I am a U3 International Development Studies student, with two minors in GSFS and Hispanic studies. Although I am passionate about my courses, I had been longing to find experiences outside the academic field. Since I was already volunteering at Éduconnexion, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to continue as an intern and gain hands-on experience with an organization that shares my values.
Since my last report, I have accomplished several tasks for Éduconnexion. We developed an educational kit to supplement the workshop on the debt crisis that I single-handedly facilitated during my first month as an intern. Since I knew the material well, I enjoyed building this kit with my colleagues because I felt useful in providing them with the missing information. Through this experience, I also learned to use more efficiently Canva as a visual tool. Which I will certainly use for my school projects this following semester. We also helped our supervisor to edit his new workshop on the History of black people in Montreal. This exercise allowed me to learn a lot on the topic, that we, unfortunately, did not learn much about in high school nor CEGEP. We also helped our supervisor transform two of his theoretical workshops into interactive versions to capture a younger public’s attention.
Although we learned a lot with these tasks, I am happy that our duties varied and were not solely about writing or editing workshops. Indeed, we acquired a few skills in the field of communications. We helped the NGO promote its mission through its website and social media as we created short videos on our supervisor’s work and our own. Although I did not facilitate other workshops in my remaining months as an intern, we had the opportunity to assist another supervisor in a workshop designed for the very young. It was given in Terrebonne and was to raise awareness of the importance of composting and gardening. Nevertheless, my favourite moment of the internship in the past two months was attending the general assembly of the AQOCI (association Québécoise des organismes de cooperation internationale). It was interesting to witness the democratic exercise of voting for a new code of ethics. It was also a great opportunity for networking as I had the chance to speak with people who work in fields that interest me for my future career.
In my last report, I said I wanted to challenge myself to take more initiative. I am proud to say that I effectively challenged myself in trying to develop a personal project. It is even more satisfying because this project was built from the ground up as a team. With the other interns, we manage to develop a workshop on a topic that we all care deeply about and that is aligned with Éduconnexion’s mission. Indeed, we decided to create a workshop on the disproportionate impact of climate change on women.
In short, I am grateful for what we were able to accomplish, and I realized that I am a good team builder and public speaker. However, I wish that I could have acquired more professional skills. Indeed, I have found that things moved slowly and were disorganized within Éduconnexion, which prevented us, at times, from taking full advantage of what the organization had to offer. Moreover, we encountered many challenges: our first supervisor left the organization, leaving us hanging for a while with no instructions on how to proceed for the rest of our internship. Then, we also had to move our offices, which took time off our daily tasks. Regrettably, this experience did not make me want to work in NGOs, at least not at the beginning of my career. Don’t get me wrong, I will continue to be involved with them since their values are strongly aligned with mine. As a matter of fact, I will keep volunteering for Éduconnexion this coming fall, and I want to volunteer with NGOs in other countries as well. Only, for my first professional job, I will try to explore other avenues.
The people I met at Éduconnexion are exceptional human beings that shared their knowledge of the field and the world with us. One of my supervisors was an executive member of Mer et Monde, an organization that aims to initiate young trainees to international cooperation. It is an organization that I have been interested in for a long time since I wanted to volunteer for them after my bachelor’s degree. Another supervisor was a former teacher for the international cooperation certificate at UQÀM. He gratefully offered us a short course on the history and the ins and outs of human rights and international law. I highly appreciated it since I could not take classes in these domains with my major. Hence, not only these connections could prove helpful for my future career, but I also enriched my general knowledge of world history and social injustices around the globe.
Finally, I would like to thank David Tarr & Gisele Chevrefils for the David Tarr & Gisele Chevrefils Arts Internship Award which allowed me to fulfill an important milestone in my academic career.
