Banyan Global

Gender and Youth in International Development Intern

May - August 2019 • Washington, DC

What I liked

During my internship at Banyan Global, I learned a more-than-impressive amount about international development, USAID, gender and youth development, economic empowerment, conducted research and wrote memos to contribute to major development projects globally. I also attended events around D.C., was sponsored to participate in a 3-day leadership summit, and moderated a panel on International Youth Day. At the end of the internship, I created a 30-page research project/toolkit for programming implementation. Overall, I gained tangible experience that will prove greatly beneficial. My supervisors were supportive and made sure I thoroughly understood each assignment.

What I wish was different

One thing I wish was different during this internship is that the intern desk/counter itself was relatively isolated from the rest of the office, so I would sometimes go without speaking much during the day; however there was another intern who worked with me part-time which helped. The office is predominantly women, which I enjoyed, however there is a lack of diversity.

Advice

This is an unpaid internship, but do not think that correlates to minimal work. While the contributions I was able to make as an intern were incredible and will undoubtably led to my professional development, I occasionally found it discouraging to produce large quantities of work for no monetary compensation. Nonetheless, I would not have exchanged this experience for another.

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