The GoAbroad Team is pleased to feature the 2012 GoAbroad Innovation Awards finalists in the category of Innovative New Program – Internship. We received many wonderful nominations and the selection committee has chosen five finalists, listed here in alphabetical order. Throughout this week, GoAbroad will highlight the finalists in each of the GoAbroad Innovation Award categories!
Academic Studies Abroad (ASA)
“Business in the Arts & Edinburgh Festival Fringe Internship”
With the Business in the Arts & Edinburgh Festival Fringe Internship from Academic Studies Abroad (ASA), students gain access to an otherwise closed world of networking with professionals in the performing arts industry at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (www.edfringe.com), the World’s Largest Performing Arts Festival.
The Business in the Arts program was originally designed for undergraduate performing arts students at North American institutions to fill a gap in curriculum where the business side of the arts is often neglected. Students are fully integrated into the larger base structure of the festival. Interns work beside decision makers of leading venues and production companies. Students also gain an insider’s edge by learning through tasks and networking what it takes to make a show an award-winning success in the festival environment. Internships are for-credit and customized to meet the goals of individual students. Placements are with award-winning production companies and students are given personalized attention throughout their internship.
Actuality Media
“Actuality Media Internships”
Actuality Media is a for-impact organization that takes media students on outreaches to developing communities around the world. On the ground, students work in crews to research, write, shoot and edit a short documentary that tells the story of a changemaker who is working in new ways to combat chronic social problems.
Actuality Media’s motto: “Make movies. Change the world.”
Gathering from across the globe, participants converge on their destination city and get right to work. Students of varied backgrounds – from communication to sociology – and all different skill levels, come together to work as Director, Editor, Producer and Cinematographer. These students come for a serious task: to tell a story that matters.
All crews work to meet benchmarks throughout the trip, from writing the story, to finding their characters, to making a shot list. Every outreach goes out with a blast as crews and changemakers gather for a wrap party – a send-off dinner and premiere for the newly-completed documentaries. Afterwards, the finished films are provided digitally to both the featured changemaker, for use in spreading the word on the good work they are doing, and to the student crew members for festivals and their reels.
Global Experiences
“Project Moda”
Global Experiences is known for its expertise in fashion industry internship placements in Italy and around the world. The Project Moda concept was developed to offer fashion interns the chance to be involved with some of the more public and glamorous aspects of the fashion world. As a young fashion professional, it is rare to see the process of fashion from concept to catwalk. Much of being a fashion intern is focused on tasks based on the season, improving technical design skills or navigating the business side of the industry.
In 2010, Global Experiences launched Project Moda: Season One. This innovative program complements the internship experience by providing a unique, experiential fashion event as well as networking opportunities for students and European fashion industry professionals.The fashion industry is one of the largest global employers and an international perspective on fashion is essential for fashion students to launch a successful career. Global Experiences are preparing these future fashion leaders through experiential programs such as Project Moda. This video highlights the program in 2010: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13A8bVfr1zU
Institute for Education in International Media (ieiMedia)
“Summer Journalism Internship in Istanbul”
The Institute for Education in International Media realized that Istanbul, at the fulcrum of Middle East and West, was a terrific place for journalism students to practice working as foreign correspondents. Thus, the organization launched ieiMedia’s summer journalism program in Istanbul in 2011, in partnership with the journalism departments of San Francisco State University and Istanbul’s Bahçeşehir University. Several “correspondent internships” were also established.
Working with interpreters, “correspondent interns” report, write and shoot photos and video, not just for Turkey-based publications, but also for newspapers, magazines and digital publications based abroad. It’s the next best thing to being hired as a foreign correspondent. ieiMedia interns have also served as Istanbul correspondents for the New York City-based digital international affairs magazine Worldpress and as feature reporters for Turkey’s Hurriyet Daily News. ieiMedia is thrilled to be able to offer interns real-world journalism experience, meant to help them break into a brutally competitive field.
Monterey Institute of International Studies
“DPMI Practicum/Emily Patrick”
Emily Patrick is pursuing her Master’s in Public Administration at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. This past summer, Emily interned in Namibia as part of the Development Project Management Institute Plus (DPMI Plus) program. Through DPMI Plus, Emily was connected with Root Change, a social change organization based in Washington, D.C. Root Change found work for Emily with the Legal Assistance Centre, a human rights organization in Namibia. She worked on an international child labor project aimed at eliminating the worst types of child labor in Namibia, such as prostitution and human trafficking.
Part of Emily’s job was working with community monitors who were looking for children in child labor or at risk of falling into it. When the monitors found these children, they had to fill out forms that were complicated and hard to understand. Emily developed a “wheel” that made it easier for the monitors to get the relevant, accurate information that was needed from the children so they could get them out of child labor and into school. Emily says it was a great experience because she got to use the skills she learned in the classroom out in the field.
Congratulations to the finalists! The winner of this category will be announced at the GoAbroad invitation-only reception during the upcoming NAFSA: Association of International Educators Annual Conference and will be posted to the GoAbroad blog and the GoAbroad Innovation Awards page. Other category finalists are also being announced this week. Stay tuned for more updates!