Lifestyle
Broadside
Mason Makes Careers How would you describe the place you interned at? Tawasul is a small non-profit organization located in Ramallah, a major city in the West Bank, which works to promote peace and the two-state solution among various sectors of civil society.
(COURTESY OF NICOLE GRIM)
NAME: Nicole Grim GRADUATION DATE: May 2013 DEGREE: Conflict Analysis and Resolution, Global Affairs minor INTERNSHIP: Intern for Tawasul in Ramallah, West Bank
What are some of your day-to-day responsibilities? The Tawasul staff was working on two separate grant proposals while I was there. The first was on a land reclamation project in three cities, which had been hit particularly hard by the construction of the separation barrier. The second was geared towards youth in refugee camps and providing them with an outlet to express their frustrations and grievances through various forms of media production. Since proposals were submitted in English, I assisted in the writing and editing of these two proposals, and I also conducted research and made site visits with the Tawasul team to help with the formulation of these projects. How did your degree and/or courses at Mason help you with your internship? My internship allowed me to connect what I was witnessing during my internship with what I was learning in class. When I met with different people for our project research, I was very aware of how they
March 25, 2013
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Every week, Broadside features a student or alumnus with a great internship or job to highlight the opportunities and potential earning a degree at Mason offers.
spoke, their body language, what words they chose to use, because those are the things we’re taught to pay attention to when looking at interpersonal behavior. When I watched dialogues, I was equally aware of the facilitator’s methods, how the activity was structured and how the participants interacted. We do simulations in class when we’re learning about processes like dialogues, but being able to see one – particularly between groups in such an intractable conflict – was absolutely amazing. What’s the most exciting part of your internship? By far, my favorite experience was watching Tawasul facilitate dialogues between different groups. Aside from seeing the dialogues and watching these two groups interact, the entire experience of organizing and traveling to the site locations was really eye opening. The first dialogue I attended was held in Jerusalem, so the Tawasul team and our Palestinian participants had to cross into Israel, which means going through a major security checkpoint because the Wall separates Ramallah from Jerusalem. That was a really incredible experiencehaving the first-hand look at what the checkpoints are actually like and how Palestinians are treated when they try to cross.
After our group got through, we were forced to turn our bus around and enter another way because we were on an Israeli-only road. After this kind of discrimination and mounting frustration, when we finally arrived to pick up the Israeli participants in Jerusalem I was expecting a very tense atmosphere. I was pleasantly shocked, however, to see the participants embracing each other warmly, like old friends, and they chatted the whole way to the site location. What’s the most challenging part of your job? The most challenging part was the language barrier. During our site visits, Tawasul staff were able to arrange for an English translator, but I feel like I would have been able to learn much more if I was fluent in Arabic. What advice would you offer anyone trying to get a similar internship? Go for it! CGE offers so many internship opportunities in a wide array of countries, and they tailor your internship to fit your interests. The internship itself will be a great experience, but being in a foreign country adds an extra element of awesome. RYAN WEISSER LIFESTYLE EDITOR
Have an interesting internship you want to tell Mason about? Email EIC@BroadsideOnline.com
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