A final word from the 2020-2021 MECACS Interns

Academic year 2020-21 saw MECACS appoint our first interns – Layal Niazy (seminar reports), Caterina Barbi (Blogs) and Elodie Phillips (IT). Despite the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, our interns made a fabulous contribution to the activities of MECACS. Our blog is now a regular feature allowing seminar presenters, MECACS members and undergraduate and postgraduate students to publish their work and commentary. Our interns created the MECACS Meets podcast interviewing academics and practitioners. We are very sad to see them go and wish them all the best in their post-St Andrews careers. Before leaving, we asked them to reflect upon their internship.

What have been the highlights of your internship?

Elodie (EP): Rather than any one moment or event, the highlight of my internship has been the people I have had the chance to work with over the last year. It has been a privilege to work closely with all MECACS members and guests, who have always been helpful, encouraging of all our ideas and grateful for the work we put in. I have also formed lasting friendships with my fellow interns outside of MECACS, which has been an unexpected bonus.

Caterina (CB): The highlights of the internship have been having had the chance to be in touch with some stellar academics and working together with my fellow interns. I was exposed to topics and theories I had never come across before and it helped me understand better what I would like to do after my Masters.

Layal (LN): I really enjoyed getting to interview experts with backgrounds in various fields throughout both semesters, and I especially enjoyed getting to know my fellow interns. Not only did I benefit intellectually, but I also made new friends and that was really valuable.

What did you find the most surprising during your internship?

LN: I think I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of students interested in writing reports about various seminars, and it helped make my job easier when a speaker was too busy to draft a report on their own seminar presentation.

CB: How available everyone in St Andrews is and how easy it is to get help from the faculty. It made the work less daunting and helped me enjoy all the tasks.

EP: If you had told me at the beginning of the internship all that we have managed to achieve in a year, I wouldn’t have believed you! We’ve worked so well as an intern team, including in the launch of our radio show MECACS Meets. The chance to talk to so many amazing scholars about their work has been such a unique opportunity. I also didn’t expect to enjoy all the MECACS seminars like I did. I got a lot out of each seminar even if it wasn’t directly related to what I was studying at the time or my future plans.

What challenges have you faced in achieving your internship plans during the year?

EP: We’ve worked online for the whole year, which has presented its own challenges. Getting people to attend events or respond to emails has been tricky considering that everyone has screen fatigue. We’ve had to adapt some of our ideas and definitely be flexible and understanding with people.

CB: Definitely getting a reply! Professors are extremely busy, and emails often get lost. The internship helped me understand that perseverance and politeness can go a long way!

LN: Some challenges include chasing academics who agreed to write a report about their seminar, but forgot to actually send it to me by the due date. Other challenges include managing my time, as I initially wanted to run a MECACS Instagram account and then I realized that was actually much more work than I originally anticipated, on top of my duties to cover all seminar topics in reports.

What advice would you give to any students considering applying to the internship?

CB: Do not worry about time management and go ahead and apply! The internship was one of the highlights of my year and helped me feel a part of the university, at a time when everything happened online and I had barely met my classmates!

EP: I would say apply for the role that best suits your personal skillset to ensure you get the most out of it but don’t be afraid of applying for a position where you might have to learn on the job. I have ended up performing the IT intern role this year and I had no extensive experience with running social media accounts or a WordPress blog before the internship. I had a lot of help from MECACS staff and had to learn on the job but ultimately my passion for the work and the region got me most of the way. Also, don’t be put off from applying if you come from a discipline outside IR. MECACS definitely takes an interdisciplinary approach and your contributions would be highly valued. It was my background in Russian that made me apply rather than my study of IR.

LN: My advice would be to really stay organized and use a calendar app to stay on top of things and take note of due dates or seminars. It’s pretty easy to get carried away with your responsibilities as a student, so taking note of your responsibilities as a MECACS intern is really important, especially since the job requires following up with academics who would forget to send me their reports otherwise.

What are your plans post-St Andrews and how has the MECACS internship helped you achieve these?

EP: Next year I am starting an Erasmus Mundus International Master programme in Central and East European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at the University of Tartu and the University of Glasgow. I will have the chance to go to the Caucasus or Central Asia for my second year, which I will definitely seize. I was lucky enough to receive a full scholarship for my degree, which I think is partly down to having a MECACS internship on my CV. I also managed to get an internship at Transitions Online Magazine this summer. During the interview with Transitions, they were most interested in my work at MECACS. This demonstrated to me how valuable the skills I learnt during the internship are for future employers.

LN: I currently work as a researcher at the Gulf Research Center in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The MECACS internship has made me better qualified for the position I currently hold as it solidifies my background in research. Furthermore, not only did it make my CV more attractive to my employers but it also made me stand out because it shows that I was able to balance my duties as a student and as an intern, which showcases key time management skills. Furthermore, since I had to interview many academics and experts on various issues, my professional skills improved further and this prepared me to conduct myself in a professional manner at my current workplace, where I also have to talk to many noteworthy professionals, experts, and leaders in the field of international relations.

CB: I am currently working for a political risk consultancy, but I would like to go on with my studies and do a Doctorate. The internship allowed me to come in contact with amazing scholars and equipped me with the necessary skills (such as communication and editing), that helped me in finding my first job!