Xingyi, honours Psychology,
Internship Country: Vietnam
Canadian NGO: Mines Action Canada
Local NGO: Association for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (AEPD)
his internship has brought me a lot of different experiences, since it is not only a remote internship but also an international internship. Personally speaking, the advantages of remote working is way larger than the drawbacks. When teamwork is needed, we will set up video conferences so that all members can have a sense of participation and arrange each other's tasks quickly and reasonably. At the same time, when deadlines are already set, people can arrange their work time according to their own schedule. If I don't hear back by email within a short time, I'll send a follow-up email the next day to make sure the person hasn't forgotten or missed the message. As for social interaction, I think proper arrangements of meeting chat have some positive effects and can effectively improve the relationship between me and my colleagues. The remote internship also brought me a lot of convenience in life. Like helping me avoid missing work because of travel issues. I also work more flexible hours and don't have to worry about the weather.
As a remote international intern, culture clashes are hard to avoid. Fortunately, we have a lot of respect for each other and our cultures and ways of doing things. Because of language and cultural differences, it is hard for me to maximize the value of my abilities. Moreover, some of the work I am good at cannot be carried out due to the language barrier. I solved this problem by finding more tasks that didn't require verbal communication and helping them with advocacy campaigns in my own country. For example, instead of talking to landmine survivors, I made pictures for them to spread the message. If the situation becomes too difficult for me, I turn to someone more experienced. That's what I've been doing lately. I turned to the daughter of an NGO worker, who gave me a lot of advice on my experience and helped me contact her family at AEPD to provide me with more valuable information. I also tried to contact the previous international intern of AEPD to communicate with her and get more inspiration.
In general, this experience has brought me a lot of useful knowledge and skills and made me learn how to adapt to new situations quickly. Thanks again to my Canadian NGO and Vietnamese NGO for helping me have a pleasant and meaningful internship experience.