My second week at UN Foundation continues to be a positive and exciting learning experience! I am very happy to be part of such an uplifting and collaborative team that is dedicated to empowering girls. Prior work experiences have taught me that being at a mission-oriented organization is important to me, and I am also realizing the essentiality of a collegial team environment. The kindness and compassion emanating from the Girl Up team is contagious, and I am very appreciative of it. One benefit of being an intern is being able to assess the experience as a data point contributing to my overall hypothesis of what kind of job I want after my time at HKS. Working at Girl Up has allowed me to test out the experience working on a smaller team at a large, international foundation that has a diplomacy, gender equity, and making the world a better place at its core.

This week, it’s been great to connect with members of the team in 1:1s to learn more about the specific roles of different people, which is helpful both to greater inform my understanding of how Girl Up functions as a collective as well as being a beneficial networking process for me!

I also attended UN Foundation-wide intern orientation, which was helpful to gain a better sense of the organization as a whole, as all of my projects are hosted entirely within the Girl Up team. I also did my IT orientation this week, so am now aware and concerned about the risk of phishing and will be approaching all email links with caution.

I continue to contribute to the planning process for the Girl Up Leadership Summit, which will occur in July. I am directly organizing two Workshops, both of which will be led by girls from the Girl Up Community – one is focused on starting and leading Girl Up clubs, and the other is focused on a more sensitive subject related to gender-based violence. This week marked my first call with these girls. I’m excited to work with them and to be a mentor figure contributing to the development of their leadership. I am also ensuring that the conversations in the more sensitive workshop remain safe and non-triggering to attendees and workshop leaders alike.

I additionally helped support the Title IX Workshop by preparing some research on the current status of Title IX, as it’s expected new rules will be issued later this summer or fall – which could factor into the content of our workshop in July!

Another project I’ve tackled this week is helping edit a girl-written Climate, Sustainability, and Gender Equity Advocacy Guide. I am impressed and heartened by the commitment and dedication of the girls we work with, and I am so happy to be part of the team!