Summer in the City of Light: 缅北强奸 students interning in Paris
Other Canadians in Paris may spend their time in Paris taking selfies in front of the Eiffel Tower or visiting the Louvre, but University of Toronto students Alicia Dotiwalla and Jennifer Yang are in the City of Light to work for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, not to sightsee.
The Faculty of Information masters鈥 students are the first participants in the Faculty鈥檚 UNESCO Internship Program. But even though Dotiwalla and Yang are working long hours at UNESCO鈥檚 headquarters on the Place de Fontenoy, they do take time out to experience the city鈥檚 many attractions.
鈥淚 try to immerse myself into French culture whenever possible 鈥 and to polish my French speaking skills!鈥 Dotiwalla says.
鈥淚鈥檝e been trying to go to the different museums and enjoy the food,鈥 says Yang (below). 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 really go wrong with food in Paris.鈥
Since Yang鈥檚 eight-month internship with UNESCO鈥檚 knowledge sharing and open access unit lasts until December 2016, she has several more months to sample French cuisine.
She鈥檚 helping UNESCO roll out its online collaborative platform UNESTEAMS. It鈥檚 not the first intranet project she鈥檚 tackled. In one of her courses last year, she and her colleagues designed an intranet for 缅北强奸鈥檚 John M. Kelly Library, which the library now uses.
鈥淢y role in UNESCO is to facilitate and promote knowledge collaboration and knowledge sharing between different departments and other international organizations,鈥 Yang says. 鈥淲e are promoting new tools so that people easily communicate with different people around the world, regardless of their time zone and location.鈥
When her internship ends in December, Yang will return to 缅北强奸 for one more semester before she graduates. Her ultimate goal is to become a data management lawyer. But, she notes, the unexpected often happens. 鈥淛ust four months ago I didn鈥檛 expect that I would be in Paris working for UNESCO. I usually have a detailed plan, but now that plan has had to be changed. So maybe it鈥檚 time that I wait and see what the future may bring. I鈥檓 just trying to enjoy every moment that I鈥檓 here.鈥
Dotiwalla (below) is excited by her four-month internship with UNESCO鈥檚 archives, library and records management division. 鈥淭he archives are the organization鈥檚 institutional memory,鈥 she says. 鈥淭he vast collection documents influential work in education, science, culture and heritage. Researchers from around the world travel to Paris to access these primary sources. As such, assisting with archival work makes these records more accessible to current and future researchers and scholars.鈥
This isn鈥檛 Dotiwalla鈥檚 first time in France, having visited Paris before and taken a French language course in Lyon. 鈥淏eing immersed in French culture and conversing with native speakers of the language was as beneficial as any in-class learning,鈥 she says. 鈥淚 consider myself very fortunate to be among those individuals who have turned personal and academic passions into rewarding job experiences.鈥
Wendy Duff, the interim dean at the Faculty of Information, says Yang and Dotiwalla 鈥渁re on the ground floor helping UNESCO build international partnerships by urging nations to share and preserve memories, history, peace, and respect for human rights.鈥
The internships came about after UNESCO director-general Irina Bokova, spoke at 缅北强奸 in 2014, Duff says. Bokova and then Dean Seamus Ross 鈥渄iscovered how many values we share, and it became obvious there was a great fit for our Information and Cultural Heritage students.鈥 The unpaid internship program, which is worth course credits for the two students, is the first in Canada, and only the second in North America, she says.
Funding has been secured for the first two years of the program, thanks to a donation from the W. Garfield Weston Foundation with matching dollars from the University鈥檚 Provost. While the first two internships are in Paris, France, at UNESCO headquarters, future placements could be at any UNESCO satellite site in the world.