Virtual Internship Stories: Anh Quynh Nguyen

School: Graduate School of Arts and Sciences ‘23

Major: MA in Global Thought

Center: Rio de Janeiro

Internship: Climate and Society in the Global South

Introduce yourself! Tell us your name, where you’re from, your school at Columbia, and where you are doing your internship. 

My name is Anh Nguyen. I am from Vietnam and graduated with an MA in Global Thought from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. I had an excellent opportunity to intern at the Rio de Janeiro Center for Spring 2023.

Can you share a bit about the project you’re working on? 

The Rio de Janeiro project is concerned with how to make relevant and valuable the climate expertise of Columbia University to stakeholders (broadly understood) in the Global South. My internship was to explain the basics of what people are trying to do in Rio at the Global Center and also to go over some aspects of climate change from the regional perspective of Brazil. Together, we would have to survey precisely what are the climate resources of Columbia and how in concrete terms, these can be of use to citizens of the Global South.

What is a typical day in your life as an intern? What are your day-to-day duties?

I spent most of my afternoon doing an internship because I had morning classes. Each day, I utilized around two to two and a half hours to do each step of my tasks. Eventually, I would often complete my assignment earlier than the deadline. The way I submitted my work depended on what I was assigned to. For example, to write a summary or a report, I needed to read and do some research to find relevant documents first. Or, if I was assigned to present some reading materials, I would need to spend more time reading, especially since sometimes my readings were outside of English.

How have you been finding your internship so far?

I found it interesting, helpful, and challenging simultaneously. Firstly, I would leverage my experience working with the director, Dr. Thomas Trebat, and managers to gain more knowledge and enhance my hands-on skills to address the most pressing problems related to climate and society. Meanwhile, I had difficulty reading materials since some were not in English, so I needed to deal with the language barriers to complete my assignment. Otherwise, I am grateful that I can widen my knowledge by approaching and learning about the environmental situations of a different country, Brazil, that I am not familiar with. From that, I can compare diverse countries’ policies for addressing climate issues worldwide.

How is it different from a more traditional internship/work experience if you have had one? If you haven’t, what is it like being a virtual intern?

Being a virtual intern, I had a lot of flexibility in time management, such as online meetings and the deadline of tasks. Although my previous experience was also virtually, I found this internship was so different because of its scope, Brazil, which was significantly new to me. Brazil is itself a major member of the Global South. As a pioneer in sustainable energy and conservation initiatives, this nation offers a wealth of knowledge and studies into the world’s main environmental and sustainability issues.

Why did you pick this internship?

The Rio Center’s focus on climate and society in the Global South perfectly aligns with my research interest and goal: to make the community a better place to live. I enjoy learning new things and constantly seek new opportunities where I can learn and grow. Most of my research and understanding of the environment is on the Asian markets. This Rio Center internship is a great chance to excel and push me out of my local context to approach the global context where the issues of other countries intersect, including Brazil. Therefore, I picked this internship because I want to study these things and make connections between Brazil and other countries that have the same developing pattern.

What have you learned from this experience?

I had a chance to try new things that I had never done before, such as writing a “press release” to provide an overview of the Rio Climate Hub to the external world. By doing that, I was so lucky to somehow contribute to the Climate Hub | Rio launch in Brazil on March 14. This document will serve as a summary, offering critical information about the purpose and objectives of the hub. Additionally, the director and managers provided many reading materials to assist with my tasks. For instance, I needed to summarize and analyze the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), highlighting the urgent need for immediate and ambitious action to mitigate the impacts of climate change. This summary focused explicitly on the implications of the IPCC report for countries in the Global South, including Brazil. Also, I needed to read about Amazon and present for around 10 minutes in the following meeting. The meetings delved into a document attached for discussion related to the next assignment. The objective would establish connections between research centers, universities, and organizations in the Brazilian Amazon and Columbia faculty, researchers, and student projects. The intention was to map out these connections and facilitate collaboration.

Do you have any tips for virtual interns?

It would be better to manage your time to balance your study and work. Most importantly, don’t wait until the deadline to start work! Virtual work is sometimes not people’s priority because they tend to complete other things with earlier deadlines first. Therefore, working virtually can make people think they have plenty of time and can do whenever they want. However, in reality, people need to take it seriously even though the work is “virtual.” If people want actually to learn and gain knowledge from any virtual experiences, they need to be conscious since they are much independent, and no one can control and keep track of their work.

What are your plans for after the university?

I will continue with my passion for doing research in the economic and political spheres by pursuing the Ph.D. program in Political Science.

Do you have any book, podcast, newsletter, or documentary recommendations?

Working with Columbia World Projects in the Rio de Janeiro Center was an exciting experience. Enhancing your understanding of the relevant subjects and providing valuable insights, I can recommend these two books: “The Tropics Bite Back: Culinary Coups in Caribbean Literature” by Valérie Loichot and “Favela: Four Decades of Living on the Edge in Rio de Janeiro” by Janice Perlman.

Is there anything you’d like to highlight about your experiences?

I really appreciate what I gained from this virtual internship! Now, I have very good connections with many great people.