Virtual Internships - Summer of 2020

Internship Programme 2020

The Aga Khan Academies Internship Programme is a volunteer service opportunity linking International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme (DP) students, aged 16-18, with the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) agencies and other grassroots level non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to engage in meaningful and sustainable career-oriented opportunities in professional fields over their June/July holiday. This year, 2020, marks the successful completion of the Internship Programme for the sixth consecutive year. The programme is structured so that interested and committed IB DP students are placed at AKDN agencies, with tasks and activities that are linked to ongoing project initiatives.

The Internship Programme enables many of our students to develop practical skills, gain access to leading universities and often receive scholarships from universities for their outstanding academic performance and leadership roles.

Due to the ongoing pandemic, the programme took on a new exploratory route for students by offering a different learning opportunity through the form of a virtual Internship Programme. Through this, students had the chance to connect and work with international AKDN agencies, such as the Aga Khan Foundation Geneva, AKDN Paris and the Academies Unit in London. We are extremely grateful to all of the AKDN agencies and other grassroots level NGOs who extended their support and cooperation in making this virtual programme operative and successful.  

Along with the existing programme and partnerships, we also initiated an in-house, long-term internship at the Academy within the Admissions and Communications office.

The experiences gained from the programme are transformative, as they challenge and widen students’ preconceived ideas about both their local communities and development work. They also play a formative role in supporting students plan their future career paths and give them access to role-models working in the students' fields of interest.

Pratibha Thimmaraya, Internship Coordinator

The table below shows the different agencies/organisations and countries in which the students were placed in this virtual internship.

Some excerpts from the interns' reflection journals:

“Development is a very contested meaning and especially in the 20th century, the development sector has been increasing. Development sectors work to better the quality of life and create a positive change in a community. With this internship, I gained my first professional experience in a work setting with people. I learned about professionalism, which will help me in work settings in the future, and the role of technology in the current situation to collaborate with people without knowing them in real life and forming meaningful connections. For my future internships and jobs, if there is any inopportune situation like the COVID-19 pandemic, it would be easy for me to adjust to the change. I learned how to manage my time better since my classes were scheduled at the same time as the internship, so I had to manage my entire day to ensure balance and superlative performance in both." 

Aafiya Bhayani, intern, Aga Khan Academies Unit, London

"Out of the many important things I have learnt during my internship at the Academy, one of them was to never look for shortcuts but to keep your values and ethics in mind. It may make the process slow, but it assures your end goal. Even when quick online marketing might have seemed tempting to few of us, we were reminded that as part of the AKDN institution, we always keep our ethics to the utmost importance. Our team also helped us develop our creative writing skills, whether it was for the newsletter or these journal entries, creative writing has been an integral part of our internship. It is certainly an important skill that will help me all the way from school assignments, university applications, to the future of my career. I am looking forward to improving myself and further contributing to this internship."

Karim Jassani, intern, Admissions Office at AKA Hyderabad

"Even though we were working virtually, we had weekly meetings twice a week and deadlines to complete our work through effective ways of communicating with the people on the importance of health and hygiene during COVID-19. While we got feedback from our mentor, we were also introduced to many fascinating facts about different tribes in India that we never knew about. The one thing that stood out for me during this internship was our meeting with the CEO for the Aga Khan Agency for Habitat, who highlighted ‘how our generations' ideas matter and our opinion was to be heard.'"

Bhavika Gupta, intern, Aga Khan Agency for Habitat, India

‘Interning virtually was better than not interning at all. Working with the Aga Khan Educational Services, India Human Resource department helped me gain a new perspective from people of various backgrounds and differing job descriptions. This really made me contemplate on the uncertainty of our future world and the countless institutional voids the human race is facing today, especially with the digitised world. Moreover, the peculiarity of the situation saved me commuting time, which I could invest back on other projects and courses."

Diana Nazari, intern, Aga Khan Educational Services, India

"Apart from researching, the other part of my internship consisted of interacting with people within the Aga Khan Development Network who specialise in different projects. It was an extremely interesting experience because I got to have a one-on-one conversation with them where I was even allowed to share my experiences and knowledge. One thing I was particularly interested in understanding was the relationship between civil society and the government, and how this relationship has developed/grown or deteriorated with the current situation. This made me understand the importance of civil society, a term that was unknown to me a year ago. I could connect these interactions to my Global Politics class, where we analyse and acknowledge the importance and responsibilities of non-state actors. I also realised that these interactions will serve as excellent examples for my essays wherever it is required."

Shanthi Kuppa, intern, Aga Khan Foundation, Geneva