My name is Alice Huaut. I am a U2 student majoring in political science and double minoring in international development studies and social entrepreneurship. This summer, I interned for the digital media platform Thesocialtalks as a journalism writer. Reinforcing my written communication skills is an objective of mine. In addition, joining the media industry post-undergrad and studying how past and present events influence the future inspired me to intern for Thesocialtalks.
I thank the McGill Arts Internship Office for their support during my internship search and for granting me the Arts Undergraduate Improvement Fund Internship Award. The award made this experience possible and provided me with financial assistance.
Before starting the internship, Thesocialtalks issued article templates, a bank of recommended sources, advice to select article topics, and general formatting and publishing instructions. Following their guidelines every week, I allocated several hours to checking and evaluating current events. I then forced myself to have two events or topics of interest selected at the beginning of the week. That way, I wrote the two assigned weekly articles, received feedback and edits from my editor, incorporated edits; and was then ready to publish.
I enjoyed every article I worked on throughout the internship. Specifically, the article on the global sovereign debt roundtable, the article on de-dollarization, and the article on degrowth sparked my interest the most.
One of my internship’s objectives consisted of narrowing my areas of interest for post-undergraduate plans. Aware of my interest in sustainability, this internship made me realize that analyzing the systemic issues present in our societies today animates me the most. Reporting the various consequences of climate change with an article on the fires in Alberta or the warming water in New Zealand intrigued me. However, I hope to dig further into the root causes of current events.
Furthermore, I gained greater confidence in writing in english. I learned to focus on clarity and simplicity. The ideas and content of an article remain crucial, but how I choose to word sentences has become a priority. Knowing that anyone wishing to be more informed can read my work was stressful. However, as a result, this pushed me to constantly reread and edit my articles.\
In addition, this experience encouraged me to come up with solutions to feel less isolated. The internship being remote, I transitioned from constantly interacting with students and professors to dissecting news sources alone.
Volunteering and participating in events made me more focused and engaged with my articles. For instance, volunteering as a stage manager for the 'Solutions for the Planet Conference,' Change Now 2023, expanded my network and inspired my choice of article topics. Thanks to this opportunity, I asked a volunteer colleague–and specialist in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)–to review my article on LCA. Likewise, guiding Kate Raworth and Timothée Parrique to the stage and hearing snippets of their talks gave me the courage to write on degrowth.
For my last article, I decided to analyze the French State’s dissolution of one of the largest environmental organizations in France: Les Soulèvements de la Terre. Following the dissolution, on the 21st of June, I decided to attend a protest on the 28th of June. Surrounded by people gathered for a common cause and hearing what they had to say propelled my quest to report their concerns.
This internship reinforced my belief in the value of social interactions when facing a challenging task. As a result, I contacted experts regarding the topics I chose to discuss. For instance, I asked a financial advisor in sovereign debt restructuring to check over my work for my article on the global sovereign debt roundtable. Likewise, in September, I plan to reach out to a political economy professor at McGill to further discuss debt restructuring. I hope to continue expanding my knowledge and use my work as a journalism intern to reinforce the quality of my work for courses at McGill and future professional opportunities.
