After starting my first week virtually, I finally made it to Washington DC where I would be working with the team from the World Bank headquarters. I was very excited to work from the office and meet everyone in person. I had heard so much about how beautiful the headquarter was, and I was excited to experience it for myself.
On my first day, I had to first visit the main MC building to get my badge. The main atrium was stunningly vast and I found myself enthralled by the architecture. The entrance had an installation of every country’s national flag along with the quote “Our dream is a world free of poverty”. It was a wonderful reaffirmation of my own goal and motivation and that I was in the right place.
I was greeted with warm welcome message at my desk. A lot of the offices were empty as the team was based across the world and people were still in hybrid work set-up post-COVID. Two of my team members were in the office and they helped me get acquainted with the office and life in DC. We grabbed lunch at the main MC cafeteria, which was quite an experience. They had food from different countries, which was both delicious and subsidized! The cafeteria was filled by people from different countries and ethnicities, which I loved. Seeing that these elite spaces are comprised of people who to some extent represent the regions they fund and intervene in was reassuring and aligned with my own beliefs about diversity and representation.
While most of my first day went into IT and logistics, I found some time to browse the results briefs and reports displayed in the office. It was fascinating to see the range of projects eMBeD had engaged in – from tax compliance in Indonesia all the way to instilling growth mindset among students in Peru. Having worked in international development largely in a South Asia context, it was amazing to see the geographic and thematic expanse of projects and I was excited to have that breadth of experience during the internship.
Yorumlar