Internship

Our Voluntary Internship programme provides students with a unique opportunity to utilize their classroom learning with practical experience in the pursuit of Women’s quest for equity and equality in Trinidad & Tobago. Voluntary internships are an ideal way to develop practical and interpersonal skills and, at the same time, you can help make a real difference in the lives of others through our Outreach programme.

Internship Experience

Ianna Hawkins Owen CUNY Honors College at Hunter College New York, New York CGDS Intern July-Augusy 2005

As my first experience away from my home country, America, I have learned as much about myself as I have about the country of Trinidad, about living abroad, and about gender studies. As an undergraduate major in Religious Studies and Africana Studies and prospective graduate student of Human Rights, my work at the Centre for Gender and Development Studies has been of great benefit to me in terms of shaping and defining my career ambitions.

Interning at CGDS is largely an independently motivated experience. A CGDS intern will find much time and many resources for independent research, as well as many helpful staff members ready to provide insight and direction. While working at CGDS, my internship duties have been concentrated in preparing publicity for the Training of Trainers workshop on the integration of gender-consciousness into current HIV/AIDS work in the Caribbean.

CGDS also has its lighter side; the office is always full of smiles, laughter, and people who were eager to share their country with me; my favorite place being the PAX Tea Garden at Mt. St. Benedict. A staff member of CGDS even invited me to her family’s Emancipation Day celebration.
Though I was only in Trinidad for one month, I was also able to attend several intellectually engaging talks including: the Principles of Fairness Conference, at which Professor Patricia Mohammed was a panelist; an amazing lecture by Dr. Linden Lewis on “Masculinity and the Challenges of a Changing Social Environment,” in a series hosted by the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs; and a forum which was part of the 21st Congress of the International Association for Caribbean Archeology.

The greatest thing that I have learned from my experience at CGDS is that you’ve just got to take the plunge. It’s hard to leave your home, even for a short while, but once you do you will discover that a wealth of knowledge, opportunities and people await you. Just make sure you have plenty of phonecards!

Internship Experience

Thomas Loy currently working on the project "Building Capacity for Gender Mainstreaming in HIV/AIDS Programming in the Caribbean" - it's being done in collaboration with UNIFEM

The Centre for Gender and Development Studies (CGDS) internship programme has afforded me a wealth of useful and memorable experiences. After completing a Master’s Degree in International Relations in my native England, working as an intern for a research institute such as the CGDS has been of great benefit in enabling me to develop transferable skills that I’m positive will advance my employment prospects; reciprocally I would like to believe that my efforts have been of value to the Centre.

The focus of my involvement has been on a Gender and HIV/AIDS training project which the CGDS is coordinating in conjunction with the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). The project aims to constitute a training programme which advances the inclusion of gender analysis into the national and regional approaches to combatting HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean. My tasks have been varied and interesting and I have been granted the opportunity to help manage various aspects of the project development, as well as to attend and report on inter-agency meetings.

I have also audited a Gender Studies undergraduate module on ‘Men and Masculinities’ within the department. An illuminating course, taught by Professor Rhoda Reddock, which highlights the gendered socio-cultural forces that conditions the behavior, roles and identity of men in the Caribbean.

However, the scope of the Centre stretches far beyond quality research and teaching. On International Women’s Day it displayed its work and activities in Port of Spain with many of its staff taking time-out to support the event. The occasion was further marked by a concert of music and poetry, organized annually by CGDS, this year’s theme highlighting the spread of armed violence across Trinidad and Tobago. The Centre has a proactive and creative energy that acts as a counterweight to its academic prowess and renders three-dimensional its mission and outlook.

CGDS also plays host to a popular weekly lunchtime seminar, which draws scholars and advocates from far and wide, as a forum in which to discuss and present work and research on gender-related topics. The reception from staff at the Centre has been warm and accommodating, helping to make my stay in Trinidad comfortable, productive and rewarding.

Living in Trinidad has given me a taste and sense of another way of life. I arrived at ‘UWEE’ amid the sights and sounds of Carnival, surely the strongest visual and vocal evocation of Trinidadian culture This culture I have grown accustomed to and enjoy thoroughly, from savoring the array of local culinary dishes – pelau, bake ‘n’ shark and so on – to just liming with a very hospitable and friendly campus community.