Career Services Spotlight – Viktoriya Chubirka, MPA ’18, Open Society Foundations

After my first semester at Baruch as an MPA student, I was looking forward to taking advantage of the internship opportunities during the summer. I was fortunate to join one of the largest philanthropic organization there is – Open Society Foundations. As a Eurasia Program intern, I was assigned three categories of work: Minority Empowerment, Human Rights and Media. The global goal of the organization is to help countries transition from their communist past. Being from Ukraine, a young post-Soviet democracy that is dealing with all the ills of developing countries, including corruption, bureaucracy, economic turmoil and external aggression from its neighbor, the mission of the Open Society Foundations’ Eurasia Program resonated with me personally.

The internship at OSF gave me the opportunity to attend all meetings that are relevant to my categories of work, review grant applications and familiarize myself with the grant-making process. Overall, I was privileged to be fully engaged in everything that was going on in the program.

I have completed seven major assignments, including translation of calls for proposals, review of grantee reports, a research project on the UN Human Rights tools and a survey regarding the funding for women’s rights organizations in Eurasia.

The best advice I can give to students looking for internships is to follow your true professional passion and have an idea of what kind of knowledge and experience you are looking to gain before you start applying for internships. Ask questions, be curious and don’t be afraid to make a mistake – being an intern is a fantastic hands-on learning platform. I wish you all luck and great professional and educational experiences.