Ã山ǿ¼é

Internship Spotlight: Camille Balan - Éco-Musée du Fier Monde et Ligue des Droits et libertés

I am a U3 student at Ã山ǿ¼é with a major in Political science, double minoring in Quebec studies and Hispanic studies. I am very interested in the history of Quebec and Montreal. I wanted to do an internship that could help me learn more about the province and city history and politics as it is my major. When I saw the post for the internship with La Ligue des Droits et Libertées du Québec I thought it would be the perfect fit for me. This internship was essentially offering me to learn and research about the history of human rights in Quebec to then create digestible content with it, so that other citizens could learn about those battles as well. La Ligue des Droits et Libertées du Québec is a non-profit organisation that promotes and defends the universal human rights declaration in Quebec. This year they are partnering with the ÉcoMusée du Fier monde de Montréal for the 60th anniversary of the Ligue des Droits et Libertées du Québec, on an exposition about the evolution of human rights in Quebec in the last 60 years. The Ligue also created some bus and walking circuits around the city of Montreal to showcase some important landmarks for the fight for human rights. This is the area that I worked on during my internship. I helped create those circuits by helping create the order of the circuits and then researching and creating the content for the animators that would do the circuits.

Some of the highlights of my internship where learning more about the city where I grew up in and learning about the special places where people fought for human rights. I worked remotely as I was finishing my exchange in Barcelona, and I also went on a trip to Japan for my parents’ anniversary. Therefore, I didn’t get to see the circuits myself, but I always enjoyed having zoom meetings with my supervisors, where they would tell me that the circuit went very well, and that people enjoyed them and learned because of our work. Some of the challenges that I encountered where having to balance school, travelling, and having an internship. It was hard to also have the time difference for the zoom meetings. I had to learn to manage my time very well to have time for my internship. It also helped to use teamwork and communicate with the other intern to separate the work in order that when I had more school, she would take on more responsibility in the internship and when I came back to Montreal, she had less work.

I am not receiving academic credit for my internship. This internship has had an amazing impact on my university career. I got to learn a lot about a topic that I had always been passionate about. I got to meet people that were so passionate about their jobs and very accommodating. It created an amazing workspace for us interns and it showed me what a good manager looks like, and I am grateful to have had this experience so early on in my career.

I did receive funding for my internship, and I am very grateful for it. I want to thank Wendy Patton Keys for it. This summer I had to come back home from a year in exchange and went as well on a trip to Japan. Therefore, it was hard for me to get a stable job for the summer, the funding helped me to support myself on a day to day and I am so thankful for it.

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