Would I do it Again? In a Heartbeat!

I learned a lot during my dialogue, via my internship, my classes, and all the amazing traveling I got to do in the UK and elsewhere. As a Human Services combined major, it was really important for me to get a foundational understanding of the set-up within a nonprofit, which I was able to do at the National Union of Students as an intern. My internship also affirmed that I want to work in nonprofits in the future and being on this dialogue taught me that working/studying/traveling abroad is a lot less intimidating that it seems.

It was nice to see how an office functions during my internship. I got to observe what sorts of schedules and deadlines people run on, the kinds of work and non-work that people engage in, and the types of relationships people build with their coworkers. I know that every organization is different, but it will be nice to have had some experience in an office before I go on co-op in the spring.

I also think that working in a nonprofit reaffirmed my personal belief that my life’s work needs to be meaningful. My definition of that is flexible, but I could never work for a toothpaste company, for example. I felt like at NUS, even though I wasn’t working to make people’s lives better directly, I was still helping to make positive change by engaging institutions and organizations in sustainability. I’ve come to realize that’s really important to me. I need to be affecting positive change in some capacity. I know that often those in the nonprofit sector get burned out or feel like they aren’t making a difference and I observed that with some of our clients that felt Green Impact wasn’t having enough of an impact. I need to be cognizant of that make sure I continue to practice self-care, especially once I start working full-time in the nonprofit sector. I’m curious to see how that affects me in my next work placements, and I think it’s good that I will know to have an eye on it because of my work with NUS.

Before coming to London, I thought that living abroad was something only really courageous, adventurous people did. And maybe that’s actually true, but I realize now that I could be one of those people. I thought that the whole Visa process was too daunting to be dealt with, and that it couldn’t really be done. But I did it! And I want to do it again in the future— for co-op, for study abroad, maybe even for graduate school or just to live and work. I came to this realization just by listening to the stories of the capstone students that have all traveled so much during their time at Northeastern, the alumni from the networking event and mini presentation with Human Services Alumni that are currently studying or working in London, and my coworkers, many of which had spent significant time abroad or were from countries outside of the UK all together. Traveling and getting to know other cultures besides my own is really important to me. and I’m relieved that the idea of actually doing so is becoming less and less abstract and scary. It feels good to know that living abroad is an attainable goal.

I learned a lot from my placement with NUS, but more than that, I learned an invaluable amount from being in London and all the opportunities that I had as a result, including the classes we had. I really appreciated the number of speakers, outside talks, and activities that we were able to pack into our trip. I feel like it was a unique and irreplaceable experience that allowed me to soak up information from all angles, and in an untraditional way. I’m already planning on doing another dialogue, this time in South Africa. I really think it’s an amazing way to learn and I’m so grateful that we have this opportunity at Northeastern.