Name: Melissa Amador Mateos
Class Year: 2027
Major: International Studies
 
Internship Organization: Stories from the Beauty Parlor
Internship Title: Social Outreach Intern
Location: Berlin, Germany
 
What’s happening at your internship? We would love to hear what kind of work you are doing!  

Founder of Stories from the Beauty Parlor, Annamaria Olsson, having her picture taken after our podcast won the Best Podcast Award at Doxumentale ’26

The organization I was working with had a lot of growth going on this summer. We started the summer off with a fundraiser in support of Iranian and Sudanese aid groups. The event included beauty artists offering henna and nail painting, food from a local small business, and musicians and DJs, all from diverse backgrounds. We also had the privilege of being hosted by the local documentary film festival, Doxumentale, to film a live episode of our podcast and won the award for Best Podcast. I got to help with lots of outreach work, including making posts for our posts, recruiting members of the community for interviews, and writing a couple of our newsletters. I was also delighted to learn elementary website editing and maintenance, as well as grant writing and outreach to sponsors.
 
Why did you apply for this internship?  

A view of the canal on my daily commute

The main goal of the organization is to amplify the voices of women* and LGBTQIA+ individuals worldwide by leveraging the industries that primarily profit from women to support feminist initiatives and women’s* causes. As an International Studies major with a focus in human rights and marginalized identities, Stories from the Beauty Parlor and its cause really spoke to me. I was intrigued by their use of seemingly mundane spaces, like the hair salon, nail parlor, bookshops, etc., to create space for dialogue and fundraising for the communities who most often frequent them.
 
What has been your favorite part of this internship?

I have enjoyed getting to see it grow even in the short amount of time I spent with them. It was also nice to see how my boss and the organization stuck to their mission and morals through that growth. We had opportunities for a good amount of funding from this one potential sponsor, but their money came with stipulations that put our members in a potentially vulnerable position. Rather than risk that, they ended up turning down the money and looking elsewhere. Concurrently, they didn’t allow this to discourage them from continuing forward, which I believe directly correlates to their success and growth this summer. 

A group of friends and me enjoying a meal from Ãshlecker, a local Iranian caterer, at the Iran-Sudan fundraiser

Can you give us three adjectives and three nouns that describe your internship experience?

Three adjectives I would use to describe my internship would be authentic, optimistic, and collaborative.  

Three nouns would be community, care, and growth.