“As my internship is coming to an end, I’ve had some time to reflect on the past ten weeks I’ve spent as an intern with the Forum of Federations.”
Julia, International Studies and Modern Languages,
Forum of Federations, Myanmar
Although I encountered a few obstacles, it was an overall great experience and I would certainly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a new challenge.
At the beginning of my internship, I was working primarily with the Forum team in Myanmar. I contributed to numerous projects aiming to implement federalism and decentralized governance in the country. However, one month in, I lost contact with my coworkers in Myanmar due to their political situation. This brought on a very sudden and drastic change to my workload, and I started working on projects with the Forum team in Ottawa. I completed a lot of research for a project they are working on in Cuba linked to decentralization. Although this was not what I was initially supposed to work on or what I prepared for, I got the opportunity to work with two countries and two teams, instead of just one. This was also one of the advantages of a virtual internship, as I would not have been able to easily transfer from one team to another if this was in-person.
The importance of being flexible and the ability to adapt to new and evolving situations is definitely an important lesson I learned during my internship. This was a very different experience from my time at university, and gave me a better understanding of life in the workforce. I have also had the chance to talk with some of the employees in the Forum, which gave me insight into their day-to-day work and their experiences working with an NGO. It has been an amazing experience and I am looking forward to my final weeks as an intern.