introduce dynamic Gantt chart tool (Monday. com) to achieve progress visualization

3、Gratitude to the supervisor and colleagues

1. Gratitude to the supervisor
   Thank you to Director Cornelius for your patient guidance, which has helped me from onboarding to business negotiations, providing me with training and guidance all the way, and making me feel the humanistic care from AAE.
2. Gratitude to colleagues
   Thank you to all the interns, such as Zang Zhijun and Chen Xiaotong. The cooperation with them was very pleasant and smooth, which made me feel the cohesion of team assistance.

4、 AAE Mission Statement
This internship has deepened my understanding of the construction of a sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem, and I will continue to apply the Culture Broker skills I have acquired at AAE in the future to help achieve the institutional vision of ‘small and medium-sized enterprises as engines of change’.

Author: Ann
Date: May 4th, 2025