Reflecting on the advocacy internship, by Eleanor Partington

In a word, pandemic life has been quiet. Working from home in my childhood bedroom, I have been blessed (or possibly cursed) with plenty of silence with only the sound of my parents typing (they’ve also been working from home since the pandemic began) from down the hall. This week, however, things are a bit different as I have the dulcet tones of Olympics announcers calmly commentating on a badminton match to keep me company while I work. And although this week is the first week of the Olympics, it is the tenth week of my internship here at CSCS and the Mennonite Central Committee of Canada’s Peace and Justice Office (formerly known as the Ottawa Office).

So now that you know I’m the summer intern, I should probably introduce myself. I’m Eleanor and I’m going into my fourth year of college at Emory University. I am an Environmental Science and Political Science double-major, and climate change is definitely my biggest passion and interest. I’m probably so interested in the climate issue because it combines some of my favorite things: nature, science, and politics. Plus, my parents made sure to raise me to be a tree-hugging environmentalist! While I’m at college, besides taking classes, I do research on Atlanta’s air quality with a team called Air Emory, channel my climate activism through the campus chapter of Climate Reality that I co-founded, and put in several hours at my Work Study job every week. When I’m relaxing, I love to embroider, crochet, watch Netflix, and read. A couple days after my internship ends in August, I’ll be moving back to college to attend in-person classes for the first time in a year and a half, and I’m very excited. This internship is providing me with a great summer of learning and working, though, so I’ll be sad when the end of August rolls around. However, on a happier note, I can tell you what I’ve been up to during my internship so far.

In these past ten weeks, I have learned a lot, especially about Anabaptists and Canada, since I happen to be an Episcopalian from Atlanta! Luckily, I’ve learned that even different religions and different countries aren’t too much of a hurdle between great coworkers; plus, I’ve gotten to hear lively discussions about hockey games at the beginning of zoom meetings while quickly googling anything unfamiliar (like “what is the Stanley Cup?”). I haven’t had one of those lovely pre-meeting conversations in a while because July was definitely Vacation Month, especially in Canada, so my schedule of meetings has petered out a bit. However, I’m still staying busy! I’ve been working on tasks for CSCS and the MCC office back and forth, and sometimes simultaneously! I’ve produced a webpage, an educational handout, some policy briefs, and now I’m writing a couple blog posts, including this one. As August kicks off, my coworkers will be coming back from vacation just in time for me to wrap things up and say goodbye. And, as I gear up for my final year of college, I can’t think of a better way to have spent my last summer break than advocating for the climate with CSCS and MCC.