Hello! I am a U3 student, entering my last semester at Ï㽶ÊÓƵ. I will graduate with a Bachelors of Arts degree in International Development with a minor in Social Entrepreneurship and Economics. Currently I am interested in climate action to ensure an equitable future for the most vulnerable. In this field I am interested in the power of collaboration, leadership, and decolonization as tools to use in the fight for a healthy future.
I wanted to do this internship as a way to continue expanding on my research and skills within communication and educational programming. I really wanted to learn how to synthesise information and then package it in a way that makes the work of climate action exciting, not daunting. Additionally, I wanted to practise my own leadership skills, as I managed a small but mighty team of two volunteers through their own learning objectives and tasks this summer.
My host organisation is goLEAD, an process-driven idea incubator for curious students and immigrants. We run leadership workshops for students where at the end, they do a pitch presentation for an idea they have iterated to solve an issue. Many of the issues our students choose revolve around making systems more green, equitable, and centre long term well-being. For example, this past Winter semester, our students created plans for making seed bombs to increase biodiversity in cities, increasing accessibility for HR requests, and engineering better windmills. One of my favourite things about the organisation is that it is open to any student for any discipline, and this next year we are working with the Refugee Centre of Montreal to include new immigrants as an accessible way to gain personal and professional development.
My responsibilities as an intern encompassed Engagement and Communication, for both external and internal communities, as well as managing a team of two. At first I was supposed to be a helping hand for the Communications co-chair, but he stepped down, so I took over the larger role. This included social media management and plans, going to meetings with our partners at Dots.Live, creating online badges for our online community platform, coming up with a recruitment campaign for our upcoming programing, managing emails lists and more!
A highlight of this internship was having the autonomy and trust to be the coordinator for two volunteers. Lama and Nathan, U1 students from Western University, are so engaged and passionate it was a blast to have the chance to talk to them about their goals and guide them through the organisation. It allowed me to think about my own leadership style, organisational techniques, and ongoing communication. I also enjoyed this being a remote internship as it gave me the flexibility to put my best foot forward.
While goLEAD has been part of the McGill community for several years, associated most with the Faculty of Engineering, our efforts to cultivate more collaboration have been severely undervalued. This was a challenge because it meant our team was quite small and there was a lot of work to be done. I overcame this with support from my team members and just being human about it. While it’s important to respect what needs to be done, it’s also important to remember that you can only do your best work from a grounded place. So taking the time to prioritise, allow for sweet summer enjoyment, and find team members and partners who really believe in us has been a way to move forward in a positive way.
This was not for academic credit, however it had a great impact on my university experience. Right before taking this internship, I completed a class for my major focusing on alternative ways to transform the way we practise and implement research solutions for development and climate action. A huge component of transformation is grassroots leadership and goLEAD is assisting in that. It’s been a joy to take what has inspired me in the classroom and work on it in real life, in real time, and it’s giving me a new appreciation for academia.
The funds have helped me fuel my life. I am financially independent and it’s been great to not choose between my passions and a job to fund my life. I still worked another part-time job, but it’s been a helpful piece of mind throughout the summer. Thank you!
