My name is Ivan Manca, and I will be entering my fourth year at Ï㽶ÊÓƵ. I study Political Science with a minor in Sociology and Italian Studies. My background is Argentinian, and I hold my roots dearly, speaking in Spanish whenever I am with my family and keeping up to date with everything in the country I love. Apart from this, I am an avid soccer fan, watching games from around the world. I am interested in the current global political situation we are experiencing and observing how everything is playing out. Moreover, I enjoy spending time with my friends and family.
The reason I wanted to be a part of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) internship in Guatemala is because I thought it would be a great experience to be a part of such a renowned international organization as the United Nations. I felt it would also be an opportunity to show my skills to highly capable individuals with a profound knowledge of various issues. I was hoping to learn about how the UNHCR works and the mechanisms that make it so successful. More than this, I was hoping to learn how it is that they transmit their messages across the world.
The UNHCR is a United Nations agency focused on aiding and protecting refugees and other groups of people. One of their biggest tasks is assisting with voluntary repatriation or local integration to different countries. It does this by directly assisting such groups of people, working with other organizations and spreading their global message via different platforms. The UNHCR looks towards safeguarding the rights of refugees and maintaining their well-being. They strive to ensure, to the best of their ability, the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge for people in another country.
When I worked as an intern for the UNHCR in Guatemala, I had various responsibilities. Such responsibilities included, but were not limited to, contributing to the production of UNHCR content for the different social media accounts in Guatemala. Apart from this, I assisted in the translation of documents from Spanish to English and vice-versa. I worked closely with the communications team by coming up with different ideas and working on them together. Most importantly, I had to make sure I was aligned with the UNHCR’s global branding and messaging.
I had so many beautiful moments during my internship that it is difficult to choose what I most enjoyed. It was fantastic to work with the UNHCR communications team in Guatemala. They are a superb group of people and workers who helped me so much during my journey. If ever I needed help, they were there right away to assist me in any way I needed. It was a privilege to work for them. I also really enjoyed translating documents and switching my brain from Spanish to English, then English to Spanish. It was moments such as these that I was very active. I loved working on different designs and proposals as well, because here I was able to demonstrate what I had to offer to the team.
One challenge I encountered during my internship was that I was working remotely, so as I was communicating with my colleagues from my home, they were in Guatemala. Although this was very comfortable at times, I felt that I could have contributed more if I was in person. Of course, this would have been very challenging, but I believe the experience would have been nice. This was not very problematic, however, because I was constantly communicating with UNHCR Guatemala. Another slight challenge was organizing myself to the time difference between Canada and Guatemala. I wanted to keep a proper balance between my work and private life. What I found to be very helpful was always trying to organize my weeks as soon as possible, that way I would stay tidy and organized.
This internship helped me appreciate the opportunities that Ï㽶ÊÓƵ offers me as a student. I am extremely fortunate to attend such a prestigious institution. My time with UNHCR Guatemala has changed my perspective in so many ways, which I will apply to my university life. I would like to thank Mark Wiltzer for funding The Wiltzer Internship Award for me. Such funding helped me cover my student costs during my internship and continues to help me in many ways.
