My NATO Defense College CO-OP

SARAH HAZLITT

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

SPRING 2016

About my COOP

Department: Middle East Faculty

Major: International Affairs

Position: VERO Intern (Volunteer, Research outreach)

Compensation: Unpaid (Presidential Global Scholarship)

Location: Rome, Italy

Dates: February 15 – May 15 2016

Position description and responsibilities were consistent with

COOL description

A Day in the life..

Most of my time was spent

Coordinating transport for lecturers

Spending time in the lectures and facilitating group activities

communicating with collogues to solve problems concerning the NRCC Course (NATO Regional Cooperation Course)

with my team (we sat all together and were in constant contact)

**** I was definitely treated as an intern and not a full time staffer

Surprises

Something that surprised me about working

at NATO Defense college is just how many

high officials I was able to work personally

with.

I interacted with ambassadors, generals in

the militaries of dozens of counties as well

as a few heads of state.

Lifelong Learning

During my COOP I gained skills such as

organizational skills

Working cross cultures

Professionalism

Language skills

The ability to work in a fast paced international environment

I learned that sometimes working across cultural barriers is harder

than you may originally expect. I came across a lot of people

who could not be more different than myself in almost every

aspect and developing a professional relationship with them

was a major learning experience.

Highlights

The best thing I did was

make connections with

people from dozens of

different countries and

cultural backgrounds.

I also loved being able to

experience Rome through

my Coop by facilitating tours

for the course.

I liked that the environment

was very conducive to

helping me to learn and

giving me as many learning

opportunities as possible.

Rome was an AMAZING place to be every day !

International Working Environment

During my COOP at the NDC I was able to apply a lot of knowledge I had gained from classes at Northeastern. I a lot of this was demonstrated through my international relations and politics classes, as they applied to the international work environment of NATO Defense College in Rome.

I was able to better understand, aid in, and edit research done by my colleagues on international issues and I was also better able to interact with people from all over the globe and have meaningful informed discussions about international affairs.

Something New

During my coop I was put into a lot of situations that were very high stress and

involved very important people, situations I had never been in before and never imagined I would be in. I had never before been taught exactly how to

greet an ambassador or salute a lieutenant until my time at NDC. I learned the

importance of being absolutely precise every time because when you are

arranging airport transport for ambassadors there is no second chance!

Making changes

because of

COOP

Since starting my COOP AT

NATO defense college, I

realized that though I loved my

experience I don’t think that is

the type of organization I want

to work for.

I found that I better enjoy the

private sector rather than

government organization and

intense bureaucracy.

I think I will continue to follow

my international affairs path,

but focus more on private

sector aspects of it.

Rome, I will miss you!