This the next in a series of posts by recipients of the Career Services Summer Funding Grant. We’ve asked funding recipients to reflect on their summer experiences and talk about the industries in which they’ve been spending their summer. You can read the entire series here.
This entry is by Mara Zafiu, WH ’17
My first day of summer was hectic, yet filled with excitement. Within 24 hours, I packed up my room, took my last final and moved to New York City, ready for my first day of work at the Permanent Mission of Romania to the United Nations. Although diplomacy and international relations were never part of my curriculum at Penn, where I study economics and healthcare-focused global development, I had long been interested in world affairs and wanted to get an insight into the negotiation processes at the UN, as well as into my home country’s role and influence in the multilateral system.
Yet the amount that I learned surpassed my expectations. I had the opportunity to work in the Economic and Financial Committee of the General Assembly, where I got to represent Romania at various conferences and within negotiation meetings at regional or global level. Some topics that I covered during my summer were the new sustainable urbanization agenda Habitat III, the follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda of sustainable development, the South-South Cooperation Forum and Middle Income Countries Conference. I was also able to participate in various negotiations within the Economic and Social Council, in the Commission for Social Development and in humanitarian resolutions. While all these topics were very related to my interest in global development, this experience enabled me to understand the opportunities and challenges in development from a completely different perspective than I had previously held.
Outside of my officially assigned tasks, it turned out that my UN delegate badge gave me access to even more sources of knowledge. My experience wouldn’t have been complete without meeting delegates from all over the world at events in the Delegates’ Lounge, going to the Security Council or General Assembly to hear the most recent debates on combating youth terrorism and further curving the transmission of HIV, or getting to learn from the vast experience of diplomats from the Permanent Mission of Romania. And, to add more flavor to my summer, I also experienced Euro Cup watching parties organized by the host countries, soccer games between country ambassadors to the UN (including the United States’ Samantha Power), and electronic dance music parties at the headquarters.
While I already miss my daily walks between the Romanian Permanent Mission, the UN Headquarters, and the European Union building, I am confident that my career path will intersect with the multilateral system in the future. In the meantime, I am grateful for this incredible learning opportunity and excited to continue to cultivate my passion for global development and world affairs.
