My internship at the UNESCO Office in Brazil has ended! It’s a cliche, but that doesn’t make it any less true: time has absolutely flown by. Not just this summer internship either. This time last year, I was returning home from Peace Corps to start my master’s at Penn. Now I’m one semester away from finishing. (And to those of my cohort who have finished, congratulations!) During … Continue reading Tchau, Brasil!
From the day I started my internship, my supervisor said she wanted to take me along with her on an official mission. From the beginning, it was also relatively clear that it would be tricky to shuffle a mere intern through the process of official travel authorization at UNESCO. The opportunity came, however, to test the system, and – spoiler alert – we beat it … Continue reading Mission … possible
As I mentioned, it’s already been two weeks since I came to Brasília. It seems longer to me, because I already feel quite at home. Getting here was easy. I flew from Philadelphia and had one layover in Miami. One thing that was the tiniest bit tricky was timing. We were scheduled to land in Brasilia at 5:00 am, and we ended up arriving early! … Continue reading Home
This marks the end of my internship. This is it. Going back to Philadelphia to complete my last semester. Today as I reflect back on this internship experience as a whole – I really think I have come out with some great working and personal relationships. Unlike my fellow IEDP classmates, I really did not think too much about having an ideal internship. I had … Continue reading Au Revoir La Suisse
Someone currently living in a serene island of Koh Rong Samloem in Cambodia told me that when he left his native country, never to go back, and decided to settle in a place very different than the one he came from, learning a new language and relearning new ways to live was like being a newborn again – everything is exciting but you are also quite vulnerable. My move to Cambodia for this internship was not as drastic of a change as his, but I could definitely relate to being wide-eyed excited about learning new things every day and at times feeling completely out of place. Continue reading Learning, leaving and looking back
“LET’S GO!” This was the theme of last week, when my parents came to visit. And just as well, because life at the office has been, in the words of Larry David, “pretty… pretty… pretty” slow lately. This is largely due to the fact that practically everyone is on leave! UNESCO has a fairly generous vacation policy, which it seems like most people take advantage … Continue reading Yalla: Explorin’ Jordan
It is hard to believe that I have spent 3 months in South Africa already! The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of travels amidst completing my internship deliverables. As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I am involved in an ECD project that aims to provide kindergarten teachers with skills and support to ensure holistic development and school readiness for the students. … Continue reading Uhambe Kahle
Twelve weeks is a short amount of time to spend in a country. It doesn’t feel like long ago that I was arriving for my first day at the office, eager to begin interning with a Lilongwe-based NGO. Now, entering into my final week in Malawi, I’ve been able to reflect on the experiences I’ve had and what I’ve been able to learn. Before I … Continue reading Lessons From Lilongwe: Concluding an IEDP Internship
Hello from Cape Town! For the last weeks of my internship, I have been working in the Cape Town office. In my last day, my colleagues organized a small farewell ceremony for me. Once again, I realized Joburg is not the best but my all internship experience and people in the office are awesome. During my internship, I have learned a lot not only the … Continue reading Adventureful South Africa
Internship highlights: Over the past few weeks, I have had the opportunity to be more involved in the ECD project I talked about in my last post. As I mentioned earlier, I was in the Limpopo province for a week, during which my time was split between doing work in the satellite office there and visiting schools with trainers to provide school-based support to Grade … Continue reading ECD Project & Elephant Sightings
The International Educational Development Program 