Internship at FHI360 (Emi UHARA)

I was fortunate having an excellent opportunity to work as an intern in the Global Learning Group at an international NGO in Washington DC, FHI360, for six weeks from the middle of October to the end of November, 2013. Why I participated the internship program was because 1) I am interested in how NGOs take a role as one of actors in the field of education development and 2) I want to have a clear vision of which actor in that field might be the ideal place to work for me.

In the internship program, my task was mainly to write an annotated bibliography about factors affecting early grade reading outcome in developing countries. Through the process of making the bibliography, I gradually became interested in the quality of Education even though my research focus was enrolment, which is the quantity of education, before starting the internship. In order to surely receive the benefit of education, children need at least basic literacy. That is what I learned from my task.

Additionally, I obtained valuable opportunities of 1) listening to professionals’ career development by informational interviews and 2) attending a meeting for making a proposal of a project. 1) I had interviews with two educational specialists, about projects they got involved so far, their specialty, and how to develop their specialty. 2) With regard to the meeting, I could catch a glimpse of how to make a proposal, bringing and exchanging their experience, knowledge, network, etc, to win a competition of the proposal in USAID. Those two opportunities very much helped me to gain my understanding of how NGOs play their roles as actors of international cooperation. Also, I got a clear image about what kind of specialty might be beneficial for a project.

The internship at FHI360 was much more fruitful than I expected. I feel a strong sense of obligation to Prof. Keiichi Ogawa, GSICS, and all staffs at FHI360 for providing me such a great opportunity.