My internship strengthened my ability to communicate across languages, cultures, and professional settings. Working in a bilingual environment meant constantly switching between French and English, whether translating meeting notes, communicating with international partner organizations, or facilitating workshops. It was my first time using French professionally, and I became more confident adapting my communication to different audiences. Perhaps the most valuable skill I developed was learning to work with vulnerable populations professionally and compassionately. These conversations taught me the importance of confidentiality, active listening, and approaching every interaction with empathy and respect. These experiences gave me a stronger foundation as both a researcher and as someone who hopes to build a career in migration policy.
The biggest way I grew was learning to look beyond the policies and systems I had studied at UC Berkeley and pay more attention to the people living within them. Before this experience, I understood migration largely through coursework, research, and statistics. In France, I saw how those systems could affect whether someone could access a language class, have their qualifications recognized, or find work. Those experiences made migration less abstract and showed me the gap between how a policy is designed and how it is actually experienced. Personally and professionally, I became more comfortable working across languages and cultures and adapting when things did not go as planned. I leave this internship more confident in my ability to work across cultures, but also more aware of the responsibility that comes with research and policy work.
Dylan Lee