Emily, Honours of Criminology
Virtual Internship Country: Nepal
Canadian NGO: CECI
Local NGO: Prerana
I am currently moving into my fifth week as an academic e- volunteer working with CECI and their close partnering organization Prerana, and it has already been such a fulfilling and amazing experience. I am already dreading the end of this experience as I know it will continue to fly by. I have been working as a communications officer and have been able to practice and facilitate clear communication which is a very useful skill to acquire.
During my third year of my undergrad (this past school year), I had the opportunity to take more specific courses that I hold an interest towards. For example, I took courses that focused on gender, race and exclusion inequalities that exist in our society, which I became determined to actively advocate for. When I listened to the Center for International Studies and Cooperation (CECI) presentation in the Faculty of Social Sciences (FSS) internship information call, I realized that many of their passions and values aligned with mine. I knew that this would be the perfect opportunity for me to make an impact on issues that I am strongly passionate towards, as CECI has been working since 1958 to reduce inequalities in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. The people that I have had the privilege of meeting so far, including the university internship coordinators, the team members from CECI from both Nepal and Canada and the partner organization team have all been incredible and have helped me grow and develop new skills that will help me in my future endeavours.
Even though this internship experience is taking place through a virtual format, I still feel as though it is very possible to make positive changes and work on projects with people across the world while at a distance. All to say, there are issues that arise while learning and working online, whether it be meeting at irregular hours for meetings with the team based on time differences, not being able to fully immerse with the culture where the assignment is taking place, and unclear communication and expectations at times due to email being the main form of interaction. I continue to remind myself to make the best of every day during this experience because there are still so many rewards to attain. The support that has been provided to me through everyone at the university and CECI has been so helpful throughout my experience. So far, I am very pleased with the opportunity to do this virtual internship with CECI, and I cannot wait to visit Nepal one day soon hopefully!