Skye Sakashita

My name is Skye Sakashita, and I am a current senior double majoring in Communication Studies and Psychology. This spring, I interned for the company Silk Face which sells silk face masks. My position for this internship was a Social Media/Marketing Intern, and my duties mainly consisted of running their Instagram account, creating content to post (including photos, videos, graphics, etc.), and conducting market research. Working for Silk Face was particularly interesting because the company was new and had only started about two months before I joined. Additionally, this company was very time-relevant because the focus was on face masks which became very popular over the past year due to the pandemic and state and national requirements to wear face masks to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

I enjoyed being part of a company that was following trends and taking advantage of what was being demanded in the market. In the past, I had only worked for companies that had been long established and provided products that were a staple in people’s lives regardless of the current trends. It was refreshing to work for an up-and-coming company, and I learned a lot about how current marketing and social media trends work. An aspect of my internship that I enjoyed was the creative freedom that my supervisor gave me. I was allowed to create content that I believed would gain engagement and test it out to see what worked and what didn’t. For example, the Instagram account had not posted any reels before I joined the company and so that was a fun strategy I got to experiment with. I think the reels I created were a successful part of my internship work because they got significantly more views than the number of likes on regular posts, which heightened the reach of our account.

Silk Face Masks

Another aspect of working for a new and trending company like Silk Face that I enjoyed was that I was able to help brainstorm the next steps for this company. So far, Silk Face has only sold silk face masks and has been successful due to the large demand for face masks during the pandemic. However, as the pandemic slowly starts to end and people don’t need masks as much, Silk Face is looking to expand into other areas. I was able to conduct market research to learn more about the silk industry and come up with possible new ventures for the company to follow once face masks become less popular. Overall, I learned a lot from being able to experiment with different techniques to see what worked and what didn’t. I’m grateful for the opportunity to intern for an up-and-coming company like Silk Face and hope to use what I learned in my future career.

As a result of my Communication major at Chapman, I was able to apply concepts I learned in my classes to this internship. Some specific concepts include appealing to an audience and other marketing skills from Theories of Persuasion. Another concept I remember learning in that course was health communication strategies. I felt like I was able to successfully lead a campaign regarding mask-wearing and Covid-19 as a result. I am grateful that I gained such valuable skills in my classes that I can apply in my internship and future jobs.