Stephany Soekendar: Internship Program in Humanitarian Affairs Asia

Stephany Nur Wijayanti Soekendar
Internship Program in Humanitarian Affairs Asia, Thailand & Cambodia
Marketing Communication, Class of 2010

In 7^th Semester, I’m starting to think about what kind of Internship that I want to take and the thesis topic that I want to write. Like what my other friends do, I’m starting to look for internship opportunity from many companies. Then, I saw an internship offer from Humanitarian Affairs on Binusmaya. I decided to send a CV to them through BINUS Career. Humanitarian Affairs is a social enterprise based in London, UK and has Asia Secretariat located in Chonburi, Thailand. After a couple of interviews, I got accepted as an Intern in Asia Secretariat for 7-month Internship Period started from 4 January -31 July 2014.

Along with me, there were also other interns came from various countries such as Singapore, Kuwait, Canada, India, and USA. As I imagined before, doing a thesis and working as intern at the same time were not easy at all. I felt a lot of pressure and was not sure I can make it. But I pushed myself to give my best on it. I get this chance so let’s give the best shots! I worked at Global Partnership Specialist in Humanitarian Affairs. These opportunities gave me an eye-opening experience especially about learning new culture, humanity and event management. Working with new friends from different culture and background makes me more understand and open about the culture, perception and living condition differences.

Humanitarian Affairs give us a lot of training such as Time Management, How to Tackle Difficult Questions, Goal Setting, Team Work, etc. The aim of the training is mostly to improve the work skills, especially in preparing the University Scholars Leadership Symposium (USLS) event in Cambodia. USLS is an event that organized by Humanitarian Affairs every year in different countries. It is a symposium about leadership in social change which took place from 1 to 7 August 2014. In USLS, the delegates were not only share experience with world class speakers but also have a chance to help communities in needs in Cambodia. In USLS Cambodia, all interns had to work together to set up this event. It is really challenging since we collaborate with Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Youth and Sports as well as the Prime Minister of Cambodia. We were required to get (more) initiatives, work fast and accurately in our respective roles during the event.

I gained many valuable experiences and lessons from this internship which improved both my personal and professional skills. I’m being more mature and more organized. I believe it is not only because all the experience that I get there but also because of the training from Humanitarian Affairs for every interns. In addition, I learnt how to set goals in life and how to achieve them. I was very happy that I managed to receive an Outstanding Intern of the Year Award that being endorsed by Minister of Tourism in Cambodia. I would like to thank BINUS UNIVERSITY, especially the faculties of Marketing Communication, BINUS Career, BINUS International Office and Humanitarian Affairs which provided full support for me to take part in this Internship Program. And of course, my family and all my friends who encouraged and supported me to join the internship. I really hope that there will be more students from BINUS UNIVERSITY, especially from Marketing Communication, can get this kind of opportunity. I hope all of my experience can be an inspiration for student at BINUS UNIVERSITY and proves that BINUSIAN is ready to compete at international workplace and environment. Last but not least, I want to use one of my favorite quotes from Pamela Wigglesworth, one of the speakers in USLS: ‘When things go wrong, you must not quit!’ So keep focus, be persistent and build up your spirit!

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