By sdemetry
Liebe GW Studenten,
I am happy to announce that life in the internship-realm has picked up considerably since my last blog post. No longer am I being put on hold- the intensive language class has come to an end, the weather is cooling down, school is starting up, and it is finally time to buckle down and do some real work.
About two weeks ago I was put on a regular schedule, working three days a week, at least 15 hours in the office as well as some additional tasks to take home. The first few days were quite lax- coming in later in the afternoon, having a meeting with my supervisor to discuss exactly what I should be preparing to do for my first project, and heading home to do a bit of online research. However, once there was nothing left to discuss, I hit the ground running.
My first responsibility was to create a public funding strategy for a conservation project involving reform of Southeast Asia's timber industry. It was a seriously daunting task. As a Criminal Justice and German double major, I have never taken a finance or marketing class, never been very interested in business, and definitely never created anything mildly similar to a public funding strategy. The phrase was completely foreign to me, dictating that there would be a lot of hours spent on Google before anything concrete came into being.
With a deeply concerted effort, I pulled it off in the two days I was given. I was quite nervous to present it, but my efforts did not go unnoticed. I could sigh in relief when they thanked me whole-heartedly and said that my strategy would be exceedingly helpful throughout the next couple of weeks. Afterwards, they asked if I could divide the tasks up into equal parts for the team. I was shocked and confused- It's hard for me to believe that an intern's work could be used in such a legitimate way- after my DC internship experiences, I was expecting to be assigned fluff tasks - I figured that nothing I did would be taken seriously. To be asked to divide up the tasks of a project that I had created and assign jobs to the existing work-team was both a huge compliment and a totally unexpected occurrence.
Now that I've finished the public funding strategy, I'll be moving on to another project. Though I'm not sure exactly what it will be, I'm excited to find out. I love the increased responsibility that I've been given at TNC Europe. In comparison to other internships that I've had back home, it's a refreshing and welcome change. I'm not getting coffees, ripping out staples, shredding paper, or scanning copious amounts of documents onto a PC circa 1995. I feel like a part of a team, and it's only my second week. What I'm doing actually does matter, and it's making a huge difference in the amount of motivation I have to go to work and try my absolute hardest with each new task.
On another note, I love Berlin, and it's now really starting feel like home. I've explored every quadrant of the city, partaken in a few tourist-necessities and successfully given directions to tourists. It's been a successful fall, and I am excited to get into the winter semester and really kick off the year.With classes just starting, my internship picking up speed, and the weather turning from a crisp Indian summer into a decidedly chilly late Autumn, I'm ready to bunker down and chug away at whatever the University and TNC can throw at me.
That's all I've got for now.
Until next time,
SD