The Faculty of Arts Internship Program provides students with valuable learning experiences that shape and develop their skills and knowledge beyond the classroom.
By interning at corporate and community organizations in Montreal and around the globe, students expand their academic and professional horizons and learn to engage in meaningful collaborations. Internships are a crucial opportunity to apply skills and knowledge acquired in the classroom to real-world problems. For many of the 250 students who participate in the internships each year, the experience eventually influences their academic and career plans.
A life-changing experience
Karlee Thomas chose to pursue a summer internship at the , based in Montreal鈥檚 Little Burgundy neighborhood. For Karlee, a U3 International Development Studies student minoring in Political Science, the experience proved life-changing.
Desta offers education, employability and entrepreneurship programming and opportunities for vulnerable black youth. Karlee interned for Desta鈥檚 which provides re-entry and advocacy services to currently and formerly incarcerated individuals.
Karlee began her internship in May 2021, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 鈥淒espite being in a pandemic, the internship experience was great,鈥� she says. 鈥淢y supervisor connected me with so many people, I eventually had a network of support.鈥�
Karlee鈥檚 supervisor, Amanda Maxwell, was heading the social justice department while Desta was in a state of overhaul and transition. 鈥淲e were in the midst of building the program from the ground up,鈥� says Maxwell. Karlee was instrumental in this period of transition.
鈥淚鈥檓 so grateful that she was able to help me and take something away from her time with us,鈥� Maxwell says. 鈥淜arlee really helped lay the foundation of the program to where it is today.鈥�
Social justice and poetry
During her internship, Karlee paid particular interest to the program鈥檚 pen-pal exchange program and restructured it to incorporate both her and the participants鈥� love of poetry. She oversaw Desta鈥檚 partnership, in the form of a poetry exchange program, with Volta, a collective of artists who call for anti-carceral and transformative justice within communities. This allowed participants to express themselves, safely and without judgement, through poetry and art.
By actively engaging with the program鈥檚 participants and their stories, Karlee learned that, for many of them, lack of positive mentorship during their youth and growing up in conditions of poverty were at the root of their incarceration.
Karlee was able to mobilize community resources to help participants protect their basic human rights and express themselves and their journeys in unexpected ways. For example, she worked with a carceral lawyer to voice a complaint on behalf of a participant whose security scale assessment report was filled with racial stereotypes and discrimination; in petitioning the Correctional Service of Canada for the protection of basic human rights for all inmates, Karlee opened a dialogue where these issues could be addressed.
Applying internship experience to research
Karlee鈥檚 experience at Desta strengthened her academic interest in the ways systemic racism and structural violence contribute to the incarceration of Black Canadians. Working with the program鈥檚 participants, she says, gave her a greater understanding of how the rise of Black incarceration rates reinforces the racial stereotype of the 鈥渄angerous Black criminal,鈥� leading to punishment, rather than rehabilitation. In Professor David Austin鈥檚 course CANS 415: 鈥淏lack Canada鈥�, she later explored the topic of high incarceration levels among Black Canadians, which laid the foundation of a research paper that drew on her internship experience.
After completing the internship, Karlee also wrote a research paper for the INTD 499 Internship course under the supervision of Senior Faculty Lecturer at the Institute for the Study of International Development, Kazue Takamura.
Karlee鈥檚 first-hand experience advocating for participants in Desta鈥檚 social justice program influenced the focus of her research paper, which examined the importance of nongovernmental organizations in pressuring Correctional Service of Canada to uphold international human rights standards. 鈥淏lack Canadians have been relegated to a second-class citizenship where the guarantees of equal rights and freedoms are not being realized,鈥� she says.
A defining moment
After her internship, Karlee realized she wanted to keep working to help youth reach their highest potential. She has since started interning at the Quebec Board of Black Educators, where she continues to explore her interest in education as a universal human right and a powerful driver of economic development. 鈥淢y internship with Desta Black Youth Network has really changed my life,鈥� she says.
Following her graduation, Karlee hopes to work in the field of international development, with particular focus on poverty eradication through the education of girls and boys. 鈥淭his goal has been shaped by Desta because I learned that we can create change by inspiring the youth of today.鈥�
While pandemic-related travel restrictions have limited the availability of international internships over the past two years, Arts internships normally include a wide range of opportunities around the world. Students in previous years have worked for organizations such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Ecuador, the Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations in Geneva, and the Ghana Center for Democratic Development in Accra.
Many Faculty of Arts students, like Karlee, look back on their internship as a defining moment of their undergraduate experience.
Most Arts internships are made possible by the generous support of 平特五不中 alumni and the Arts Undergraduate Society. Students interested in pursuing an internship during their studies may apply for funding through various internship award opportunities.