Not your usual internship

What did you do for an internship last summer? Did you find a real job that involved actual work, or did you just serve coffee and make photocopies?

For summer internships, most students seek a reputable company and some real work experience. They try to acquire a job associated with the subjects they are studying. But most students fail to achieve this, because the companies don't let them do a proper job or even learn from their work. Interns simply end up running errands. This is the most common problem faced by students during internships.

But there is an alternative. The Student Crazy Intern in Bannok (Village) Project aims to give you a new intern experience - and a chance to get out of Bangkok!

"This project is the door to really experiencing our society, so that a student can get real life practice, acquire life skills and work experience. Here, students can apply their classroom theories to real practical work," says Jaded Porn-ananphasuk, programme director of Student Crazy Intern in Bannok Project, which is run by The Mirror Foundation.

Every year, more than 60 students apply for internships with this project from different departments and universities, and from all corners of Thailand.

Some students come for work experience, some to intern as part of their study curriculum and some to do research projects.

Jaded says there are many kinds of work that can help students explore their own ideas and thoughts.

"We have seen students develop; they become more grown-up and service-oriented, they learn to be patient and analyse complex problems. This will help them in their future work. We hope they'll become quality people who care about society, rather than a cause of social ills."

Natapong Sanewong Na Ayudhaya, or Nat, is a graduate in Communication Arts from Bangkok University, and now works as an editor at a TV production company. He gained experience through his internship with the project and now helps with the production of Bannok TV, which is making documentaries and TV programmes for hilltribe communities.

"At that time, I lied to my parents that our university was sending me to work there. Otherwise they wouldn't have let me go to northern Thailand and work in that remote area," says Nat.

His parents wanted him to work in Bangkok and do an internship with a big company.

Apart from how to produce TV programmes, Nat learnt many things during his internship, such as conducting surveys and collecting population data. Moving from house to house, he saw more of the suffering and problems which the hilltribe people face every day of their lives concerning their land, nationality and human rights.

"I started wondering what I would do if I were in their situation. The more we learn about their problems, the more these situations teach us to think more fully and more responsibly about society and about others. If we cannot help them immediately, at least we can learn to think about how to solve their problems," says Nat.

"I would say that most social problems are closely related and affect our lives both directly and indirectly," he says.

Most of the current generation of students create the impression that they don't care about - and are not responsible for - the problems of society; they don't want to work hard and never think about doing anything for society.

"That's true, but not all students are like that," says ML Piyapanpong Chakrabandu, a fourth-year student at Chiang Mai University.

"I have seen that many students do care about society. They want to help but some don't know how. But we can't just blame the students because politics and many other things happening in our society have made the new generation disinterested. But still, many students do care."

Piyapanpong is studying Mass Communications and was interested in working with people in remote areas. He and some friends were looking for an internship working with poor villagers, when they found a project that surveys hilltribes and collects population data.

Piyapanpong is constantly updating his information and news about hilltribes. He was aware of many of the problems facing the hilltribes, but at that time he felt the problems were very removed from his own life.

"I think my attitude has changed. It's as if I'm in their shoes now. The experience opened my eyes and changed my attitudes, too. [I've learned that] one problem can create so many more in a person's life," he said.

He has come across many young people who are intelligent but could not go to school because they don't officially have a nationality. Now, the nationality issue is the main problem facing members of hilltribes who are born in Thailand, because they are deprived of all the rights that should be theirs.

"Working with this project gave me real experience with real people in a real location. It's not just 'sitting and waiting for orders'. We really work and share our knowledge and ideas." Piyapanpong says he really enjoyed working with this project, and is very impressed with the way The Mirror Foundation reflects social problems which few people have cared enough about to bring to the attention of the public or the government. The foundation lets people know what's really happening with minority people living in the mountains, he says.

"Working with the hilltribes, I learned to appreciated their simplicity of life and spirit; it can teach us so many things.

"This is a real life experience - it's not comfortable, the way we are used to living in the city. But it has taught me to understand life more fully. You don't get this sort of experience just anywhere. It's something I'll never forget," he says.

The Bannok projects are based in Chiang Rai, while The Mirror Foundation is based in Bangkok.

Internship curricula

1. "Student internship in a village"

Duration: Two, three or four months

Learn from new experiences, and bring your own great ideas to share with the group.

Summarise your experiences during the internship and write an internship paper.

Write an essay on "Work that I do for the bannok [village]" and submit it to the project director.

2. "Learn to work for the community and be service-minded"

Learn to work in cooperation with people in the community and grassroots organisations.

Learn about the activities and academic work of the Mirror Foundation and other non-governmental organisations.

3. "Learning the hilltribe's way of life"

Stay with a hilltribe community and experience their way of life.

Survey and collect information on hilltribes such as their occupations, traditions, rituals, culture and education.

Conclude by presenting your own ideas about hilltribes, taking into account all the knowledge you have gained through your experience.

After completing an internship, students get

1. A certificate from The Mirror Foundation.

2. A T-shirt from the "Student Crazy Intern" project.

3. Membership in bannok.com

There is no fee to join the project. For more information, contact www.bannok.com or jadad@bannok.com.

By Tanistha Dansilp

Special to The Nation