Jehee Um
IARD 4960
Fall 2014
International Experience Reflection
In the summer of 2014, I was offered an internship position at the International Food Policy and Research Institute (IFPRI) for 9 weeks. Without a doubt, I accepted the opportunity to work with some of the leaders of today’s agricultural development movement. IFPRI is a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., working towards fighting poverty and ending world hunger. IFPRI facilitates international programs to develop sustainable solutions through research with the goals of“ensuring sustainable food production; promoting healthy food systems, improving markets and trade; transforming agriculture; building resilience and strengthening institutions and governance” (IFPRI 2014). It is also part of the CGIAR consortium and works to strengthen partnerships globally in order to put the research done into practice.
At IFPRI, I worked under the Partnerships, Impact Assessment and Capacity Building (PIC) division, which buildsrelationships with other international and local organizations through policy dialogues. My days followed regular work hours, from 9AM to 5:30PM with a one-hour lunch break from Monday to Friday, excluding major holidays. I was asked to perform literature reviews, research on policy dialogues and key European players in agricultural research.It was also my duty to write a follow-up report for the Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH) program and contribute to a report on the effectiveness of policy dialogues for developmental practices.
As an intern, I was able to gain exposure to a professional work environment, often testing my strengths and weaknesses under pressure. I strived to produce sophisticated, thorough research and reports,as the expectations were different compared to typical essaysassigned for classes. Inferring the expectations of my supervisors when asked to complete a task was typical. It was important to write a report keeping in mind the underlying purpose and audience. For example, when asked to research on the key European players in agricultural and nutritional research, I was initially not told that the findings would be geared towards the A4NH program. Thus, it was my decision to choose the most prominent organizations by perusing websites and journals for relevant information. The demands for a task like this required endless hours of reading and careful note taking, something I have yet to get used to. Being asked to do several of these tasks led to self-realizations that I did not enjoy research as much as I thought I would. I learned that I yearned to experience fieldwork and on-site approaches for local development, opposed to sitting at a desk for hours. Nevertheless, this experience taught me to be grateful and to understand that research was necessary in order to further take steps towards on-site development.
As this was my first job in an organization of my field of interest, I also learned a lot about work life in general. Having to commute one and a half hours to go to work and another one and a half hours to go home from work, I was pushed to familiarize myself with a routine and a tight schedule while learning to appreciate “free time” on weekends and after work. This opportunity taught me to commit and be responsible for my own life and became an appropriate gateway to experience work life first-hand. I was also privileged enough to speak several times with the Director General of IFPRI and worked closely with my supervisor to gain an understanding of how much they travel, what kind of responsibilities they held and how committed they were to the mission of IFPRI. It was an inspiration to be able to speak and work with adults who dedicated their lives to a cause that I am studying and am passionate about.
However, some aspects that I felt could enhance the internship program at IFPRI would be the support for internship endeavors and relationship. Towards the end of my time at IFPRI, I was able to connect with other interns and I regret not being able to spend more time with coworkers earlier on in the experience. Being a reserved person, I always take a step back from any situation,which led me to compromiseseveral opportunities to be outgoing by meeting with different people at the organization. Next time, I hope to be able to approach others first and to break away from my initially timid personality. I also realized that two months is an extremely short amount of time to experience the multidimensional nature of any microculture. Thus, it would be extremely beneficial to stay at IFPRI or any other organization or country for more than two months, in order to truly experience the inner workings of the community.
This internship gave me several realizations to narrow my interests and career possibilities as well as a broader sense of what kind of people are working towards solving world issues. I was able to put faces to a prominent organization like IFPRI and was also able to attend seminars at the United States Institute of Peace. The opportunity rekindled my passion for international development as I worked with people who shared the same passion for years beyond my imagination. I would definitely recommend any student to intern at IFPRI or any other international organization. This way, one can find out or narrow their interest into research, fieldwork, policy dialogues, etc. Furthermore, keeping in touch with these leaders can be extremely beneficial in the future as several organizations work with one another to fight poverty, world hunger and malnutrition, to name a few. Though I was only an intern, I was extremely welcomed into the IFPRI family and this gave me clarity and broke down my fear of the “real world” as people are always willing to help and asking questions was never frowned upon. Being put in situations that push one’s boundaries always results in something to be learned, which can sum up my experience at IFPRI.
Moving forward, I hope to gain more international experience not only by working for an organization but also working directly in a community. I’m excited to see how things that I have learned in class and working as an intern are applied to truly rural settings and to see positive impacts. This experience only motivated me to go after a variety of opportunities and to not be afraid of putting myself out there and testing my own limits to become a better student and individual.