Virtual Internship Stories: Irina Preotescu

Name: Irina Preotescu
School: SIPA ‘21
Major/Course of Study: Master of International Affairs, Concentration in Economic and Political Development, Specializing in UN Studies and International Conflict Resolution
Hometown: Bucharest, Romania
Center: Amman
Internship: Methods for Irrigation and Agriculture (MIRRA), Jordan

What are some of your responsibilities as an intern?
I have one supervisor, whom I talk to twice a week, usually in the morning because she is in Amman right now. The communication is very good; she updates me regularly on any changes to the schedule, any recent changes by authors to the papers we’re working on. Essentially my responsibilities include, but are not limited to, editing articles and reports to make sure they’re upt to international publishing standards, making sure citations are in order, making sure the English is right, and making sure the ideas flow nicely. So far I’ve been working on a report on Virtual Waters in Jordan, and that’s almost done. It’s been sent to the main author for his final revisions and comments, and then it’s going to go through one more round through my advisor Eliza and me, and then it can be published. Right now we just started working on a larger study about the water footprint in Jordan, and our task now is different, which is to condense the original 70 pages into a twenty-page article. I think that’s really cool because I get to practice academic writing and structuring a paper. We’re essentially creating a document, not from scratch, but using the raw information.

How is this experience different from a typical internship that may have taken place on sight or in-person?
I’m not a huge fan of online learning and work. I’d much rather be there in person; however, I do think that in this situation, it doesn’t affect the work I do too much because I am working on the documents and on the laptop. Even if I were there, I’d still be working digitally. It has been a bit distracting not being able to be in touch with everyone there, not being able to know and exchange information in a more normal and rapid context. Having to rely on time differences and emails doesn’t exactly make for the easiest communication, but it’s been alright. It would’ve been better to be there and ask authors the questions in person, to have meetings more frequently, so I do think I’m missing that part. But in terms of the work I do, I don’t think it would’ve changed much, and I do like that I have more privacy in working, the time difference allows that as well. I can set my own time limit, and there’s no hard deadline or the same schedule. I like being able to work on things on my own time, by myself and get back to my supervisor with what I’ve done.

Is there any advice you would give to future virtual interns?
I’d say take advantage of the situation as it is since we can’t really control it. Try to set up your schedule so that it benefits you in the best way possible. Just because you can’t be there in person, doesn’t mean you can’t make and build these connections for your future. Keep in touch with the people you work with, and I’m definitely going to keep in touch with my supervisor and some of the authors we’ve been working with. I do find what I’m doing really interesting, and I do think it would be a great connection to have. So that would be my advice: write to people, reach out to people, and take advantage of this unique situation.

What made you choose to work for the organization of your internship, and why did you choose an internship based in the region it is?
I’m really interested in the Middle East, and I’ve studied, in depth, the migration situation and Syrian refugee situation in Turkey, including a visit to Turkey through a SIPA course earlier this winter. I had some prior knowledge of the region and of the conflict unfolding in the region, and I was really interested in the agricultural aspect of it because agriculture is so essential to development for so many countries, including my home country, Romania. I thought it would be important to dive into that topic a little bit more and understand it better, and I’ve learned a lot so far, so I’m loving it. Jordan is a very important country in the region, and so I’m happy. Global Centers Amman was one of the ones I was really focused on because I wanted to have more contact with countries in the region.

If you weren’t working as a virtual intern through Columbia Global Centers, what would you be doing this summer?
I have been working since June 1st with World Merit, so I have been doing another part-time internship, but I still felt I needed more experience and more learning out of the summer since my original internship did get canceled, as with many other people. Other than that, I’m filling my time with watercolor painting, practicing Spanish, trying to learn coding but stopping after a few lessons because I need more individual attention, and working on some research papers that I wanted to get published.