Meet the Acclaro Interns: Stephanie Lu

In our “Meet the Acclaro Interns” series, we introduce you to undergraduate and graduate students who held intern positions with us during the summer of 2023.

Stephanie Lu was born and raised in Shanghai, China. Her hobbies include working out, eating out, and going out with friends. Stephanie has an outgoing personality. She says that growing up in a large city helped nurture her social skills.

Stephanie’s Acclaro internship

Stephanie’s internship is split between quality assurance (QA) and project management (PM). Each week she was assigned different tasks. As she completed each task, new ones would be assigned and soon she was able to participate in the comprehensive localization workflow.

Stephanie’s typical day starts at 9am. In the morning, she is dedicated to the QA team. She has a daily one-on-one sync with her manager from 10am to 10:30am. They review action items and priorities. After the meeting, Stephanie dedicates her time to QA projects and action items. She then shifts to her PM role around 1pm.

Stephanie’s undergraduate and graduate studies

Stephanie graduated from a joint bachelor’s program with University of California, Berkeley and East China Normal University. She received a B.A. in translation and interpretation. In pursuit of her dream to become a competitive conference interpreter, Stephanie enrolled in the conference interpretation program at Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS) in Monterey, California.

She graduated from the conference interpreting program at MIIS in May 2023, and has one more year remaining to obtain the localization degree. According to Stephanie, “During my studies, I have become extremely interested in the localization management side of the industry, ultimately adding another degree and extending my studies to a three-year, two-degree program.”

Explaining localization to a family member

When asked how she’d explain localization to a family member, Stephanie provided this answer:

“Localization is a product or service-oriented process that expands the target user to overseas audiences and ultimately drives up profit. Translation is a core part of it, but localization is more about strategy and interoperability.”

Stephanie’s take on the Acclaro intern experience

Stephanie found the Acclaro culture inclusive, supportive and welcoming. She feels this on a daily basis as she crosses paths with different people working in different departments. She found that everyone is willing to hop on a call if she encounters any difficulties.

“I have learned so much during this internship. It’s like the real world application of everything that I learned in school unfolding in front of me every single day. The workflow best practices will help me immensely as I step into the localization world after graduation,” says Stephanie.

Stephanie continues, “My favorite part about working as an intern at Acclaro is the environment. I feel safe and welcomed. This is a place where learning is a smooth and continuous process, and you don’t have to worry about asking questions or bringing up doubts.”