Campus at Nextdoor

Meet our Summer 2022 Interns

Written by Nicole Atkins

We officially wrapped up our 2022 summer internship this week and this year was a very special year for Nextdoor as we hosted a record-breaking 19 interns across software engineering and data science – our biggest class yet! 

The summer is jam-packed with opportunities to become immersed in Nextdoor’s collaborative community. From attending lunch and learns with our Leadership team, participating in our company-wide hack-a-thon where our employees are encouraged to work together to think big about the product, engaging in educational workshops (giving feedback, strengths training, etc), in addition to presenting their learnings during our Intern Showcase. Our goal is to provide interns with a holistic experience by creating space for them to build long-lasting relationships with our team while giving them the opportunity to grow professionally. 

One of the summer’s highlights is having our interns lead our company-wide meeting where they share the latest trends and lingo within the cultural zeitgeist. It’s a fun opportunity to practice their public speaking, builds teamwork skills, and provides a humorous chance to educate employees on what’s cool. Also, our interns spend quality time with our executive leadership team by facilitating meetings with our leaders, working directly with our Head of Engineering, and presenting their projects to our CEO and leadership team. 

Summer 2022 Interns with CEO, Sarah Friar, and Board Member, John Hope Bryant

Let’s meet our Summer 2022 interns:

Why did you choose  Nextdoor’s internship program?

“I was attracted to Nextdoor’s purpose  and was able to see the true power of neighborhoods during the pandemic. Additionally, I wanted to work on a project that would have a real impact, and I believed Nextdoor was the best place to do so.” 

-Debi Ejeta, Software Engineering Intern, Advocate for Advertisers

“I chose to intern at Nextdoor because I thought that Nextdoor was the perfect size for my work to actually have an impact. I also wanted to get a chance to work hands-on with machine learning.” -Victor Chau, Software Engineering Intern, Feed, Machine Learning

“I used Nextdoor throughout high school and I loved how it was a no-barrier way for small businesses and individuals to spread information as well as learn from their community.” 

-Katie Sun, Software Engineering Intern, Notifications

“I chose to be an intern at Nextdoor because of my interview experience. I could tell that the people that interviewed me were very knowledgeable and passionate about their work.” 

-Rishi Parikh, Software Engineering Intern, Core Platform ,ML Infrastructure

“In finding a company to intern for this summer, I really prioritized company culture over everything. Nextdoor’s purpose is so relevant, especially in tough times. Having a team full of people fueled by empowering the capabilities of local, combined with a willingness to help you grow and learn, creates a very powerful culture that I really appreciated.” 

-Rohan Goel, Data Scientist Intern, SMB

“As someone who values community and enjoys bringing people together, Nextdoor’s mission drew me in. Then, through my interviews, I was struck by the culture around kindness and collaboration. Finally, I chose to intern here because I could see myself working at a small enough company where I’d be able to make an impact but large enough where there was still a support structure I could lean on.” 

-Leandro Gamarra, Software Engineering Intern, Search

In a few sentences, describe the main project you worked on.

“I worked on increasing the amount of profile photo uploads on iOS. I implemented a delete photo prompt and camera icon feature that gave users another way to upload a photo. I also built on a notification nudge and implemented a query that sorts reactors on a post to show connections first.” 

Jaden Watt, Software Engineering Intern, Profiles

“My main project was  introducing connections to Nextdoor Groups. The features within this project allows neighbors with shared interests to connect on the groups page. When viewers visit the member lists of groups, they can send connection requests to multiple group members easily without leaving the page. They can also visually identify their connections on the list and send messages to them.”

-Bek Rakhimov, Software Engineering Intern, Connections

“I worked on a trending word feature generator project as a part of the Moderation ML team. The goal of my project was to improve the signal of an existing model that can detect if content on the app will be reported or removed. I also worked on creating an API that would allow ML engineers to get features for any post.” 

-Edith Llontop, Software Engineering Intern, Moderation 

“The main project I worked on was adding a new promo for connecting with neighbors to the right hand rail on the website. I worked both on the backend and frontend to serve the promo and render it to make it aesthetically pleasing and functional. This project gave a more permanent home for connecting with neighbors which is a way for our users to connect with their neighbors and create a more personal experience on the platform.” 

-Mason Wilson, Software Engineering Intern, Connections

How do you feel you’ve made an impact at Nextdoor? 

“I believe Nextdoor allows you to have a direct impact not only within the  company itself but also on real users. I feel I was able to develop a project enabling more engagement from users as well as a way to show what our neighbors are up to on a daily basis. Also, working with the Feed UX team I took on new challenges and learn new lessons” 

-David Lopez, Software Engineering Intern, Feed UX

“I was able to lead the web notifications project by talking to our project managers about product questions, scoping the engineering work, working with the frontend team to understand how our files are served, integrating my work into the existing backend, creating new graphql tables, launching the experiment, and analyzing data. It was an amazing experience that I got to drive all throughout!” 

-Ashlee Kupor, Software Engineering Intern, Notifications

“I felt I had a lot of impact in leading the company’s All Hands meeting which made me feel heard and appreciated. I also had the chance to build an application the security team can benefit from.” -Nepthalim Abebe, Software Engineering Intern, Security 

“Nextdoor did a great job of having the interns work on cool projects, and I was doing tasks that full-time engineers would do! I was able to work on projects that improved both the efficiency for Nextdoor developers and the experience for new users on the platform. The interns as a group brought a lot of fun and energy to the office which was reciprocated back from the other employees as well.” 

-Kimberley Fan, Software Engineering Intern, Connections

“Since I worked on initiatives that were a high priority, by the end of my internship, I was already seeing the impact of the first project which increased Nextdoor’s new business customers by 28%! I was also given many opportunities to lead that made me feel like I was making an impact outside of my work like leading a team game night, a test jam, and a coffee chat with our CEO, Sarah Friar.” -Yabi Ayele, Software Engineering Intern, Sponsored Content

What was your favorite Nextdoor memory?

“My favorite Nextdoor memory was our National Intern Day Celebration. We had a photobooth, signed yearbooks, enjoyed boba, and played Jeopardy! Almost every intern was in SF for the week, so it was a really great time to bond with everyone and collect souvenirs as reminders of the unforgettable summer.” 

-Asia Dubois, Software Engineering Intern, Core Platform

“Bonding with the other interns and meeting my mentor in person for the first time!”  

-Miayunique South, Software Engineering Intern, Discover

“The Artificial Intelligence Summit! So many fun and informational events.” 

-Ying Wang, Data Scientist Intern, Moderation

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