Hello! My name is Colleen O’Hare-Barrows, and I am participating in this year’s International Internship Program in Dublin. I am a rising junior majoring in Politics & Philosophy. I am also pursuing certificates in Sustainability and Public & Professional Writing. After college, I hope to attend law school.
During the year, I’m involved in Pitt’s Outdoors Club, Rock Climbing Club, and environmental service fraternity Epsilon Eta. Through Epsilon Eta, I volunteer with environmental initiatives around the city; my personal favorite is tree planting with the nonprofit organization Tree Pittsburgh. If you’ve ever seen groups of people picking up South Oakland trash on a Sunday morning, it’s probably us! When I’m back home in New Jersey, I volunteer as a judge for the international children’s competition Odyssey of the Mind. I’m also a coffee fanatic, so I am always looking for new coffee shops to try. I’m passionate about writing, the environment, and getting outside!
Going abroad has always been something I’ve hoped to do in college, and I’m very excited it’s becoming a reality. When I learned about Pitt’s IIP, I knew it was a great fit. This program will help me graduate early, satisfy my major’s capstone requirement, and fulfill credits for my Honors College degree. However, when signing up for the Dublin IIP, I knew it would mean more than just what’s on paper; I’m looking forward to a lot of growth as a professional and an individual.
The internship I am working on will be with a Dublin councilwoman. Through this program, I am hoping to learn how public policy is developed and enacted on a local level in another country, and eventually understand the similarities and differences of that same process compared to the United States. I am also looking forward to learning how the campaign process in particular compares. In high school, I volunteered with a local woman’s campaign for Congress in my congressional district. I’m from Bergen County, New Jersey, which is the most populated county in the most densely populated state in the country; Bergen County alone has a higher population that Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska, and both Dakotas (not combined, not yet!). With a population that big, it was sometimes hard for our campaign to connect with voters on a personal level. I’m looking forward to working with a more local campaign, and seeing how that process is different from the one I experienced in Bergen. On a more general scale, I am grateful for the opportunity to experience a full-time job in terms of working hours. I’ve worked jobs before, but they have never been in the nine-to-five, professional sphere. I believe this kind of experience will make me not only qualified for my future career endeavors, but also prepared to take them on.
I chose to do the IIP in Dublin because I have family near the area, and I am hoping to use this as an opportunity to reconnect with them after many years apart. My maternal grandparents emigrated from Ireland; my grandmother and grandfather were from Donegal and Newry, respectively. They both passed away shortly after I was born, so there’s a lot I never got to know about them. I believe that seeing where they each were from will fill a gap in that knowledge. It’s hard getting to know someone who’s not around anymore, perhaps even impossible, but spending time where they came from seems like a good start.
On a personal level, I am hoping this internship will make me a more independent person. I consider myself to be capable of handling new and unanticipated issues, but that’s easy to say when you’re a student whose support system lives on the same coast as you. In Dublin, I’m looking forward to new experiences that will challenge me to act outside of my comfort zone. Over the past two years, I have experienced a lot of personal growth as I have moved away from home. But on a college campus, I know that I am still sheltered, to some degree, by student life. In Dublin, I will be in a new city abroad, far away from home, working an internship unlike anything I’ve done before. As daunting as that is, I realize it’s also a unique opportunity to mature. With a little under a week until we leave for Dublin, I am feeling equal parts anxious and excited. I anticipate that my biggest personal challenge will be to stay optimistic. I often go through life anticipating every possible problem, and in a situation like this, that list appears long! However, I will use this internship as an opportunity to embrace the unexpected, not fear it. I am very grateful to be part of Pitt’s IIP, and would like to thank and acknowledge the Frederick Honors College for their generous scholarship that helped me participate in this program.
