Internship, Oh Internship!

IES Santiago offers an internship course that requires at least 90 hours of work with your internship and a few fieldwork journal entries for the seminar portion. As part of the global studies major at UNC I have a public health and environment theme, so I requested a public health related internship. I am an intern for the School of Public Health of the University of Chile. I work with a few supervisors whom help me enrich my knowledge of public health in two ways. I am expected to perform two ongoing tasks throughout the semester; one task is meant to be beneficial for the school and the other task is to foster my growth as a student interested in public health. One of my supervisors also has given me the task of holding interviews with the different department heads (Occupational Health, Environmental Health, Global Health etc.) in order for me to understand the functions and roll of the School of Public Health of the University of Chile.
I’ve been working with my internship for about a month now and I have learned so much! I have gained general skills, such as holding interviews with effective questions. The interviews with the department heads have allowed me to find out the inner workings of established and developing programs. Moreover, I am constantly able to have and be involved in discussions surrounding various aspects of public and global health. Two weeks ago one of my supervisors invited me to a closed reunion between him and two other men- one of which was a member of the US Department of State!
I’m so pleased with my internship and I very confident that after it is over I will have had tremendous growth in different areas that will be so marketable as I enter senior year and onward.