Type of Project: Education Abroad
Please provide a brief description of your STEP Signature Project. Write two
or three sentences describing the main activities your STEP Signature Project
Entailed.
For my STEP Signature Project, I participated in the Canadian Parliament Internship. This experience was multifaceted and I gained a variety of skills that are valuable for working in the public sector. My main activities included researching various areas of policy, writing memos for my Member of Parliament, attending meetings and taking notes, as well as responding to constituents.
What about your understanding of yourself, your assumptions, or your
view of the world changed/transformed while completing your STEP
Signature Project? Write one or two paragraphs to describe the change or
transformation that took place.
Before this program, I had only been out of the country once. I was young and traveled with my family, so I was eager to travel out of the country by myself for the first time. I was also very nervous, because I have never traveled that far by myself and I was not sure if I would be able to figure everything out on my own. This trip helped me develop a new confidence in myself and my problem solving abilities as I traveled to my destination. I realized that I am fully capable of stepping out of my comfort zone and completing any task that I put my mind to. This trip also managed to challenge and change my perception of the world that we live in. At first, I did not think that Canada would be much different than the United States, but I quickly found that Canadians’ culture and identity is a lot richer than Americans typically give them credit for. Working in a public office allowed for me to reflect on the social and political differences between our countries, and to observe the effectiveness of different policies and programs. For instance, an argument against the idea of universal healthcare in America is the question of who will pay for it. In Canada, however, I was able to observe and understand how Canadians are willing to pay more taxes because they know that it will pay off in the long run when they get sick or injured.
What events, interactions, relationships, or activities during your STEP
Signature Project led to the change/transformation that you discussed in
#2, and how did those affect you? Write three or four paragraphs describing
the key aspects of your experiences completing your STEP Signature Project
that led to this change/transformation.
The first activity that led to the personal transformation previously discussed was traveling from my home to our accomodations in Ottawa. After my mom dropped me off at the airport, I had to find my gate and make a connecting flight in Toronto before finally arriving at Ottawa. I then had to take a bus from the airport to Ottawa, walk to my Airbnb for the night and then walk to our accomodations the next morning. This was a long and stressful process that I was worried about, because there is a lot of room for error in travel. However, I was able to execute my plan without any mistakes, and I started to realize that I was stressing out for no reason. I carefully planned out every detail of this journey and prepared as much as I could, which paid off in the end. I had to use my problem solving skills so that I could effectively navigate in this new territory and quite literally step out into the unknown. In school and in life, there are always going to be challenges and times of uncertainty. Traveling is a great way to build the skills and confidence necessary to be able to understand something that you don’t know and to not be afraid of making a mistake.
Interacting with many of the locals, particularly the other people working in my office, also helped to change my understanding of Canada as well as my place in the world. We talked a lot about the social, cultural, and political differences between our respective countries which really began to open my eyes to just how different these two countries are. I learned a lot about how different policies in Canada have shaped the people that live there and how the people that live there have shaped the policies. The two assistants in my office had an incredibly vast knowledge of Canadian politics and were very helpful at explaining things to me and helping to compare it to America. These interactions were critical in broadening my understanding of Canadian politics and in turn, American politics.
Another transformation that took place on this trip was me becoming more sure of what I want to do after graduation. I thought that I might want to go into the public sector and eventually run for office or go to law school. These options may still be in my future, but I am now more certain than ever that I want to research policy as a policy analyst. In this internship, I had to read a lot of reports about the effectiveness of verious policies and draft memos for my Member of Parliament so that he would know which policies he should support based on what was actually working. These exercises made me fully realize just how valuable it is that we are actually researching our policies and evaluating our public programs if we want to actually make change in this world. In my eyes, this is the most valuable way to help people and is easily something that I could see myself doing for the rest of my life.
Why is this change/transformation significant or valuable for your
life? Write one or two paragraphs discussing why this change or
development matters and/or relates to your academic, personal, and/or
professional goals and future plans.
After graduation, I would like to research public policy and help to develop better programs to address the social issues that are prevalent in America today. In the classes that I have taken thus far, I have been exposed to policies and systems that other countries use and it is relatively easy to compare the costs and benefits of different systems. However it was not until I was actually working in a different political system that made me realize systems that are drastically different than ours, for example in health care, can actually be successfully implemented. Not only are there a multitude of other more effective systems out there, but there are actual ways in which we can engage with these systems and determine whether or not they are useful and accomplishing their intended goal. This transformation is extremely valuable in my academic development because as I enter my junior year it is pertinent that I narrow down my interests and focus on what I want to do directly after graduation. Like I said, I believe that after two long years of exploring and weighing my options I have finally discovered my next step. I am forever grateful for this opportunity and cannot wait to start filling out applications for policy analysis graduate schools.
