This past summer Isabel had the amazing opportunity to be an Artist’s Engagement Intern with the Women’s March Organization. After a crazy spring semester, Isabel was unsure if she would have the opportunity to have an internship over the summer, remote or otherwise, but Global Studies and Anthropology Professor Michel graciously helped her find this opportunity. This summer was certainly a tumultuous time throughout the U.S., and the Women’s March organization has been working on a variety of responses, including supporting the Black Lives Matter Movement and understanding how women are uniquely impacted by COVID-19. Isabel was distinctively qualified for working with the Women’s March Organization due to her background as a Global Studies student and her interests related to the well-being of women globally and in the United States. As a Women’s March intern, she was constantly learning and understanding what it meant to be an organizer, and she found that the Global Studies program had prepared her for this, including the ability to communicate about pressing social problems and work with people from diverse backgrounds.
One of her Global Studies classes from spring 2020, GS 317: So You Want To Save The World taught by Professor Bruce Whitehouse, prepared her for some of the projects that she worked on which included planning peaceful protests in communities across the country. One of the concepts that continuously came up in this class and Global Studies curriculum more generally was on the successes and failures of NGOs across the globe, and the importance of a community-based, bottom-up approach. Many NGOs that fall short of helping the communities that they become involved in do so because they make decisions from afar, without consulting with the communities in need on-the ground. Isabel has learned that in order to be successful, NGOs and international actors must listen to the people of these communities and work with them to implement the changes that are wanted. When working to develop partnerships with the Women’s March organization in her role as an intern last summer, she knew it was important for her to look for NGOs that were well connected to community needs and the people they served. The best approaches draw on principles of mutuality, and she worked to find local groups that the Women’s March could support rather than come in and take control.
Isabel found that the ideas and principles of international aid she learned in her Global Studies courses helped to prepare her to work for the Women’s March Organization in important ways. Her experiences in Global Studies working in international settings with all different types of people, and having a deep understanding of key issues of poverty and inequality, not only made her uniquely qualified for the internship, but also helped her to make her work this past summer truly impactful.