As my time comes to an end as a Communications Intern at Raoul Wallenberg Institute, I have been able to reflect on my experiences and my highlights in Lund.
I heard about RWI through a friend, while I was on my semester aboard at Lund University. She had been able to combine her studies with her internship at the Institute during her semester abroad, and told me stories of the interesting people she had met. I applied to fill her role as soon as I saw it advertised, as I was looking for an internship to complete my placement year, as part of my Bachelors in International Relations and Politics. I’m glad I did, since I’ve had so many great experiences in my short five months there.
An experience that first comes to mind is one that I can appreciate with hindsight. The Communications team had only a few hours to copy edit a long (but great!) publication that one of our experts had created. Although at the time it was quite stressful, I look back fondly. The whole Communications team sat in the office together, having shared out a certain number of pages for each person to look at, completing the editing with no time to spare. As an intern, I felt part of a cohesive team, excited and challenged.
I soon found out that this is how I would feel a lot of the time while working at RWI.
Certainly, the amount of trust awarded to interns, as well as the encouraging environment, played a part in enabling these feelings. Another highlight for me was conducting a series of podcasts with UN Special Rapporteurs. I loved being in charge of a whole project, from organising the meetings, to editing the recordings, to publishing and promoting the finished products.
Another aspect that contributes to the feeling of excitement is that RWI is filled with impressive people. This meant that even conducting staff profiles, with people who I ate lunch with on many occasions, was exciting. The stories that the staff had to share were incredible.
It is inevitable when working with human rights, that you meet awe inspiring people. However, an interview that I conducted with Armando Perla is one that still stands out for me. Sitting down with him, hearing about his struggles and his achievements, was humbling. What particularly struck me was the way he spoke about his experiences. He was not a victim of his circumstances, he was the hero of his story. He did not harbour resentment for the government that had failed him. Instead, he was able to find the positive in his experiences, and immersed himself in the study of Human Rights Law.
Finally, the multicultural environment that RWI fosters is something that I found very enriching. I valued moments when I had the chance to speak to people from different cultures and countries. For example, listening to the doctoral candidates from Ethiopia speak about their various thesis subjects, and learning about laws that I would have been ignorant to otherwise.
I will carry these are experiences and skills with me in my future endeavours, wherever they may be.
By Jemimah Watkins