Internship in Yerevan for youth from Nagorno-Karabakh

In 2017-2019 the Caucasus Institute arranged two-week internships for young specialists and students from Nagorno-Karabakh in CSOs, state entities, commercial organizations in Yerevan in order to improve their skills and provide practical experience, broaden their understanding of the field so that they will contribute to development of their fields in Nagorno-Karabakh. The project covered roundtrip travel from Nagorno-Karabakh, the costs of accommodation in Yerevan for the duration of the internships, and scholarship. Based on their application (received on the basis of first come, first served), young specialists were placed as interns either in the organization they had already reached an agreement with, or with the one the project sought for applicants. 33 young professionals and students in Nagorno-Karabakh with enriched experience, skills and understanding of internship, new opportunities, acquired new jobs, new network, changed perception of how their field should work.

"I would like to thank the Caucasus Institute for helping me get one step closer to my dreams. It was an honor for me to be an intern at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia. This internship is truly invaluable not only because I have developed my professional skills, but also because I have had the great pleasure of working with very interesting and clever people, and learning from them. The work You do is huge and extremely important, so good luck with everything You are doing for the youth of Artsakh and Armenia!"

Flora Hairapetyan

Undergraduate student, Department of English and Literature, ArSU

“I would like to thank the Caucasus Institute for making possible my internship in Yerevan. The Institute makes great investment into development of youth. I gained new knowledge and new opportunities in the field of classical vocal. Special thanks to the team, all the team members were very attentive and kind.”

Gurgen Baghdasaryan

Graduate of Komitas Yerevan State Conservatory

The internships took place in spring 2018-spring 2019. 15 students and 18 young specialists did their internships in the fields of accounting and finance, translation, law, music, media and psychology. Five interns were placed at the CI as translators (including students from Mashtots University), taking part in translating a book about deterrence in the Karabakh conflict. Internship placements included the MFA, the Office of the Ombudsman, Civil Society Institute, INTRA Mental Health Center, and Central Bank of Armenia.

“'I would like to express my gratitude to the Caucasus Institute for realizing my goal. Indeed, it was great luck to do internship at the EU Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia. The workload and the work done by the department is huge and worth appraisal. In the course of the internship I got familiar with the main directions of the Department's activities and also engaged in them by translating policy papers.”

Nanar Hayrapetyan

Translator, TUMO Artsakh

“I was impressed by the Civil Society Institute. Firstly, internship was effective and interesting. I had a lot of meetings, research on the topics I was interested in. I study at Law Department of Artsakh State University. I learnt about the internship opportunity suddenly and decided to participate. I do not regret, moreover, it was quite effective. Such kind of initiatives should be organized on a permanent basis, as they contribute to development of students' knowledge and skills”.

Mira Danielyan

Undergraduate student, Department of History and Law, Artsakh State University

“What matters most is that you enjoy the environment that you are in. For me Caucasus Institute was a place where I listened and learnt even while having some coffee with a team of non-standard way of thinking accompanied with highly professional scientific background. Together with the most intelligent, versatile and informed team I gained valuable research making as well as paper writing skills in various fields. Besides of that I mastered my written translation skills in a very short time and learnt valuable methods and tricks developing the efficiency of my work both in terms of time and quality. Internship in Caucasus Institute was a short-term experience changing the quality of my long-term goals”.

Susanna Movsesyan

Graduate of Economics and Law Department, ArSU

One of the interns, an opera singer, has recently founded a vocal center in Artsakh. Another intern, a lawyer, whom the internship helped graduate from the School of Advocates at K&P law firm, now is Press Secretary of the President of the National Assembly of Nagorno-Karabakh.