My cup of tea

 What I love about this internship is that I finally get the chance to get some hands on experience. I have studied for almost five years, and many theories and models have passed by. Besides working out some cases and designing some trainings, we have never tried out something for real. And now I am trying things out for real. Being responsible for the coordination of a conference is quite something, and I found out I really enjoy it. I find it challenging to follow up on so many issues, write and send out invitations, find out what the presenters actually will present, keep track of the amount of participants. Surprisingly most coordination is even needed within our coordination framework. All the members of this secretariat are occupied with their main activities, so of course reviewing the guidelines and announcements I write is not their first priority. However I do need approval of certain people before I can send out official documents.

A chance to get to know another side of ‘the practice’ is coming up soon, as the projects within the responsive window will start running around October. Most of these projects include a great deal of training and HRD, that is exactly my cup of tea coming from a background of adult education. Also it is quite interesting to look through my self-created database and search for the right experts for the right projects. In my second month here activities are piling up, I feel like I am actually contributing something and I am not the only person gaining something of my presence here.