Olga Lacey – Maynooth, Ireland, (2021)

Olga is studying  International Peacebuilding, Security & Development Practice at Maynooth University in Ireland. She joined the VACorps program as a remote intern, where she participated in the VACorps Human Rights Internship Program. She plans on continuing her internship in-country when she visits Cape Town in January 2021. 

“I chose to do a remote internship as a pre-cursor to coming to South Africa. During the three months, I learned a lot about the culture and the people. This was possible due to the weekly remote interactions and video calls and I would not be as knowledgeable about coming to Cape Town if I didn’t get the opportunity to understand more about the country I am going to travel to. I loved the intimate buddy calls – I could ask anything I wanted to know more about and I felt welcomed without actually having stepped a foot on the ground yet.

As a Human Rights Intern, I was under the supervision of Kelly and Simon. They were wonderful mentors and gave me the freedom to work flexibly and at my own pace. Their warm personalities aided in my remote experience and I look forward to meeting with them in person. I feel that this remote internship experience had a HUGE impact on my self-esteem and made me realize that I have more potential than I thought I had. I felt that this remote experience was necessary for my in-country experience in the next few months.”