Virtual Internship Stories: Safia Southey

Name: Safia Southey
School: General Studies ‘21
Center: Amman
Internship: Human Rights Researcher, UNRCO Jordan

Introduce yourself! What’s your name, school, and where are you from?
I’m Safia. I’m from here in New York, and I’m part of GS as part of the Dual BA program between Science Po and Columbia.

For whom are you interning and through which Global Center?
I’m currently interning with the UNRCO in Jordan, doing human rights research through the Global Center in Amman.

What does the role of Human Rights Researcher entail? What are some projects you’ve been working on?
I’ve been working on gathering relevant human rights UN recommendations and applying them to the UNRCO office in Jordan’s project with COVID right now and making sure they’re actually in line with the recommendations that were given to them. So going through the legal aspects and human rights aspects and contextualizing them with current issues to make sure they’re actually fulfilling constituents needs and following UN recommendations has been super educational and interesting, and I feel like I’m doing something productive, which is nice.

What are some of your daily responsibilities? How are you communicating with your supervisor?
I’m taking summer classes, I tutor in my free time, and I still have work study, so I’m busy, and this internship is perfect because I’m able to do it in my free time and still get out all the deliverables. I will be sent assignments in the morning and have actual in-person meeting week-to-week with my advisors and if there’s any actual issues that arise, I’m always able to communicate with them and can always call if I need. It’s really easy for me to get the work done and be in communication with them on my own time, which is nice especially because the internship is based in Jordan, and everyone is spread out all over. So being able to do it whenever I want without having to be on Jordan time or Geneva time or anything like that is super nice.

How would you describe the experience of your virtual internship?
We’re at a little slow point right now because everyone’s a little chaotic with COVID, but it’s still technically going on. It’s been a really fun time because I’ve been able to kind of contextualize all of my schooling with research and legal aspects of human rights as a human rights major. It’s been a really fun way to kind of connect all of my different things.

How would you compare the experience of a virtual internship to a more traditional, in-person internship?
I’m used to virtual internships. I think that it’s pretty seamless altogether. I think, if anything, it’s probably better than an in-person internship because you get to do your work, you get to do it productively, you don’t have to be sitting in an office wasting your time in case you don’t have active work to do. You’re still able to be constantly in touch with people through Zoom, email, Slack, all that stuff, and it’s really easy to go about the regular work that you would if you were in an actual office.

Do you have any tips for future virtual interns?
Just making sure you’re in contact with your advisors because they might forget about you, or they might give you too much work. Just being really clear about what your expectations are and what their are, your advisor’s expectations are. This might just be a me-problem, but I think it’s sometimes necessary to define for myself when I’m working and when I’m not because it’s really easy to bleed into your personal time, and there’s no separation between work and school and personal life. So kind of having those lines of definition will help you keep sane, so try to do that as best as you can.