It’s a Chimed Life: Meet Vivian Wu and Emily Liang, Chime Summer Interns
This summer, we welcomed our first class of Chime interns and brought on our first University Recruiting Manager. As we kick off the university season and start visiting campuses across the country, we wanted to shine a spotlight on two of our summer interns.
Vivian Wu and Emily Liang met when they were in preschool. Nobody could have predicted that they’d end up at the same company as summer interns over 10 years later, but for anyone who knows the two, the fact that they work at Chime should come as no surprise.
“Coming from an immigrant, low-income background in Oakland, I saw how the media portrayed my hometown and decided to be part of rewriting the narrative,” explains Vivian. “That’s why I’m studying communications — to use my voice to tell the stories of those who aren’t heard.”
Emily is driven by a similar background: She, too, came from a low-income family in Oakland and knows too well the stories that get told about where she’s from. “My upbringing provided me with tons of motivation to reach higher education, so I can provide a better future, not just for myself, but for my family and my community,” she says.
From preschool to Chime
It was when Emily and Vivian attended orientation sessions with College Track that they learned about Chime. College Track is a ten-year college prep program for first-generation low-income students that partners with Emerson Collective to connect first-generation college students with internships and jobs.
“I had seen Chime on social media,” explains Vivian. “When I met the company at the orientation session, I knew I was interested in an internship. The idea of Chime’s mission — to provide resources, services, and knowledge to help people achieve financial growth — really resonated with me because I grew up living paycheck to paycheck.” Vivian ranked Chime as her first choice internship for the final round of selections in the program.
Emily was drawn to Chime’s culture and the world of fintech. “It was apparent to me after my first interview how strong Chime’s culture is — everyone is like a family,” she says. “I knew I’d be supported at Chime and learn a ton.” Wanting to explore fintech from an angle that supports folks from a similar background to hers, she ranked Chime as her first choice, too.
Both Vivian and Emily joined us for summer internships on our Communications team in June.
Their impact
Emily and Vivian partnered with each other and various other stakeholders throughout their internships to drive both internal and external communications at Chime. Here’s a look at the projects they worked on:
ShowChime
With Summer Slowdown Focus Fridays and more people out of the office during the summer months, our Show and Tell was getting harder to organize and drive engagement around. Tasked with improving the process of producing and distributing Show and Tell, Emily and Vivian got to work on launching a new version of our Chime staple, which they renamed ShowChime.
“Before, ShowChime was on Zoom, where people would present and others would listen in and watch,” explains Emily. “The Communications team decided to pre-record it so that Chimers could tune in when it works best for them.”
The two started from scratch, figuring everything out from the nitty-gritty details of how to transition from each video segment to the big picture themes, structure, and engagement. “We wanted to make sure all Chimers are represented and the content is something they want to watch or contribute to,” says Vivian.
Emily and Vivian were both very proud of the first episode and even made an appearance, giving a behind-the-scenes peek at how a new Chime celebration video was made. “I personally loved the brainstorming aspect of revamping Show and Tell because it involved connecting the dots across so many functions and elements of our brand strategy,” explains Vivian. “We storyboarded, came up with the visual look, and tied it all together. I’ve never worked on internal communications in this way, so I enjoyed developing this voice for our target audience of Chimers.”
Member stories
Emily and Vivian also worked closely with the external communications team to gather stories from our members. “We interacted with members to get details on their experiences using Chime and then found themes across the many stories,” explains Vivian. “We explored how to use member stories to support policy and other forms of comms across the organization. Seeing the tangible results of using Chime and how the company is genuinely helping people was truly inspiring,” she adds.
For Emily, the honesty about hardship was also an inspiration. “This was my favorite project because it shows the scope and impact of what Chime does and resonates with my personal experience,” she says. “In reading member stories, I saw my communities represented and a way to help address their needs through Chime’s products and services.”
Intern feature
As their final project, Emily and Vivian led the charge on a video featuring Chime’s summer interns. We’ll let their work speak for itself:
The future is bright 😎
In the year ahead, Emily and Vivian will return to university — and actually go back to their respective campuses! “I spent the first year of college in my bedroom at home in Oakland,” explains Emily. “I’m really excited to be on campus for the first time and get the ‘real’ college experience.”
Vivian echoes her best friend’s enthusiasm: “I’m going to spend the next year trying to squeeze the most out of my experience and feeling more grateful than ever to be on campus,” she says. She plans to work to connect her passions for social justice and equity with her studies by volunteering and getting involved in organizations on campus like USC OWN IT, a leadership summit uplifting women and non-binary individuals. At Stanford, Emily will continue advocating for her underrepresented peers by storytelling through an authentic and compassionate lens.
Congratulations to Vivian and Emily on a great summer at Chime — we can’t wait to see what you accomplish in the year ahead (and beyond)! 🚀
