by Robert Case | Oct 31, 2024 | Internship Experiences, Uncategorized, Undergraduate Students
My name is Charlotte Sens, and I am a Diplomacy and International Relations major with minors in Asian Area Studies and Data Visualization. This summer I am interning with the International Rescue Committee in their Workforce Development taskforce, finding work opportunities for refugees mainly coming from Haiti and the Middle East (Palestine and Syria). I mainly craft resumes and apply to jobs for our clients, while also completing intake meetings and doing data entry. I am communicating with many different people in different languages throughout the day, which occasionally presents challenges to clear communication. To expand on this, some of our clients will move out of state and fail to tell our organization, distancing themselves from the services we provide. Other times, I will organize a meeting with a client, but my translation will be slightly incorrect and the conversation will become redundant and frustrating as we both fail to understand each other. However, through this frustration, I have learned to be patient and how to productively address client frustrations while moving forward with our own goal to find them a job.
Refugeeism and migration are significant public concerns within the international community and domestically. This internship has brought to light systematic disadvantages that refugees face in coming to the United States. While I had previously learned of the refuge process in a previous class (ETW: Refugees, Religion, and Politics and International Relations of Southeast Asia), it is very different seeing it in practice. Many of our clients do not speak English or do not have substantial employment history or education or access to a car. As I try to find jobs to accommodate them, I find that many simple, entry-level jobs have unfair requirements far outside the qualifications of my clients. I find that my coursework with the school of diplomacy has helped remedy this, as I have been able to utilize writing and research skills to find businesses that will accommodate my clients, and the resources provided by the school of diplomacy has allowed me to cultivate professional skills so that I can confidently conduct myself both when I’m in the office and when dealing with clients and employers.
The professional skills I have learned throughout this experience, including professional communication and conduct as well as data entry and reporting skills, have made me more confident to enter the work force post-grad. I have also become more familiar with the operations of the migration and refugee system within the United States, and I can bring this knowledge to future experiences. I would highly recommend this internship to other students as it is highly rewarding work, and every task serves to aid refugees and improve their livelihoods. While it may be frustrating or demoralizing at times, it is a very positive experience to be able to help those in need.
by Robert Case | Oct 18, 2024 | Uncategorized
My name is Annie Hebel, and I am a Senior studying Diplomacy and International Relations, Spanish, and Journalism at Seton Hall University. Currently, I am interning with the Refugee Support Services (RSS) division of the International Rescue Committee in Elizabeth, NJ. In this role, I directly support a caseworker in her work with newly arrived families with some form of humanitarian parole, mainly from Haiti and Cuba. My daily tasks often include observing client intakes, filing public benefits applications, and assisting with client communication in Spanish and Haitian Creole.
The most interesting part of my job is getting to learn about the experiences of my clients and helping alleviate them out of difficult situations. Many people who enter the U.S. with humanitarian parole face a significant backlog of time before they can start to work or receive benefits, which often leaves them vulnerable to economic or financial exploitation. The support offered at the IRC helps prevent migrants from falling victim to this by providing a space for them to ask questions and learn about all of the options available to them for support.
This has been a particularly valuable experience thus far because, though I have gotten experience in various other forms of immigration work, I have never worked in a direct support role. Because I want to go into immigration, this is an invaluable experience. I am learning so much about how to respond to direct needs of migrants and develop relationships with organizations that can provide aid. I am also learning so much about how to communicate with clients who speak little to no English, improving my intercultural
communication skills. However, this has also been the biggest challenge – most of our clientele speaks Haitian Creole, which I am only just beginning to learn. It has proven a challenge to be able to fully support these clients and also adjust to using translation services.
Through my internship, I have confirmed that while I want to continue to pursue a career
in the immigration space, I feel as though I am not the most qualified for a direct support, social work-focused role and instead would prefer to work in the legal area of immigration. However, this position has been invaluable to help me develop skills that will translate, such as intercultural communication and a chance to learn and practice Creole. Overall, I would recommend this internship, especially for people who are interested in working with immigrant populations.
-Andrea Hebel, ‘24
by Alondra Duncan-Belford | Feb 27, 2023 | Internship Experiences, Undergraduate Students
My name is Hamzah Khan and I am a junior in the School of Diplomacy majoring in International Relations and minoring in History, Arabic, and Economics. I interned at the Council on American Islamic Relations-NJ Chapter, the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization in the country as a legal research intern. In my role, I supported the organization’s civil rights department with case intakes and researched laws and government policies in New Jersey that impact the Muslim community. I also worked with the Communications department in researching and writing op-eds, advocating for policies that impact the Muslim community such as free speech laws, Islamophobia in local governments, and religious rights for incarcerated Muslims.
One project I am proud of is our anti-Islamophobia campaign in Edison, New Jersey. Earlier this summer, the Indian Business Association held a parade in Edison for India’s Independence Day but excluded most Indian minority groups like Muslims, Christians, and Sikhs. They also ran an offensive Islamophobic float of a bulldozer which Hindu Nationalist governments in India use to demolish the homes and businesses of Muslims. They also invited a renowned hatemonger from India’s BJP to be the grand marshal of the parade. The local community in Edison was shocked by this event and CAIR spearheaded a multi-organization condemnation and pressure campaign on the local mayors to apologize for attending the event and promise further screening of parades before issuing permits. We also put enough pressure on the Indian Business Association that they publicly apologized for the offensive imagery at the parade and agreed to work with local officials to prevent this from happening in the future.
I also worked on multiple op-eds criticizing the state of New Jersey’s policy of defunding investments in companies that exercise a boycott of Israel on humanitarian grounds. These op-eds criticized this policy’s coercive nature, which stifles the free speech rights of individuals and corporations who want to exercise a peaceful boycott of a country to advocate for human rights. These op-eds were published in renowned New Jersey and national outlets like NorthJersey.com under USA Today, and the Palestinian magazine, Mondoweiss. The opportunity to get published was big for me because I am interested in journalism as well and passionate about issues such as these.
These are two instances where international issues correlated directly with our work as a civil rights organization because we advocate for human rights not only in NJ but internationally as well including India and Israel. I had the opportunity to do research into international human rights as they relate to those two countries and learn more about the geopolitics of the Middle East and South Asia. This internship has allowed me to combine things I have learned in classes like Comparative Foreign Policy and Public International Law to get on hand experience in the field of civil rights advocacy both domestically and abroad. I also got to enhance my research skills which I gained from classes like Investigating IR and DiploLab. I am interested in pursuing a career in law or journalism in the future and this internship helped me to combine both disciplines while also gaining valuable insights by working with experienced lawyers and journalists.
by Alondra Duncan-Belford | Jan 27, 2022 | Graduate Students, Internship Experiences
My name is Onyinye Bridget Ogili-Foreman and I am a second-year graduate student at The School of Diplomacy and International Relations. I worked as a Civil Affairs Officer intern at the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations (UNDPKO) at the UN Headquarters in New York City. I always aspired to work with the UN because I have a passion for its duties, especially in areas of international security and peacekeeping in high-conflict regions. I became especially interested in the UN after taking courses that exposed me to the workings of the UN and its inherent role in international affairs.
My responsibilities included providing research assistance for policy documents and evaluating reports involving the work of different missions in the field. I also had the opportunity to work with U.N. experts to actually create policy documents. These documents will later be used in the policy prescriptions related to U.N. peacekeeping.
My internship is directly related to my coursework at the School of Diplomacy through the goals of the U.N. The goal of the U.N. is to promote diplomatic engagements between countries and create opportunities for them to find common ground on many issues that benefit from multilateral efforts. Many of the assignments I was given at the internship came naturally to me due to my previous coursework. Learning theories regarding international security and the roles of international organizations gave me material knowledge on most of the work and activities that I had the opportunity to engage in. I gained firsthand experience on how policy documents are drafted, as well as the consultation and negotiation processes needed, all of which sharpened my research, writing and analytical skills.
This internship reinforced my ambition to pursue a career with the UN and other opportunities linked to international security both in the private and public sector. My initial challenge was adjusting to work with a group of expert professionals who are more advanced both in education and experience, but I quickly learned to be humble and to ask questions. One of the most rewarding experiences was interacting with different stakeholders where I learned the nitty-gritty of the peacekeeping work. My greatest achievement has been helping to complete the work that would improve protection and safety of civilians in conflict. The satisfaction of knowing that the guidance we developed could be saving lives is truly refreshing.
My biggest take away from this internship is learning how to work with others, how to treat and respect people’s opinions and to seek to listen more. I believe these skills are going to be incredibly useful for me as a future diplomat that will be interacting with people of diverse backgrounds. I certainly recommend this internship for my fellow students as it will broaden your horizon and positively impact your personality.
by Catherine Ruby | Aug 18, 2016 | Graduate Students, Internship Experiences
Finding a Home at Homeland Security
Hello, my name is Dylan Ashdown and I am currently a Public Affairs intern in the Office of Multimedia, Motion Pictures, and Television, Office of Public Affairs, Department of Homeland Security (DHS). At Seton Hall, I am finishing up two Master’s degrees which will be awarded to me at the end of my internship; one degree will be in Diplomacy and International Relations and the other is in Strategic Communication. This internship has been very beneficial and I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested!
I have the “cool” internship. I work directly with the writers and producers of documentaries, television shows, and feature films, along with other “non-news” media stakeholders. Both of my degrees have been of use in this internship. The other day a writer reached out to our office requesting DHS’s help with their show. I ended up spending a few hours researching where I would defect if I was a scientist escaping from an evil government in New York City for a script the writer was working on. This was something that was very relevant to my Diplomacy schooling. In terms of my Strategic Communication classes, I have put together pitch plans for movie producers and interviewed cybersecurity professionals, and technology experts/inventors (all of whom one can find in the Homeland Security).
There is always something exciting happening at DHS. For example, today I attended the daily morning briefing and found out that I was meeting the Secretary of Homeland Security in three hours. Three hour later, I am sitting in a room with 15 other interns getting a briefing directly from the Secretary. This is not your normal internship experience!
Ultimately, the best thing about my internship hasn’t been meeting politically famous people; the best part has been the mentorship that I have received from my supervisor. I never really understood the meaning of a mentor until I started this internship. I asked more questions in my month here at DHS than I ever did in my six years of school and my mentor has gone out of his way to answer all of them. I have learned how to walk, talk, and behave as a public affairs professional in Washington D.C. because of the hours that I have spent with my mentor and because of how much he trusts me to handle projects on my own.
The most rewarding part of my internship is knowing that my work has a direct impact on educating the American people on the work of the Department of Homeland Security. I am very happy that I chose to intern at the Department of Homeland Security, Office of Public Affairs.
