International Internships
The internship is a five to six week opportunity for participants to experience an enterprise or network that has positive social, political or environmental change at its core in a different culture/continent. Participants visit and apprentice with organizations, projects, and initiatives which explore YIP’s principles and values of societal entrepreneurship. The participants travel from the Outpost to the internship and spend Weeks 2 to 12 with their hosts before returning to Sweden. The criteria of the internship balances personal learning objectives with group intentions to clarify what participants wish to learn and what they are hoping to offer in service of their hosts. Before arriving at YIP participants are sent an internship guide which outlines the criteria, purpose, objectives, and capacities of the internships and provides a profile of each of the YIP organized internship locations. Participants are invited to consider which initiative/location appeals to them while at the same time they are able to contact and organize an internship location outside of the ones offered by YIP if it meets the aforementioned criteria.
In the beginning of the year there are five weekly 2 hour sessions which introduce the locations, internship hosts, and basic organising needs. Those who have a new idea for an internship location present to the group. Participants are then coached into selecting the internship location that aligns with their personal initiatives and what they wish to learn. After the closing process, groups of 3-5 people are formed for each location. Participants work to design and organize their internships in small groups as they partner closely with their local host. YIP has existing relationships with internship hosts across the world, and the 2019 internships included KRMEF in Nepal, MISSION in Philippines, The Dream Factory, Flavela de Paz, and the Amazon Summer School in Brasil, and SEKEM in Egypt.