2019/07/24     Dresden, Germany

UNU-FLORES offers a rigorous internship programme giving students and recent graduates the opportunity to develop new skills and knowledge in a constructive setting for the practical application of their capacities acquired during their studies. Through hands-on experience, interns work in a variety of areas from academic research, event organisation, communications and advocacy, and institutional development and administration. In this series, we feature the young brilliant minds that have played a big part in many of our activities and events. In this interview, we talked to Guido Bartolini from Argentina, who worked with the Water Resources Management unit.

Tell us about yourself. What is your motivation to do an internship with UNU-FLORES?

I am studying Civil Engineering at Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Argentina and participated in an exchange programme at Technische Universität Dresden. Having been informed by my university faculty about the call for internship applications, I was delighted to find the opportunity to do an internship at UNU-FLORES. I decided to apply for the vacancy because it was a great opportunity to work in a research institute, whose work is grounded in sustainable development, and at the same time being part of such an important organisation as the United Nations.

What are some of your day-to-day responsibilities? What’s your favourite part of work/highlight of your internship?

I was working in the Water Resources Management unit and particularly in the SludgeTec project. There I had to support the team in a wide variety of tasks, like taking notes in meetings, working with a software for transcribing audio material, as well as taking care of logistics for the team for a project workshop that took place in Mexico. My favourite part of work was to attend project meetings because it was very interesting to hear different points of view on a certain topic and as a whole come to a solution that everyone agreed on.

What kind of skills do you need to be successful at your internship?

I think that communication skills are very important in order to communicate the results of your assigned tasks. It is also important to be open to asking for help because most of the times there is something that you do not know fully about.

What are some words of wisdom you’d give to anyone aspiring to be in your position?

Enjoy every day you are at UNU-FLORES because the experience is amazing. First of all, the working atmosphere is relaxed yet productive at the same time and the intercultural exchange with colleagues is also very nice. You have the possibility of participating in many seminars and events run by UNU-FLORES that are very interesting.