I am entering my third year (U2) in the Fall of 2019. My field of study is centred primarily on political philosophy and anthropology. My specific interests currently include democratic theory, federalism, cognition and evolutionary anthropology.
Closely linked to these areas of interest is human rights discourse, which has interested me since taking ANTH 222 (legal anthropology). In terms of non-scholarly interests, I have spent some time as a ski coach and plenty of time as a summer camp instructor. These previous work experiences and my research interests are what got me interested in Equitas’ education internship opportunity. This is because the internship was centred on updating the Play it Fair! Toolkit, which is a resource for summer camp animators and after-school/daycare providers for educating children on human rights through activities and discussions. My central objective was to facilitate this resource’s update, so I will outline my specific responsibilities below. Before doing that, I must first begin by providing a description of my host organization.
Equitas is an international human rights education organization. Its explicit mission statement outlines advancing “equality, social justice and respect for human dignity through transformative human rights education programs in Canada and around the world.” In particular, “Equitas’ programming contributes to the empowerment of individuals and groups that are subject to discrimination, exclusion and other forms of human rights violations to challenge inequality and discrimination and take action to respect, protect and defend human rights.” While Equitas does work with partners internationally—in places such as Sri Lanka and Tanzania—I was solely working on the Canadian program. Within this program, there were two divisions: Play it Fair! and Speaking Rights. Play it Fair! works with younger children and Speaking Rights works with youth. Both of these divisions are committed to promoting human rights through play, discussion and community action projects.
As mentioned earlier, I was mainly responsible for the Play it Fair! Toolkit update, which involved interviewing partners, creating surveys, brainstorming ideas, drafting games, researching emerging issues in human rights discourse and child development, and other related tasks. When it came to Speaking Rights, I was mostly responsible for compiling data from surveys for analysis. Even though my main responsibilities were almost exclusively confined to office work, I did on rare occasions have the chance to help facilitate community training sessions.
In fact, I found the community trainings to be the main highlight of my internship. By being in the community and connecting with the animators who work with children, I was able to put a human face on the work I was doing. Another highlight of the internship was the sense of progress towards a common goal. Towards the end of my time at Equitas, it was clear that the ideas that my supervisors and myself had been developing for the update were truly starting to come together, which filled us with a sense of clarity and accomplishment. This may seem insignificant, but it was in fact substantial to see something crystalize after several months of planning.
I am not receiving credit for this internship, and therefore am not writing a paper.
From the outset of the internship, I asked my supervisors to show me the real-world application of human rights discourse and how NGOs operate, given that my only prior exposure had been through academic studies. Now, I feel that I have a deeper appreciation for the internal workings of NGOs and the external constraints that they face. I cannot confidently say that I know how this experience will shape my career path, yet I do know that the insight I have gained has been invaluable; I am certain that this experience will affect my career choices in the future when facing a career crossroads. In the short term, when I address the human rights discourse in my academic writings, I will have a greater understanding of the subtlety and nuance involved. Simply put, after completing this internship, I now recognize the more pragmatic challenges of human rights work better than before.
The funds I received from the Faculty of Arts Internship Award helped me to cover the costs of living in Montréal this summer. I consider it a privilege to have been lucky enough to receive this funding, and so I would like to sincerely thank Dean Antonia Maioni. It has truly been an honour and pleasure representing the McGill community in the Montréal area this summer, while working towards an important cause.
Ěý
