I am a Graduate student studying Hispanic Studies, and I also did my undergrad studies in Latin American Studies at McGill. I am particularly interested in Latin America's development, culture, and society.
This intern position at the Latin American News Digest shared by my professor immediately caught my attention because it matches my academic background, translation and research experience in Spanish and English in Latin American settings, and my passion for spreading awareness of Latin American local journalism. My objectives included learning more about Latin American media and improving my Spanish reading and English writing skills.
My host organization is the Latin American News Digest. Its mission is essentially didactic, according to the director. The Digest aims to spread awareness of journalism produced in Latin America by Latin Americans. And my responsibilities as an intern are to contribute to the weekly issues by aggregating and writing condensed versions of news articles found in Latin American sources, which usually take around five to seven hours per week. I also have the opportunity to research and write my aggregation with my byline during July.
The research is my highlight of the internship. I was super excited to be able to choose the topic that I was interested in. I decided to write the election of Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s president-elect. He is the first left-wing president in Colombia, and the transition of political power was surprisingly smooth because there was much violence happening in the Colombian political arena before, such as assassination. I took an in-depth view of the newly elected government's specific reforms and policy perspectives, including its energy transition, ministerial reforms to promote inclusiveness and equality, approaches to peace and citizen security, and new foreign policy. Throughout the research, I have learned more about the situation in Colombia.
Given that this is a remote position, the biggest challenge I have encountered would be the lack of motivation to finish the weekly task as soon as possible. Even though I handed in the assignment on time every time, I still wanted to hand it in earlier. To do this, I tried to tie myself to the chair and allocate a specific amount of time to spend only on the task. This really worked in terms of pushing my procrastination aside.
I am not receiving academic credit for this internship. This internship helps me learn more about the ongoing issues in Latin America, which are also the focus of my studies; therefore, it enriches my university academic experience in a certain way. I received funding from the AIO, which greatly helped me cover some of my living expenses.
