My name is Emily, and I am entering my final undergraduate semester this coming fall. I will be completing an Honours Bachelor’s Degree with a major in International Development and a minor in Psychology. Following this stage in my life, I hope to pursue a Master’s in Public Policy. My areas of interest span from education to children’s rights to youth engagement to poverty reduction. On a more specific level, I hope to contribute throughout my career towards the improvement of social determinant factors for Indigenous youth, as well as work on policies that aim to improve the conditions of low-income families in Canada.
I was interested in the internship with Éduconnexion because its mission to increase accessibility on eco-citizenship education deeply resonated with me. Its programs seek to engage youth in taking action on different global issues that humanity faces. This aspect was extremely appealing to me as I sought to learn more on how to effectively engage with changemakers. I also wanted to gain more hands-on experience with the non-profit sector to gauge whether this was a career path I wished to pursue. Having dipped my toe in the non-profit world of NGOs, charities, and foundations, I wished to see more of the challenges, as well as the rewarding aspects of working for an NGO. I was also interested in experiencing what it was like to work for a smaller not-for-profit organization, and to work entirely in French. These two things are usually outside of my comfort zone, which is why it was important for me to experience in order to grow professionally and personally.
Éduconnexion was previously an education program that branched off of the umbrella organization, Social Justice Connection (SJC), and has seen immense growth over the last couple of years. This has led the program to become its own entity in 2021, and thus, an independent organization from SJC. Éduconnexion’s mission is to ensure a sustainable, socio-ecological transition at a societal level by providing eco-citizenship education to its audience to equip populations to deal with the biggest challenges of the 21st century. The organization creates and facilitates different workshops on social and environmental issues for students from high schools, CÉGEPs and universities, as well as for employees and members of other NGOs. Éduconnexion is also a consulting partner for over 15 NGOs (locally and internationally based), supporting them in their iteration and implementation of development projects. Finally, the organization also works with school boards and governments to implement innovative system solutions through participatory approaches of codevelopment.
As an Eco-citizenship Education intern, I was tasked to support the digitization of their in-person workshops on eco-citizenship. Specifically, I highlighted the components of the in-person workshops that required virtual alternatives and brought the necessary edits in the facilitation script; created digital documents to be shared with participants; helped building the online learning platform (LearnDash) that participants will be using; and tested and provided feedback for the online workshops. In addition, I also completed research and development work surrounding the best practices of online community-building, as well as helped archiving articles from the Upstream Journal, a human rights magazine created by Social Justice Connection.
Throughout the internship, I really appreciated the fact that I got to visit the office and work there a couple of times. Having spent over a year working and learning from home, it felt nice to sit in a real office and complete work in that setting. I even brought over two plants from home in the attempt to decorate the new office space! I was grateful that I got to share this internship with another McGill intern, making a new friend along the way. The biggest highlight for me is the new network of amazing people I have made through this work experience. Although I will not be able to contribute to the organization in the same way that I have over this past summer, it was encouraging and touching to hear from my team that I can still stay connected with them as a volunteer or as a workshop facilitator, and stay in the loop of the ongoing updates surrounding the organization’s programs.
One challenge that I encountered was a lack of motivation from working from home. The lack of change in my surrounding environment as well as the little number of meetings I had made it hard for me stick to the schedule and to-do lists I created for myself. What I found to be helpful was using the pomodoro technique, a time-management method that helped me focus and better organize my tasks. I also started working in coffee shops and at the McGill library in an effort to change my work setting. This helped me to separate my personal life and my work life. Finally, I took the initiative to set up more meetings with my teammates and supervisor as a way to hold myself accountable to the tasks I was responsible for.
Although I am not receiving academic credit for this internship, I am very thankful that I was able to pursue one through the McGill Arts Internship Office. This experience represents a very positive impact on my university experience, as I feel more equipped to guide my younger classmates and friends in their internship application process. The workshops hosted by the AIO have also been extremely insightful, and has helped me draw parallels between the social skills I have learned in my internship and how I can apply them to cultivate better relationships with my professors and classmates.
