This week I had a great time getting introduced to Dublin. I arrived on University College Dublin’s campus on Monday morning after a long travel day to be met with a couple more hours of waiting around for my room to be ready. While it was less than ideal, it gave me the opportunity to meet students from other schools. Once we got settled into our apartment, we spent time as a Pitt cohort, getting to know each other while we went grocery shopping and got dinner. It honestly ended up being the perfect start to the week and our summer, easing us into our new home for 8 weeks.
A memorable part of the week was taking a trip up to Howth where we were able to explore the town and take a hike with some amazing views. Living in Dublin for the summer, I expected to be mostly surrounded by city life, but it turns out to be so easy to find great nature spots not too far away. This also helped us get used to the bus and train systems we’ll be using throughout our time here even if it took some trial and error that night.
We also had a day trip to Glendalough and Kilkenny where we had a great bus driver who was able to tell us all about Irish history from the beginnings of the island to folklore to modern history. It was great to learn about this information from someone who has experienced it their entire lives and even lived through tumultuous parts of a modern history, giving me a fresh perspective on these topics. I learned from him the history of Ireland roads which are known for being long and winding. They are said to be formed form the paths cows naturally took when being herded to different fields. In Irish, the word for road is bóthar. This word also has an original meaning of cow-path, a track wide enough for two cows to travel. It is these kinds of small details which made that trip memorable and helped me to connect more with Ireland.
Tomorrow I will begin my internship with the European Institute of Women’s Health, a small nonprofit focusing on health research and policy development within the European Union. I am slightly nervous about my internship being remote. There is always a chance that it can be more isolating or more difficult to complete the work. Luckily I will be meeting my supervisor in person on the first day which will help ease me into the role (wish me luck on my first time commuting there).
Being in a remote position will teach me how to work independently and stay on top of my work when no one else will be telling me to directly. It is also going to show me how to work in our modern culture that can often prefer this remote work to traditional office settings. To look on the bright side, I am excited to explore campus and the surrounding areas more in depth, finding new spots to work from and enjoy. I am really trying to embrace this experience as an opportunity to become a much more independent person professionally and personally.
I am especially excited to learn about their involvement in women’s mental health research and policy since I am a psych major planning on focusing on women and LGBT individuals in a research or clinical setting. I also hope that my interest in psychology will help to provide a fresh perspective to their work.
I have gone back and forth on what field I want to pursue for my career a lot over my three years in college. I have especially been considering social research and clinical work, both of which require different degrees. This has placed a bit of pressure on me as I start to consider grad school options. I am excited to explore this intersection of non-profit and research work. It opens a new door for me that I haven’t been able to peer into yet. Having this internship position with EIWA has allowed me to relax and take time to consider what I want to pursue. Over the next 2 months I will primarily decipher if I want to focus on academic work that is independent or if I do prefer working directly with the individuals I hope to help. I am also excited to learn more about what kind of professional environment I want to be in and how I will best work in a team of people all working towards the same goals.
Till next time!
