After interviewing Sarah, the intern supervisor, I realized that although all interns are given similar tasks, we are welcome, actually encouraged, to take initiatives to work on our own projects. For instance, Stacy, a fellow intern, is interested and therefore, is doing Grant Research. I’m knowledgeable about the issues in Myanmar and interested in teaching so I’m developing a curriculum on Myanmar.

The Center for Global Studies (CGS) internship has given the interns the opportunities to volunteer at various community events from World Stories Alive and many lecture series. Out of the many events I was able to attend, the most fascinating one has been the lecture with Dr. Emile Bruneau of University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Bruneau studies the psychology behind inter-group conflicts among other things and as I am already involved with the research on ethnic conflicts, the lecture widened my perspective and introduced an innovative solution to the problem.

I learned to communicate effectively and I’m also finally learning to manage a social media platform. I initially underestimated the time that is necessary to manage a social media account and as a result, I was unable to make announcements in a timely manner. As I found new ways of making announcements about upcoming events, which involves a lot of planning and organizing, I have begun to effectively manage the page.

The internship has been a great learning experience as well as a fun one as the interns and co-workers work effectively with each other. There’s a lot of laughers in the office and it is a good environment to work at.

As it is April, and we have 1 month left for the internship, I reflect on my time at CGS thus far very positively! We just completed our 2nd newsletter for the semester where I wrote 2 reflections on the events that I participated in. I conducted an interview with Dr. Richard Delacy and volunteered at a number of CGS sponsored events.

For the second half of this semester, I have been working on various grant research projects for Sarah that have been very detail oriented. I appreciate that Sarah is giving me these tasks because it is giving me the space to work on my time management skills and research and compiling information skills. I think the most important part of an internship is learning how to act in a professional setting, and CGS has been a really good entry point for me within that area. I really like working with Sarah, Shannon, Emily, and my other two amazing interns, Nay and Zack. It is a really collaborative environment filled with laughs and an easy and comfortable vibe.

World Stories Alive! is almost over; there is 1 more event April 14th. I have participated in 3 WSA! events, and it is one of the most amazing programs that CGS is doing. I am amazed at how connected the community is to bilingual learning, and it is really humbling to see the same people show up every weekend. The platform CGS sets up in order for these events, and all other events, to happen with professionalism and care is really inspiring for me to witness.

As for the rest of the semester, I am helping with the Undergraduate Symposium on April 6th, where our very own Nay is presenting! I am also working on compiling information of faculty bios for the NRC Grant. I volunteered at German Day where I was a chaperone for about 2 hours. The program is a really amazing resource for high school students to have pride in learning another language and recognize that, at Penn State, there is an outlet for whatever anybody wants to learn.

I am sad that my time at the Center is ending, but I am really appreciative for the opportunity to work with all the incredible people I mentioned above and be involved in promoting global studies at Penn State.