Clare Robinson ’05

 

Working Overseas

1. An internship overseas is not the most common post-graduation decision. What led you to your decision in comparison to other opportunities?
“Writing, languages, media, travel and politics” was my standard response to the endless queries regarding my post-grad plan. Since I couldn’t define exactly what I wanted to do for my next 20-plus years, I answered with what I liked to do. Upon graduation, I knew I could find a job involving one or two of my interests and I could eventually make my way into the upper echelons of the real world. Perhaps I could even find a way to incorporate all of my passions. But I didn’t want to wait. I didn’t want to waste my inspiration and “do time” at a desk job that failed to feed my inspiration. I wanted to harness my skills and my passions.

Interning overseas allowed me to do just that. I could shape my work according to my hobbies simply because I wasn’t asking to be paid. But, if you do what you enjoy, you do it well. No more than a month and a half after starting my internship, I was offered a temporary contract on salary to do exactly what I had offered to do for free.

2. How did you go about finding an internship abroad?
I love UCLA, and I’ve found its resources extremely useful in many situations, but in all honesty, I found that I needed to do most of the searching on my own. I had a lucky jump-start on the process thanks to an international law course I took my junior year. I reveled in the designs and goals of the international legal system and wrote a paper comparing the International Criminal Court to the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. While researching for this paper, I stumbled upon a call for interns at the ICC. Although I wasn’t ready to apply just then, I stored that snippet of information for later.

Idealist.org and institutional websites also immensely helped fuel my search. Like universities, organizations have converted their internship application process into a mostly Web-based system. European Union, NATO, World Bank, etc. internships can be found by searching for key words such as: employment, career opportunities, internships, clerkships, or stagiaires.

Internships in general are easy to find, but it pays to be picky in your search in order to avoid becoming overwhelmed. My plan of attack was to first decide where I wanted to live. (Europe.) I then defined what I want to get out of the internship. (Exploration of professional opportunities in media and politics, travel, and a chance to challenge myself in a foreign environment.) Finally, I ran my search and applied to any program that even vaguely resembled a match.

It was not a simple process. Remember college applications?

3. How did your internship help to shape your career goals?
Essentially, I have expanded my interests while my aspirations have been more clearly defined. I have always known that I could contribute to various international institutions; I now know how I can do so. I now know my strengths and weaknesses. (I’ve learned that my conversational French is embarrassing but I can make up for that downfall by directing the conversation towards the recent political inclinations of Le Monde.) And I know people who will vouch for me.

I have also come to realize that I would not be able to work without a visible purpose or inspiration; I thrive when I see the results of my work. A couple months ago, when someone from the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) visited the ICC, he said to my colleague, “I cannot believe all these people are working to help my country, that all of these people care about my people.” Talk about inspiration.

4. Where do you want to be in 5 years?
In an ideal world, I will have received my M.A. in International Relations and may be looking at working towards a Ph.D. I will have contributed to journals, newspapers and books. I will be a communications or political adviser for a human rights NGO, the State Department, or an international media company. I will have grown my hair long and will still be obsessed with UCLA baseball.

5. Give us a rundown of what a typical day was like for you?
A rainy 20-minute bike ride gets me to 174 Maanweg, home of the ICC. After going through a near copy of airport security, I order a latte to go and crowd into the elevator to the Prosecutor’s floor. A slew of media headlines crams my inbox and I scan them before searching international and region-specific news for articles pertinent to the work of the Prosecutor. I put together an analysis of the media’s tendencies for the Office, but after producing and disseminating that, each day has the potential to go in several directions. There are press briefings to prepare, speeches to write, interviews to attend and conferences to go to. I dabble in many aspects of the Office’s work and I love it.

6. What was the most interesting or exciting part of working in The Hague?
Working and living amongst people with great ideas, great ideals and great inspiration tends to rub off on you. Meeting those from every corner of this earth lends to one’s personal creation of a more accurate reality. The world is a lot smaller than some make it out to be. Society, often because of its leaders, can be overly introspective. Working in this environment, I have realized that my actions affect people in The Hague, Uganda and New York City. For all I know, they may affect you. Each one of us influences the direction of humanity, and living and working in an international and human rights-conscious community brings this fact to light.

7. Were there any notable differences between the lifestyles of the Dutch and Americans?
Bicycles are an integral part of daily life. Bikes swarm down the streets: The Dutch have perfected the art of talking on the cell phone, carrying the umbrella, and riding their bicycle while dodging pedestrians and traffic, all at the same time. Bicycles are equipped with compasses, windshields and multiple seats for children. The daily trip to the supermarket — where most products, produce included, are packaged — is done on bike. If one chooses to skip out on the market one day, a myriad of fried foods are available from the Automat at the nearest train station.

The cities themselves have a slightly different pulse than American cities: Houses are older, more crooked, more beautiful (in my opinion) and they creak a lot. The narrow roads have no choice but to be one-way streets. These, plus the many canals sneaking around the city center, cause traffic jams that are no worse on gray days than they are on sunny ones.

The general attitude towards the weather amazes me. The Dutch will not let a sleet, hail, snow, wind or rain storm stop them from doing anything. That being said — and this is based solely on observation — the Dutch like nothing better than to drink a beer or two in the sunlight. Unfortunately, the opportunity to do so is just as rare as a snowstorm in L.A.

8. Why is travel important? How has traveling expanded your global awareness?
Travel has been a vital part of my life since I left my hometown of Chesham, England at the age of one and a half. I cannot imagine working for an international institution without having traveled or having experienced the nuances of other customs. How could I proudly represent and support my culture without understanding how it compares to others?

Traveling has allowed me to appreciate other cultures too, and to alter the stereotypes that had developed in my mind. Languages from Southeast Asia, Scandinavia and Europe became a part of my education. My palate has grown to love Indian spices and my feet found a home dancing to Latin beats.

But I have not only soaked up the joys of other societies; I am, albeit inadvertently, an ambassador of the United States. I am representing America and hopefully shifting peoples’ views of the U.S. in a more positive direction.

9. If given the chance to do things over, would you take this opportunity again?
Yes!

10. How have you used your overseas experience to make you stand out as a candidate for professional opportunities?
Apart from the endless lists of contacts, letters of recommendation and writing samples that will come with me when I leave the Court, I have accumulated a mental database of my experiences here that will prove invaluable in interviews and job and/or degree applications. The concepts and theories I studied at UCLA have been transformed into tangible examples of the delicacies of international relations and communications. Being able to demonstrate that I have learned from these examples is up to me, but I would be several steps behind had I never had the experiences in the first place.