Internship

For her internship placement, Gabrielle McInnis worked with a local not-for-profit organization in Kitchener called Community Justice Initiatives (CJI). CJI focuses on Restorative Justice which is a way of addressing conflict and crime that engages both the person who caused the harm and the people who were affected by the harm. As an Intern in the Elder Mediation Service, Gabrielle was tasked with piloting the Home Share Program which seeks to reduce the impacts of the current housing crisis in K-W by promoting the exchange of affordable housing. She was also responsible for organizing clientele, facilitating mediation processes, and supporting her Elder Mediation team in developing and providing programming to older adults in the region.  

CJI offered Gabrielle the opportunity to implement programs that diverted conflict from the criminal justice system in ways that put victims and offenders at the center of peacebuilding, accountability, and healing processes. Getting to work with older adults helped Gabrielle to understand the complex ways in which conflict, trauma, and needs have an impact on people’s lives and how people relate to those around them. Gabrielle remains an active volunteer mediator with CJI and hopes to continue investing her skills in her community.

Raphael Freston’s internship was with The Center for Community-Based Research (CCBR) and Community-Based Research Canada, in Waterloo. CCBR is a grounded, ethics-focused organization that gives voices to communities by making them active participants of their research. At CCBR, Raphael was a Junior Researcher in a social inclusion project where he did a literature review on the concept of social inclusion to guide future research projects.  

In his role, he grappled with the questions: “What is social inclusion?” and “How could we measure it?” Raphael also facilitated workshops, wrote blog posts, developed infographics, and aided with fundraising for the organization. One key takeaway for Raphael was how important reflective principles taught in the MPACS program are for community-based research. He found CCBR to be a fertile place to apply the skill sets developed in his MPACS studies. 

After graduation, Bethany Serengheu worked at The Meeting House in Oakville, Ontario, as a Way of Peace Developer. Through the MPACS program, she had been researching the role of spirituality and religion in conflict transformation and peacebuilding.  

In her role, Bethany was part of an advisory group that reviewed and redeveloped a peace curriculum for the church organization. Working with a team of staff, she synthesized. ideas to create and present lesson plans, and she wrote scripts for videos to incorporate into the redeveloped peace curriculum. In her time at The Meeting House, Bethany learned about different theological perspectives on peace, relationships, self-hood, and gained more tools for transforming conflict towards peace.  

Fiorella Rojas Jaramillo worked with ProDialogo in Lima, Peru during the Spring Term of 2016. ProDialogo is a civil society formed in 2006 to promote a culture of dialogue, in order to bring sustainable development and peacebuilding in Peru. The organization seeks to improve the relationships between various stakeholders who share a social setting, fostering confidence building, collaboration and reaching agreements through creative and mutually satisfactory solutions, turning the problems into opportunities.Fiorella's interest in working with the organization came from her passion for working in armed-conflict, including terrorism, settings. This opportunity to work in non-armed conflicts offered her a starting point for her career and a way to gain experience. Fiorella was able to learn firsthand conflict resolution techniques in non-armed and community settings, as well as learn about the creation of sustainable peace.

David Eagle worked for Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) in the Spring of 2014, spending time Waterloo, ON and Tanzania. MEDA is an international economic development organization whose mission is to create business solutions to poverty. Their work most often focuses on women, youth, and the rural poor. MEDA offers a number of economic development tools including financial services, improved technology, and business training. David worked as a Consultant on an agriculture-based project, travelling to Tanzania multiple times to train staff and farmers on business and marketing practices in order to increase their capacities in business.

It was great to be immersed into the local Tanzanian culture and to reflect on how our class work can be applied in this context.
-David Eagle

Jessie Castello worked with CIVICUS in Johannesburg, South Africa during the Spring of 2017. CIVICUS is an international alliance focused on strengthening citizen action and civil society globally. Their mandate includes protecting of the rights of civil society and strengthening civil society's influence. As a Policy & Research intern, Jessie worked with the ‘Advocacy & Campaigns’ and ‘Civic Space Research’ clusters within CIVICUS.  Her work involved assisting with research updates for the CIVICUS Monitor, an online platform that tracks the state of civic space in 195 countries across the world.  She also assisted with a range of other research and advocacy projects focused on the protection of civic freedoms. 

My internship with CIVICUS gave me hands-on experience with research and advocacy work in the human rights field which was an invaluable addition to my MPACS degree.  After this experience I am feeling more confident and well-equipped, like I have much more of a sense of direction. I know I can take the skills I’ve learned in MPACS and apply them to a career.
-Jessie Castello

Michael Southcott worked for United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Geneva, Switzerland during the Spring of 2015. The UNFPA is the lead UN agency that works in over 150 countries to ensure that pregnancies are wanted, childbirth is safe, and young people's potential is fulfilled. They work with national, regional and intergovernmental organization to establish and promote policy development and provide support for field-level operations.

Michael worked under the Humanitarian Fragile Context Branch of UNFPA, which covers many humanitarian disasters, including Nepal, Ukraine, Syria and Yemen. Michael attended Member States Briefings, created and edited reports, summarized humanitarian disaster situation reports, assisted with UNFPA’s presence in many events and conferences within and outside of Geneva, and coordinated with UNHCR in order to develop a response plan for the Refugee and Migrant Crisis in Europe.

Catherine Leblond interned at International Bridges to Justice (IBJ) in Geneva, Switzerland during Spring 2018. IBJ is an international NGO that is dedicated to protecting the basic legal rights of individuals in developing countries. It works to guarantee all individuals the right to competent legal representation, the right to be protected from cruel and unusual punishment, and the right to a fair trial.

As an intern, Catherine worked on project and grant proposals, helped develop the Defense Wiki platform, and contributed and participated to the organization of a UN event that was part of the 38th Human Rights Council.

Menke Meijer worked for UN Women in Beijing, China during the Spring of 2015. UN Women is the UN organization dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. They support UN Member States in setting global standards for gender equality within the designing of laws, policies, programmes, and services to ensure this equality.

Menke worked with UN women Beijing as a Research Assistant. Menke worked on a variety of different tasks such as creating speeches, organized visas for international consultants, led discussions, and organized press conferences and events – tackling the serious subjects of gender violence and LGBTQ rights. Menke's big project was working with the military peacekeeping officers on protecting civilians from gender-based and sexual violence.

Darren Kropf worked at Border Peace School in Cheorwon, South Korea during Spring 2014. Border Peace School works to nurture Peacemakers who work towards peace within the Korears. Darren taught peace education at the school and advised members of the school on their program development of within this new peace school seeking reconciliation and reunification of the Koreas.