MEG students report
Every MEG student has to do an internship or practical training in an institution outside the University. The internship is mandatory and worth five ECTS points. Internships usually have a minimum duration requirement of at least seven weeks depending on the organisation, some international organisations accept interns for a minimum of three months. It is recommended to do the internship between the second and third semester of study.
Most students choose IGOs, NGOs or research institutions to do their internship. In several cases, MEG interns were even offered regular positions within the respective organisation. Besides their career-planning, many MEG students use the internship as a chance to get to know yet another place of the world and yet another culture. A list of all past internships is available here.
The internship is usually regarded as a very valuable experience and excellent opportunity. In the following, two MEG students give you a short report about their internships for UNESCO in Venice and WWF in Madagascar.
Karl-Heinz from Mexico
Found his internship through active debating in a MEG class. He went to Venice, Italy to work for UNESCO in the Man and Biosphere-Program. His main duty was to identify the relevant stakeholders and organise a workshop for a tentative transboundary Biosphere Reserve between Montenegro and Albania. As an architect he was very much impressed by living in Venice. He learned the value of flat hierarchies and especially appreciated the responsible and self-determined work he was able to do for UNESCO.
Mari from Norway
Worked for WWF in Vienna in the Danube Carpathian-Project which she used as a stepping stone to Africa. After her internship, she was offered a place in WWF’s Explorer volunteer program to Madagascar. She got to go to villages no white person had visited for 15 years. There she dug in the earth with local farmers to help them improve their rice culture techniques and did awareness-raising with local youth concerning the value of the rain forest. She got to know the link between nature conservation and poverty and learned to live with the unexpected. After a year of valuable practical experience in Environmental Governance she returned to Freiburg to complete her MEG.