heir supervisors for the first time, establish a work schedule and agenda and present their projects and organizations to the rest of the interns and employers participating in the program.
On Thursday, June 9th, the InteRDom Caribbean Summer 2011 interns arrived excited, anxious—and impeccably-dressed—to meet their internship supervisors and to lay out their work agendas for the summer. The employer presentations were direct and focused on the specific interest-areas of the students, but the highlight of the afternoon was the signing of the internship contract.
This is a very serious, quiet time where each party reads over the learning contract, which contains details about both the intern’s and the organization’s responsibilities throughout the internship, the work schedule, communication channels and the ultimate goals for the experience. While interns discussed additional skills and talents that they could bring to the organization to complement the experience, supervisors made adjustments in the induction and action plans to accommodate the unique interests and talents of each student.
“It was a very professional meeting and the presentations each person made really helped me understand in detail the work I will be doing and the work my peers will be in charge of doing,” said Jatnna Garcia, InteRDom 2011 intern of the Business Day meeting.
The Summer 2011 interns have very similar interests, mostly lying in the area of international relations. Jaynice del Rosario, a recent graduate of Wesleyan University in government, is particularly focused in the area of Dominican-Haitian relations, and will be working for a period of 6 months in a combined internship with the Dominican Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the United Nations Development Program on the Mixed Bilateral Dominican-Haitian Commission. The project aims to improve relationships and living standards between the two countries through the facilitation of dialogue, contact prevention and management and disaster prevention.
Two other interns, Garcia and Michael Schreckinger, from Boston University and Boston College, respectively, will be working together at the Dominican Council of International Relations (DCIR), a research center of FUNGLODE which seeks peaceful resolutions to global concerns through research, analysis and interactions with international scholars and experts. The interns will be conducting research, writing content for the website, organizing events and conducting interviews with international guests and specialists participating in conferences and seminars through the DCIR.
The internship program, InteRDom, an initiative of Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (GFDD) and Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo (FUNGLODE), is the premier internship, research and academic study program in the Dominican Republic. It offers international students the opportunity to research important topics at the forefront of the United Nations agenda, obtain professional experience by interning with Dominican organizations and businesses related to their fields of study and/or earn academic credits by taking courses and seminars at a local university.