The Internship That Changed My Question

On November 7, 2025, I received my offer of acceptance into the International Youth Internship Program (IYIP), a Global Affairs Canada–funded initiative delivered through a partnership between McMaster University and Empowerment Squared. The program offers young Canadians the opportunity to engage in international development work while learning directly from communities in West Africa. I was selected to go to Ghana to work alongside a local organization, School of Dreams, supporting their ongoing efforts to strengthen access to education in rural settings through qualitative and quantitative research, including surveys, interviews, and community engagement. 

I was ecstatic. 

Since Grade 12, I had envisioned my future in public service, with the goal of representing Canada on the international stage through organizations such as the United Nations or Interpol. My academic choices and career planning reflected this longstanding aspiration. Having grown up in Canada, I felt a strong sense of gratitude toward a country that provided my family and me with stability and opportunity. I believed that international engagement and service were meaningful ways to give back. Being selected for a fully funded international internship while still an undergraduate felt like a defining milestone. Opportunities like this are rare at such an early stage, and I saw it as an important step toward the career I had spent years working toward. At the time, this experience reinforced my confidence not only in my professional direction but also in my ability to contribute meaningfully in an international context.  

That confidence began to evolve during our first visit to an elementary school in a rural Ghanaian community. This experience introduced me to the realities of education in rural contexts shaped by geography, limited infrastructure, and differing levels of access to resources. The school and surrounding community reflected the broader conditions common in many rural areas, where learning takes place in environments that rely heavily on creativity, resilience and collective effort. Classrooms were full, facilities were modest, and teaching continued without access to resources I had always assumed were standard. 

What stood out to me most was the commitment within the school community. Educators continued to teach with care and dedication, and students engaged thoughtfully in their learning. Through conversations with staff and students, I began to understand the broader systems that influence education in rural areas, such as distance from urban centers, uneven access to infrastructure, and the realities of delivering public services across diverse regions. Healthcare access also emerged as part of this broader context, with communities relying on facilities far from home. 

Despite these challenges, the atmosphere in the school was one of ambition and purpose. Students spoke confidently about their futures and shared aspirations centred on serving others. Many expressed interest in careers such as nursing, emergency services, teaching, policing, and medicine. Their commitment to contributing to their communities, even while navigating complex structural realities, left a lasting impression on me. 

I left the school feeling reflective and grateful. The experience prompted me to think differently about my own upbringing in Canada and the access I had come to take for granted. At the same time, it encouraged me to look more closely at realities closer to home. Many of the structural challenges I observed abroad, such as disparities in infrastructure, healthcare access, and essential services, also exist within Canada, particularly in remote and marginalized communities. Indigenous communities continue to navigate longstanding inequities rooted in historical and systemic factors. 

While the contexts differ, the underlying themes of access, equity, and resilience felt strikingly familiar. This realization led me to question assumptions I had held about service and impact. Is international representation the only way to contribute meaningfully? How can service be balanced between global engagement and local responsibility? And what does it truly mean to give back to a country when not all communities experience opportunity in the same way? 

What began as a professional milestone became a moment of reassessment. This internship did not diminish my interest in public service; rather, it broadened my understanding of where meaningful service can take place. It encouraged me to think more deeply about impact, both abroad and at home, and about the many ways individuals can contribute to positive change. As a result, I am now approaching my future with greater openness. I am increasingly interested in exploring pathways that allow for tangible, day‑to‑day impact in people’s lives, potentially in areas such as healthcare or community‑based work. Rather than seeing my original career plans as abandoned, I now view them as expanded.  

One internship was enough to reshape a carefully planned trajectory. While my next steps are still unfolding, I am committed to continuing to learn, to exploring opportunities beyond my original field of study, and to remaining open to where experience and reflection may lead me. I left this internship with new transferable skill sets while refining existing ones, learning how to thrive in an unfamiliar environment, how to collaborate with coworkers on foreign soil you’ve never met before, and how to immerse yourself in a society you have no prior connection to. But the most important skill? Learning how to ask the right questions. Sometimes, the most meaningful part of a journey is not finding definitive answers, but learning how to ask better, more informed questions.