From student to staff member

Candice, Bachelor of Arts with major in psychology and minor in management
Canadian NGO: Alternatives
Local NGO: Lesotho Teacher Association

I had never imagined that I would have the opportunity to work with people from the other half of the earth. Before the internship began, I had no idea about the country I would work with.  After doing some research and completing several meetings with my colleagues. I learned that People from Lesotho are welcoming and hospitable. The culture was quite different from my home country, China and Canada, so it took a while to adapt to Lesotho’s culture. Gradually, I began to know what the internship was really about. It’s more complex and more complicated than I thought before. I felt confused at the beginning of this internship.

I didn’t know what I should do and how to complete the tasks I got. The sudden change from student to staff is challenging for me. My identity here was not a student anymore but a team member, a colleague. No more teacher or professor who would assign a specific task to you, and all I need to do is follow the guidelines. During the internship, I had to learn by myself. Finding a solution to a problem without any guidelines was challenging for me. There were no specific standards or rules on how I should figure this problem out. All I needed to present to my colleagues was the final project or the outcome I got. There was always more than one way to a solution. I didn’t need to try each way out specifically. All I needed to do was find the most efficient way and that guaranteed the quality. During the internship, I attended many meetings. At first, these meetings were pretty stressful for me because I felt so anxious to speak up in front of people. However, as time goes on, I felt more comfortable joining meetings and sharing ideas with my colleagues. These pre-internship meetings helped a lot. It prepared me with tolls for the internship. In addition, it taught me many solutions to release stress. During these past weeks, I felt more and more comfortable with my new identity as an intern. Also, I became more familiar with Lesotho’s culture and became clear about my tasks and goals. I hope that I can work even better during the remaining weeks of the internship and have a happy ending.