Reports from the Field

Top Ten Hottest Countries for Internships in 2017

With only two months left of 2016, it’s high time to decide the details for internships in 2017. The two most important questions to answer when you decide to intern abroad are always what? and where? Regardless of where you go, your experience will be intricately shaped by the culture where you will be living and working. Therefore, it will definitely pay off to do a bit of research on your host country before you head out! To help you figure it out, we’ve compiled a list of the top ten hottest internship locations to be in the next year.

Thailand:

Consistently rated as a top destination for package tourists and backpackers alike, Thailand also offers exciting new business-related internships in Bangkok – the world’s most visited city. While the whole of the country will still be in mourning after the death of their king, life – and business – will still be going on. And of course, Thailand wouldn’t be Thailand without its famous islands and beaches! Head on over to Koh Samui, Koh Phangan or Koh Lanta for internships with an island vibe.

Argentina:

Exciting opportunities to live and work in the Latin American powerhouse Buenos Aires makes Argentina a popular choice for many young professionals eager to intern and perfect their Spanish. Dubbed the Paris of South America, this fascinating city serves up not just scrumptious food but beautiful architecture, an active nightlife and eclectic art scene. Oh, and they have some pretty impressive ice cream too!

Belize:

The only English-speaking Central American country, Belize offers astounding biodiversity for interns pursuing a wildlife conservation career. Truly a blend of cultures shaped over centuries, there are countless experiences to be had in Belize, from visiting Mayan ruins and jungles to trekking, fishing, diving and more. With its laid-back vibe and year-round perfect climate, it’s hard to get disappointed in Belize!

Costa Rica:

It’s one of the most popular destinations in Central America thanks to its famously friendly people and unparalleled biodiversity. It’s also the country most famous for its ‘Pura Vida’ approach to life. Essentially, it’s means you’d be hard pressed to find any other place on earth where people so transparently enjoy life, no matter what your situation. For this reason alone, it’s worth a visit.

Mongolia:

For interns seeking an intriguing destination truly off the beaten path, Mongolia offers a fascinating insight into a deeply traditional culture as it transitions into a modern society. Decidedly not the easiest country to travel to or in, visitors trying to come up with a description for Mongolia mostly land on just one word – epic. Students of Medicine and Journalism looking for an alternative internship – this is it.

Tanzania:

The top choice for human rights interns, Tanzania offers an incredibly rich culture, stunning landscapes, and challenging development issues. Your most pressing problem will likely be finding time for all the amazing experiences this vibrant country has to offer, from climbing Kilimanjaro, to spotting wildlife and taking in the spicy aromas and oceans vistas on Zanzibar.

Nicaragua:

Making inroads into renewable energy development, Nicaragua is rapidly gaining popularity as both a tourist and volunteer-abroad destination. Having long been overlooked in favour of more easily accessible neighbours, Nicaragua is quickly becoming the next Latin American hotspot, with more and more visitors flocking to visit the countless volcanos, explore impossibly picturesque colonial towns and marvel at the vast expanses of untouched nature. Get in before the crowds do – book your project today!

Cambodia:

Against a complex cultural backdrop, interns arriving in Cambodia are amazed by the warm welcome and possibilities to make a much-needed impact in local communities. Of course, no visit to Cambodia is complete without visiting the famous temples of Angkor, but any responsible visitor should also make time to learn about the dark chapter of the Khmer Rouge and their terrible mark on history. Armed with this knowledge, you’ll marvel all the more at the ever-ready smiles of the Cambodian people, the lush beaches and the palpable lust for life.

China:

As one of the oldest civilizations on the planet, China continues to attract international volunteers looking learn more about this enigmatic culture. While teaching English is the most popular among those choosing to volunteer in China, there are many other ways in which you can help out while learning new skills, such as Tai Chi training and Panda Conservation.

Brazil:

With a rich culture of social community work and internships, Brazil is a fantastic destination for interns interested in community development, wildlife conservation, and medicine. After successfully hosted the 2014 FIFA World Cup, 2016 Olympics and Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, the country is set to continue to be a red-hot travel destination for both tourists, interns, and volunteers looking to experience the home of futbal and samba. Prepare to be dazzled!

Global Nomadic offers 50+ Professional Internships, Volunteer Projects and TEFL Programmes in 30 countries worldwide. We told you what the top ten destinations are for internships in 2017, why not check out the rest for yourself?

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Jeremy Freedman
Posted on: 31 Oct 2016

Can travel heal our fearful world?

Across the Western world, a sense of discontent is spreading and an unsettling climate of fear and disillusionment is present. Economic instability, an ever-increasing pace of life and seismic political movements and changes in Great Britain, the rest of Europe, the US and the Middle East are contributing factors. The result is that often, fear is uniting us more than hope, feeding off social separation and generational differences. And technology, with all its incredible uses and potential, is relentlessly and openly pushing us forward into a future that many of us are uncertain of. Many are wondering: is this the end of the liberal world order?

Shaping our world

Travel and globalisation have been major factors in allowing elements of intangible but forceful fear to spread. But it is a phenomenon, which has been around and helped shape our world, long before we came up with a term for it. Movement of people has been present since the beginning of time and after the atrocities of the first half of the 20th century, globalisation seemed very appealing with its promises of openness, collaboration, freedom and international opportunities.

Paradoxically, it is that very notion which makes many people sceptical towards immigration, migration and international movement in general. Those in society who may not have so many opportunities perceive the opportunities that are up for grabs to the mobile and highly educated classes as unattainable. And to top it all, the divide between generations is widening, with the eldest increasingly voting for agendas promising a return to the perceived ‘golden age’ of their youth. It is generally the young who believe more strongly in mobility and openness of economies and people – and are equally open to new ideas.

Yet globalisation is more than just economics and politics. However intangible, it has a strong effect on local cultures as well as the so-called mainstream culture. We are no longer discussing whether it will give rise to a global, homogenised culture because it’s becoming clear we’re facing a kind of hybridisation of cultures. We are less erasing cultures and instead appropriating elements from one to another and vice versa. With the rapid development of technologies and the Internet, a new global workplace has emerged which favours those who are able to gain new skills and knowledge fast, who are educated, mobile, connected and cosmopolitan. Those who don’t fit into this description are quickly left behind. And in steps anger, fear and discontent.

Globalisation is the solution

Beyond all these macro trends are the beliefs and personal experiences of actual, everyday people who embody what globalisation means in practice. Anyone who has encountered and explored different cultures through travel and work has sought to gain new knowledge. It’s clear the younger generations make them more likely beneficiaries of globalisation. They are the agents of change and bearers of hope.

It’s my belief, one which is being tested sharply in today’s global environment, that by collectively learning, knowing more, understanding more, over time society can do better.

I also believe the best way to encourage and nurture an open mind-set in people – of all generations – is to provide opportunities for crossing borders in a meaningful way, exploring new cultures and interacting with people different from ourselves. It’s why I founded Global Nomadic, after my own travels and overseas work opened my eyes to contributing in new places and created a desire to better provide the same opportunities to others. By embarking on a challenging adventure, such as a professionally-organised internship or volunteer placement abroad, young people today are doing more than stepping out of their comfort zone – they’re experiencing globalisation to the fullest. Most importantly, they’re contributing to the existence of an open, interconnected world, where progress is made from human interaction and shared insights, helping to overcome fear equally in the one and in the many.

Fear is also present in our volunteerism and NGO sectors. Many articles have been written over the last 10 years about the dangers of irresponsible ‘voluntourism’, or about white Westerners with a saviour complex who are hiding behind humanitarianism. These articles highlight a growing problem, which I don’t think we should or can ignore. But people aren’t perfect – they get things wrong or are misguided. It doesn’t follow that the mistakes or misintentions of the few should stop the many exploring the world, other cultures and other values, and want to contribute. To stay connected with the world is precisely what Global Nomadic is encouraging. I see globalisation as a positive force when used to promote openness, meaningful improvements and knowledge. And so it follows that I see professional, authentic internships and volunteering as a critical stage in developing anyone’s mind, not a badge for the CV.

This week we relaunched our website as a ground-breaking marketplace model. Unlike the traditional agency-based model, the new platform simplifies the process of finding and securing quality, professional international internships. Through it, we’re renewing our purpose to empower change by connecting people. We want to build a better world and encourage a truly global mind-set by people who work together for the benefit of their shared interests.

I believe it’s through travel and openness that we can face and overcome the various fears inside us that are fuelling economic protectionism, political isolationism and cultural short-sightedness. One person at a time, one step at a time, we can all make a difference and ensure that we lead our world in the right direction.

This article was originally published on The Huffington Post.

Struggling to find the right internship placement? Check out the 50+ Professional Internships, Volunteer Projects and TEFL Programmes that Global Nomadic offers in 30 countries worldwide. Travel your career – apply today!

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Jeremy Freedman
Posted on: 21 Oct 2016

Success Story – Interview with Bremley Lyngdoh

1. Who are you, What do you do and What did you have for breakfast?

I am dreamer, explorer, marathon runner, tango dancer, jazz music lover, adventure sportsman, environmental diplomat, social entrepreneur – Founder & CEO of Worldview Impact Foundation. I started my social enterprise after I graduated from the London School of Economics back in 2007 converting my thesis into a business plan with a mission to making an impact at the grassroots to create positive changes around the world starting from remote villages in Meghalaya, the land where the clouds come home in the north east region of India. I had an egg sandwich with pineapple juice and organic green tea from Sri Lanka mixed with jungle honey from India for breakfast.

2. What did you get up to last Tuesday at work?

I participated at the 6th Plasticity Forum – “Designing for the Future – Plastic and the Circular Economy” as part of the London Design Festival that was organised by our partner Ocean Recovery Alliance from the United States bringing together global experts from across the plastic spectrum to share experiences on opportunities and challenges with plastic sustainability and inclusion in the circular economy, thus bringing about the large scale changes that are required in order to reduce its waste impacts. We had a big conversation on the future of plastic and discuss where opportunities can be created related to recycled content, resource recovery, job creation and waste reduction. Then I met up with our partner Watertrek from France to lay out our Plan of Action for our joint Worldview Impact expedition starting from the cloud forests on the Himalayan foothills in India and ending in the mangrove forests on the Andaman Sea coastline in Burma to promote awareness on the health of our rivers and oceans in the context of local pollution and global climate change!

3. Who or what inspired you to do the job you do now?

When I was a boy my dad Eric Bremley Lyngdoh told me that it is always better to give than to receive and so I have grown up living with that principle in whatever I do in my own life. Like my dad my high school teacher Br. Eric D’Souza who taught me at St. Edmund’s School also really inspired me a lot and now I am trying to honour him by supporting a school that he established for children living in poverty called Providence in my hometown Shillong.

4. What is needed to succeed in your career?

The degrees that we get from the universities that we study in are just pieces of paper to put us in front of the door. However, our personality, attitude, positive outlook to life and the way we behave with people across status, cultures and generations will open the door to success for us no matter where we go on earth.

5. If you could go back and change one thing, what would it be?

If I could travel back in a time I would spend more quality time with my dad and go running with him every morning to the woods. Maybe I could have saved him from the massive heart attack that took his life back on 29^th September 2012 as he was running by himself in the woods after his quite time praying for my safety as he knows that I go on different mission to dangers zones around the world.

6.What is your proudest moment?

When I was appointed by the Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to address the historic United Nations Millennium Assembly on 28^th September 2000 as the Indian Youth Representative carrying the voices of 350 million young people from my country to the world leaders meeting at the United Nations headquarters in New York to pledge their commitment on implementing the United Nations Millennium Development Goals in their respective countries.

7. What is your favourite quote?

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams – Eleanor Roosevelt

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Bremley Lyngdoh
Posted on: 13 Oct 2016

The Future Starts Today

For decades, scientists and environmentalists have warned about the state of the world, trying to predict the point of no return. Right now, we are living in a time that many perceive as worse than any other point in living memory, even though more people than ever are actually living longer and in greater prosperity. In the volunteer and NGO industry, it’s a common phrase ‘to work for the future’. But what if the future has already started? What if we have already reached breaking point? Whilst wise (and less wise) men and women argue the semantics, we at Global Nomadic have realized; the future starts today. Today, we re-launch our website and renew our purpose – to empower change by connecting people. The kind of lasting change that comes from true experience and shared moments.

The world we live in today is different from the perception of the world in which many of us grew up. And understandably so. At the close of the last millennium, the future was looking bright. Walls between nations were falling, the Cold War had ended and the spread of the Internet made the whole world infinitely more interconnected, accessible, and in certain ways more unified. Today, we are once more facing walls designed to divide and wars are raging displacing tens of millions of people. The fate of our environment and thus our entire planet is teetering on a knife’s edge and social media is used to promote violence and hatred, fuelled by anonymity. Above all, it seems we have grown fearful. Fearful of our neighbours, of the unknown, even of each other. And so we are experiencing a kind of de-globalisation, a closing off of nations – the breaking up of the world into ever-smaller pieces, thinking we are stronger in isolation.

This culture of suspicion is present also in the volunteerism & NGO industries. Countless articles have been spouted over the last decade warning of the dangers and pitfalls of irresponsible ‘voluntourism’, orphanages set up only as a way of making money out of rich, white Westerners with a saviour complex while hiding behind the veneer of humanitarianism. And rightly so, this is a growing problem and one we cannot afford to ignore. But it should not serve to make us close our doors, stop travelling and stop exploring the world, other cultures, and other values.

Across the western world today there is a climate of narrow-mindedness spreading like a malignant tumour, yet not so silent. Populist politics are on the rise in almost all European countries, the European Union is creaking at the seams and in the US, Trump, his Mexican wall, and outrageous fear-mongering are knocking on the door of the White House, seeking to ‘make America great again’ by spurning the very foundation it is built upon – that ultimate melting-pot of a million different cultures interweaving into one.

This isn’t the world I grew up in and not the one most young people of today aspire to live in. In the aftermath of the tumultuous Brexit vote earlier this summer, it quickly became apparent that an overwhelming majority of young people had voted to stay in the European Union. They expressed a deep dismay at having their future international prospects so abruptly and irrevocably taken away. This wish to stay connected with the world is precisely what we at Global Nomadic wish to encourage. We see international internships and volunteer abroad opportunities not just as a cool thing to put on your CV, but as a pivotal point in a developing young mind. It’s a chance to meet the world in order to better understand it. It’s a chance to experience being a part of the famous bigger picture, to realise that the actions of a few can change the lives of many. It really is a chance to change the world, not by building a few mud walls, but by tearing down walls built out of prejudice and ignorance. It’s a chance that cannot be defined by monetary measures, but by something far more important – the value of solidarity.

In part, this desire for interconnectedness also stems precisely from the darker aspects of the current global climate. Whereas a few decades ago, it was only possible to consume a few bad pieces of news per day, we are now bombarded with every single atrocity around the world, in the moment it happens. Facing all this negativity, the demand to do something about it, to become a counterweight, seems to be growing in a greater number of people. The rise of the volunteerism industry is a positive proof of this, despite its shortcomings. Because regardless of the result, the impulse behind most volunteer trips is still the same; a desire to do something good, to help those less fortunate, to be something larger than yourself. There is a famous quote attributed to Muhammad Ali which says that ‘service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth’. But in fact, several studies have also shown that volunteering is beneficial to the individual as well. Young people who volunteer are more likely to succeed, both professionally and developmentally – and more likely to vote. In short, the entire fabric of society becomes stronger the more people volunteer in service of a greater cause.

To this end, we are today re-launching our website, globalnomadic.com. We have worked hard to create a truly transparent meeting place for those wishing to contribute and those needing support. By providing a direct bridge between people and projects, we hope to build a better world and encourage a change in the global mindset. No middle-men, no hidden financial interests – just people, working together.

In the end, we are all responsible for how the story of the world is going to play out – and we haven’t reached the last page yet. By connecting globally, we can grow locally, for the benefit of all.