Peemai Chalida Chaonuea, a digital marketing student from School of Business Administration, brought honor to her university by winning the first place in AP Thailand's "Design For Living" internship program competition. She earned a special opportunity as one of only 2 people to go to Japan for an ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) study tour. This achievement was no small feat, as she competed against students from leading universities nationwide in one of the most prestigious and sought-after internship programs.
Self-Challenge Leading to Success
"I wanted to test myself - if I could excel at something I didn't particularly like, then I must be really good," said Peemai, explaining her motivation for choosing to challenge herself by applying for an internship with AP Thailand, one of Thailand's top 5 real estate giants, Despite having no prior interest in real estate, she passed the rigorous selection process from thousands of applicants down to just 20 students, including intelligence tests, keyword rounds, and interviews. "For me, choosing which company to intern with was a very challenging question, and I chose AP Thailand because I wanted to find something new for myself."
Irreplaceable Learning Experience
Throughout her 2-month internship, Peemai gained knowledge from weekly guest speakers, conducted field work, and witnessed the company's serious commitment to ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) initiatives. She was tasked with developing approaches to make projects more sustainable. "This internship might be unique in that student interns don't have fixed positions, allowing us to try many different things and receive assignments that could develop ESG initiatives for the future."
The distinctive feature of the Design For Living internship program was the 360-degree experience - not just learning in meeting rooms, but conducting actual field surveys of the company's various projects. Students observed the entire work process from planning and design to customer delivery, including environmental care and social responsibility. During the internship, Peemai and her teammates were assigned to survey and analyze various village projects to find development approaches that better align with ESG principles, such as adding safe children's play zones, planting more trees to increase green spaces, or even installing air quality monitoring devices to check PM 2.5 dust levels in the area.
Innovative "PM 2.5 Absorbing Concrete" Idea Wins Victory
Near the end of the internship, Peemai's team received a project to develop sustainable housing initiatives. Observing children in the project who had asthma and couldn't play outside like other children, they developed the idea of "PM 2.5 and carbon dioxide absorbing concrete." This innovation not only absorbs dust particles but, when used to build house fence, can also release oxygen for plants, improving the ecosystem. Using recycled construction materials helps reduce costs and can absorb carbon dioxide equivalent to planting 200,000 trees in one project.
Special Prize: Trip to Learn in Japan
With her outstanding work and high cumulative scores from actively participating in weekly activities, Peemai became one of only 2 students out of all 20 participants to earn the opportunity to travel to Japan for an ESG study tour with AP Thailand's partner companies in September.
Earning this opportunity wasn't easy, as students were evaluated weekly throughout the 2-month internship period, including individual work, group work, participation in various activities, and the final project as a key indicator. "The latter period was quite stressful because everyone knew only 2 people of Design for living would get to go to Japan, but we tried to view it as motivation to produce our best work. This trip to Japan will involve studying companies that lead in sustainability and environmental management, which will help broaden perspectives and add valuable experience for applying knowledge to future work." Peemai said.
Lessons from Stepping Outside the Comfort Zone
"This internship helped me build new connections, make friends from every region in Thailand, and importantly, learn real work processes. I understand that selling high-priced real estate requires deeply understanding customers."
The success of Peemai Chalida Chaonua serves as an excellent example showing that being open-minded and daring to try new things can lead to great opportunities. Choosing to intern in a field that wasn't her specialty or original interest turned out to be a stepping stone to many good opportunities and serves as inspiration for other students to embrace new experiences and never stop developing themselves.
