2018 Internship Report - CHAU Ho Yan Connie
Name: CHAU Ho Yan Connie
MPhil in History
Lingnan University
Position: Intern, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific-Centre for Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization (ESCAP-CSAM)
Duration: September 2018 – October 2018 (2 months)
Sponsorship: United Nations Peace Development Foundation
I want to say thank you to all the people I met during the internship. It was such a precious experience to work in the UN. I learnt so much in these two months and had a better understanding of the UN system.
During these two months internship, my major responsibility was to assist a series of events which were organized in Wuhan and the upcoming event in Indonesia. For the 5th annual meeting of ANTAM, I needed to contact and made confirmations with the participants, requested the travel agency for itineraries and e-tickets and raised travel requests. I understood the procedure of preparatory work of an event. I am also glad that I learnt how to process different tasks on the Umoja system. This task showed the importance of teamwork as other colleagues also relied on the information and tasks which I have completed and processed. How to let other colleagues understood the procedures I have done, and the situation of different participants were the skills I learnt besides the practical things I mentioned.
Another activity I assisted was the China Robot Competition. I was responsible for the communication with the two foreign teams, Sri Lanka and Nepal. The procedure was quite similar to what I have done for the 5th annual meeting. From sending the invitation letter, requesting itinerary and e-ticket to making confirmation with the participants, the whole process might seem easy but actually a complicated process. However, I am glad that my colleagues trust me and let me handle the process.
I was also excited to attend the 4th ANTAM training of trainers in Beijing. In the training, I completed some administrative works and communicated with international participants. I also visited the testing center with the participants and got to understand the situation in China. The experience was so valuable as I saw how an international meeting was hosted. I can meet participants from Asia and the Pacific region and knew more about the agricultural development in Asia and the Pacific region. During the meeting, I collected the boarding pass for the expense report. I needed to make sure their attendance. It was also interesting as I was the photographer for the event. Holding meeting was a long process work. After finishing the preparatory work, you still had follow-up works to complete. The process once again showed me the United Nations is a very complex and huge organization.
Of course, as the United Nations is a big international organization, we must communicate with people from different countries hence English is a very important language. I translated documents for different events, such as the China Robot Competition. The language should be very precise and show very clear about the rules and situation.
I also made the press release request from for our activity and newsletter, “Updates from CSAM” for the website. I got to know more about the whole process of publishing materials on the website. It was so good to involve in different duties.
Besides working, I also had fun during the internship. I enjoyed the performance of the United Nations Singers in the UN Compound. The UN Day on 24th October was so fascinating as I can meet the UN staff in China, governmental officers and other important people in the cities. I met interns from other agencies and talked about the experiences and stories we had. I had a good night with my colleagues and other participants.
Overall, I am surprised by the knowledge and things I know in this internship. I need to say thank you again for the support from UNPDF for giving me a financial assistant for the whole trip. The support and trust of my colleague were also important. Their trust was valuable, so I can know and perform different tasks for various activities and areas. It was a fruitful experience that I will never forget.
