Summer 2010 Internships
| Intern: | Shefali Aurora |
| Internship: | Global Youth Connect |
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33-51 84th Street #6-A |
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Jackson Heights NY 11372 Internship Site: Rwanda |
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| Summary Description: | |
| The internship consisted of a three-week intensive learning and action community with Global Youth Connect which included discussions, site visits and volunteer work with a delegation of Americans and Rwandese participants. For the fieldwork component I worked with AJPRODHO (Youth association for the promotion of human rights and development) which supports the rights of young people in Rwanda through Child Protection projects and Gender Based Violence prevention campaigns (forming community committees on GBV and Child Protectioin, creating films about the two issues, youth networking with other youth organizations), legal aid, as well as research and policy papers (most recently on the rights of incarcerated youth). I was able to work in the office on various projects and funding proposals as well as work on documenting the fieldwork through interviews photography and film. | |
| Intern: | Claire Griffith |
| Internship: | Vermont Folklife Center |
| 88 Main Street | |
| Middlebury VT 07553 | |
| Summary Description: | |
| My internship at the Vermont Folklife Center had three focal points; producing roughly 24 audio pieces for a website centered around the Vermont refugee experience, meeting with artists to assist in the writing of applications for the Folklife Center’s Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program to help sustain the transmission of traditional arts, and helping prepare for the Discovering Community Institute to share the integration of ethnographic inquiry into the classroom with Vermont teachers. I worked under the direction of Gregory Sharrow, Director of Education on all three projects, but was granted a high degree of autonomy in the structuring and completion of my tasks. As intern, I felt included as a valued and respected part of the Folklife Center’s staff. | |
| Intern: | Joseph Hiller |
| Internship: | School of Americas Watch |
| Latin American Office | |
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Apartado Postal 437 Barquisimeto, Cara, Venezuela |
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| Summary Description: | |
| Through a Peace Studies Grant, I spent this past summer working with the School of Americas Watch (SOAW) Partnership America Latina in Barquisimeto, Venezuela. SOAW is a grassroots-based activist group primarily dedicated to the closure, of the SOA/WHINSEC, a US-funded center of military training directly implicated in egregious abuses throughout the Western Hemisphere. Since 2004, however, SOAW has become exceedingly involved in cross-continental movements against militarization and violence on a broader scale. My internship reflected this move towards a more comprehensive praxis of nonviolence as we worked to build a more collaborative relationship with Latin American based activist and human rights groups and sought to deepen our dispersed and certainly more profound resistance, both within ourselves and for our organization. This work is far from complete, and the personal foundation I laid this summer will (short of the inconceivable) serve as a platform for ongoing, intensifying activism in the months and years to come. | |
| Intern: | Najma Osman |
| Internship: | Cambodian Family Organization |
| 5A, St. (69BT) Sangkat Tumnupteuk | |
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Khan Meanchhev Phnom Penh, Cambodia |
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| Summary Description: | |
| While working at the Cambodian Family Organization (CFO), I taught two English classes in the evening. The NGO functions as a community center and English school. My duties as an intern were very broad and all-encompassing with no supervision at all. While the freedom to work at your own pace and on your own projects was nice, there was absolutely no guidance from my boss. Overall, the internship experience was amazing because of the impact I could have on my students, but dealing with so many annoyances made the experience unsatisfactory | |
| Intern: | Rosalie (Zasha) Russell |
| Internship: | Bridge to Freedom Foundation |
| 8929 Little River Turnpike | |
| Fairfax VA 22031 | |
| Summary Description: | |
| This organization’s mission is “to ensure that all survivors of modern slavery are able to build the skills and resources needed to escape the cycle of modern slavery and abuse while attaining and achieving the lives they choose.” This internship focused on advocacy and education regarding trafficking, administrative work,, non-profit management, anthropological research, and practical peacemaking. More specifically, I attended and partook in workshops, events, meetings, outreach, fundraisers and other education and advocacy opportunities that allowed me to learn more about trafficking and how it is being addressed as well as promote awareness of these issues. Additionally, I helped with administrative duties including secretarial work, publishing newsletters, maintaining websites, etc. BTFF is a recent non-profit organization founded by Cassandra Clifford. Thus, I worked directly with her to learn about starting a non-profit organization and its inner workings. Another aspect of my work was conducting a needs-assessment using an anthropological approach as part of BTFF’s Evidence Based Research. Lastly, in an effort to achieve peace, I helped to empower survivors though their Professional and Personal Development Programs. | |
| Intern: | Chandara Veung |
| Internship: | AMK Cambodia |
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No. 442, St. 193, Khan Chamkarmon |
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Phnom Penh, Cambodia |
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| Summary Description: | |
| My internship at AMK Cambodia this summer was a great experience. I had an opportunity to get a profound understanding of microfinance institutions and their operations. I worked in the Accounting Department for the first half of the internship where I did data entry, prepared reports, and did administrative work. I spent the last part of the internship on field operations including going to villages to meet with villagers, to promote AMK’s services, to form village banks, to identify a village bank president, to have potential borrowers fill in forms to disburse loans, and to collect interest and principal. I also had an opportunity to talk to people who live in rural areas and to get to know more about their families and the difficulties they are facing. The loans from AMK are making a difference in the life of many people in rural areas. | |
