I am a bilingual Quebecois who is about to start his last semester at McGill University. By the end of December 2021, I will be graduating with a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Political Science and minoring in Canadian Studies and Social Entrepreneurship. While I am interested in politics and public policy, I have also grown to appreciate learning about commerce and businesses management. Therefore, I proceeded to nurture this newfound interest through my Social Entrepreneurship minor and my recent internship.
This summer I had the privilege to intern at the U.S. Consulate General in Montreal. Since there are many U.S. consulates and an embassy in Canada, the consulate does more than just represent the United States in Quebec. The consulate’s main operations are separated into sections such as the Public Affairs, Political/Economic, Commercial, etc. sections. While they each have their unique objectives and responsibilities, they do not operate in silos. In other words, these sections interact and sometimes are dependent on each other. In the first two months of my internship, I worked with the POLI/ECON section where I monitored and reported on issues of interest. This work was meant to provide transparency and enable better policy-making between allied states. In the two last months of my internship, I worked with the Commercial section where I supported ongoing projects and conducted industry-specific research. This work was meant to take advantage of trade liberalization between Canada and the United States by encouraging international commercial ties. During my four months at the consulate, my I focused on the province of Quebec.
During my time with the POLI/ECON section, I was tasked with writing short media reviews. These were focused on Quebec political and business/economic developments and were meant to allow my supervisors in both the POLI/ECON and Commercial sections to continue their work in an informed manner. In addition to the daily monitoring of events, I had the chance to work on larger reporting projects. I participated in a project regarding the Quebec film industry and lead another project regarding the upcoming Montreal municipal election. These projects allowed me to dive deeper into these topics and meet the relevant key players.
During my time working for the Commercial section, I was tasked with supporting various ongoing projects which allowed me to discover what kind of work is needed to support international trade. From meeting with a business interested in selling in Quebec to providing a list of industry-specific regulations and incentives, I quickly realized that increasing commercial ties requires not only trade deals, but also overcoming information barriers. I also had the chance to work on one larger reporting project meant to link the Quebec mining industry to the Biden administration’s Executive Order 14017.
While I did not know I would be undertaking all of these specific tasks and projects before I started my internship, I knew it was going to revolve around providing informational support to an organization focused on bettering relations between my country and my neighbors to the south. I correctly anticipated that this informational support would rely extensively on and improve the knowledge and skills I acquired throughout my years as a social/political science student. I am also happy to have gained experience in the world of diplomacy which allowed me to feel more comfortable with public speaking.
With this internship completed, I will have reached my initial McGill objective, to do an internship every summer. Not only did I reach my goal, but I also did an internship in the NGO (2019), academic (2020), and governmental (2021) sectors. This in tandem with my academic career has provided me with a well-rounded understanding of politics based on classroom and experiential learning. My experiences will also enable me to make better career choices.
