Fletcher students shared the details of their work with the United Nations during a panel session yesterday evening hosted by the Tufts International Relations Program.
The session, which was held in Cabot 205, was the first part of the Forum on Global Active Citizenship, a colloquium commemorating the 30th anniversary of international relations studies at Tufts.
The first speaker, Kallissa Apostolidis, described her work at the United Nations Department of Political Affairs and Mediation Support Unit in New York City. She focused on Darfur and the Western Sahara conflict.
She explained that after completing her internship, she wanted to find a school that was relevant to the work she had done.
"I was interested in doing mediation and conflict resolution, so Fletcher seemed like the perfect fit," she said.
Michelle Barsa, the second speaker, addressed her experience in Khartoum, Sudan, as an intern with a U.N. peacekeeping mission. She described the mission's work in helping to meet the needs of the people in the war-torn region.
She also discussed her personal research on women's leadership formations in Darfur camps and the ways in which her studies at Fletcher have since helped her to understand her results more clearly.
"Everything we do at Fletcher is research-based," she said. "It has helped me to understand the gender dimension of conflict."
The third panelist, Erin Fried, spoke about her internship in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, an area heavily affected by the 2004 tsunami. Like Barsa, she worked at the community level, helping citizens to come together, state their needs and reach a consensus about their priorities.
She also spoke about some of the downfalls of working with the United Nations in areas like Banda Aceh.
"There are a few drawbacks of working at the U.N., especially when you're in a conflict area," she said. "The security program is great it protects you and keeps you at a distance, but this may inhibit you from doing some work in the field."
Eleni Tsolakis, the fourth speaker, described her internship with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Nicosia, Cypress.
She spoke about her work with Iraqi asylum seekers, conducting interviews and advocating on behalf of the refugees.
She also stressed that, while she loved dealing with individual cases, not everything is so hands-on.
"I did a lot of pretty menial work," she said. "On the days that you aren't doing real work, forget the romantic ideals of being a U.N. intern and remember that you have to start somewhere."
After describing their U.N. work, the panelists answered questions and gave personal advice to an audience composed mainly of international relations majors.
Many of their suggestions focused on obtaining real-world experiences before worrying about graduate and law school.
"With grad school and law school, wait, just wait, don't go right into it," Barsa said. "You need the space in the real world. It will be so valuable when you are applying to places later on. When you come out of grad school, everyone expects you to have field experience."
Fried agreed: "Don't just go into law school because you want to have a law degree," she said. "It's really good to have an end goal in sight and know what you want to use it for."
Barsa also spoke about the ways in which her studies at Fletcher are closely related to the work she did abroad.
"Half of what we get out of our classes here is thinking about how what you are learning applies to what you did before," she said. "Without those points of reference, some, if not most, of what we're doing here would be just lost, wasted."
In response to a question about what people can do while they are still undergraduates, Tsolakis stressed the importance of going abroad.
"My number one thing is to study abroad, and do the whole year," she said. "It's totally worth it. Try not to get too freaked out about internships. [They] are valuable but they are not what is going to make or break you getting into graduate school or getting the job you want."
