Throughout my undergraduate career I’ve heard the phrase “internships pay you in experience” about a dozen times. While the topic of college interns being paid for their work is one for another day, those words do have immense meaning but not in the sense of experience replacing monetary value. Sometimes the most unique professional experiences can be the most eye opening, life changing, and rewarding, even if they happened in your grandpa’s office while living at your parents’ house in the middle of a pandemic.

My name is Alex Alvarez, a rising junior at the University of Arkansas Honors College studying Political Science and International Studies with a concentration in Peace, Security, and Human Rights. I recently had the opportunity to intern with Generations For Peace (GFP), an international non-governmental organization (NGO), registered 501C non-profit acting to build peace throughout the U.S. and abroad through various programing centered on sports, art, advocacy, dialogue, and empowerment. I served as the advocacy intern for the Summer Term and was able to conduct a wide range of research, sit and serve on coalitions, and even plan and execute a virtual Advocacy Day with the U.S. Youth, Peace, and Security Coalition.

I applied for the Washington Center’s Academic Internship program on a long-shot, knowing the process was competitive and extremely expensive. However, in February all the pieces feel into place as I was accepted into the program with a scholarship and a grant from the Honors College. Around this same time, I was enrolled in one of my favorite classes I’ve taken at the U of A so far, Peace Studies with Dr. Jared Phillips. This class fascinated me, peace seemed like such an abstract idea, but Dr. Phillips taught me so much about what peace actually means, how there’s a difference between when we talk about negative peace such as just stopping a war versus positive peace when we work to continue processes that allow for peace to remain. I learned about methods of justice, different historical contexts in which peace theories have been applied and speculated a high amount over the various issues on a global context that could benefit from these theories or that are in desperate need of more work for peacebuilding tools. However, outside the classroom I felt dissatisfied. This was work I wanted to do, but I had no idea what that work looked like. I knew that NGOs existed, and that peacebuilding had a sector, but didn’t know what that work entailed. I also didn’t know if this was the field I wanted to go into. My track of study has a multitude of paths I could take for a career in seeking justice and helping others, so many that I didn’t know which one to pursue.

It came to a complete delight when I was scrolling through the sites that partnered with the Washington Center looking for interns that I found the job of Advocacy Intern at GFP. After begging my advisor to send my application to them and an interview later, I received the position! Anxiety rose but also calmed, as this was an opportunity to test things out and see if this world was the right fit for me.

My summer was spent reporting to and learning from my excellent supervisor Lindsay McClain-Opiyo. I spent my summer composing 2 research briefs, one over best practices for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for International Non-Profits and another over the use of Peace Policy Advocacy in a U.S. context. This work was right up my alley, it was just like the research I was doing in class for Dr. Phillips, but it was in actual application and something that the sector can use in their actions and work later on. I also got to sit in on calls for the organization over peacebuilding work in the U.S. and fundraising, learning that these are critical parts of the non-profit sector.

I also got to a play a large role on the USYPS Coalition. What started as just observing meetings and helping out on the planning committee for a Congressional Advocacy Day became full scale involvement and coordination. My fellow amazing interns Savannah Munn and Gabriella Lanzi helped me in sending over 600 emails to various university and community members and organizations to spread the word over the event, design a training toolkit and help facilitate said training, and to gather data needed to contact congressional representatives for students to meet with. None of this would have been possible without the work of the coalition representing various other peacebuilding NGOs including The Alliance for Peacebuilding, Search for Common Ground, Peace Direct, NewGen Peacebuilders, The Friends Committee on National Legislation, and STAND: The Student-led Movement to End Mass Atrocities. This experience sharpened my excel skills and let me develop a training curriculum, but it also gave me first hand experience into how this sector is united. The fact we all worked for different organizations yet are able to come together every other week to try and advance an agenda for the common goal of peace in our world was beautiful.

I entered my internship with uncertainty about the future. But I left it being paid not only in great experience, but in clarity. I saw myself in the role I was doing and was able to envision growing more in it and doing more work. I had the pleasure of being able to pick my colleagues at various organizations brains over why they chose this line of work and why they continue (thank you to Mena Ayazi, Megan Schleicher, and my supervisor Lindsay for letting me ask them ten thousand questions). The passion and dedication that shows in their work and how they strive to seek justice and peace every day is something I aspire to do. I hope to continue getting engaged with the peacebuilding world with this newfound clarity, owing every bit of my future trajectory goals to the experience I had this summer.

My last day!