Va‘aomanū Pasifika Seminar Series 2020 - Kaitlin Tara Rose Abbott

Date: 1 October 2020 Time: 3.10 pm

The PASI 428 Internship

Location: VZ606

Abstract The PASI 428 Internship is part of the BA Honours programme in Pacific Studies and involves a supervised work placement in a public sector agency, private sector establishment, or nongovernmental organisation with a focus on Pacific issues. Students are required to work between 150–200 hours, write a 3,000-word reflective essay, and provide a public seminar presentation about their work experience. Over the past decade, the PASI 428 Internship has played a valuable role in producing career-ready graduates from the Pacific Studies BA Honours programme.

Bio Kaitlin Tara Rose Abbott completed a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Pacific Studies, Cultural Anthropology, and English Literature in June 2019. After not being able to start her Honours straight away, Kaitlin worked for the next sixth months in event coordination and function hosting before coming back to take on her Honours in Pacific Studies. Kaitlin is a proud Cook Islands Maori and English vahine, born and raised in Taira whiti. For her PASI 428 internship, Kaitlin’s options were limited by the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately, she was given the opportunity to join the organising committee for the fifth Social Movements, Resistance, and Social Change conference to be held in Wellington (and online) in November of this year. Kaitlin says of the experience, “I was given many heartfelt and heartwarming opportunities to embrace my role as a member of the committee. At no point did I feel like I was regarded as anything less than a colleague by the members of the committee. They were always willing to let me engage with the content of the conference planning despite, in some ways, being less experienced than my counterparts.” Kaitlin’s experience working in event coordination during her break from studies set her up well to incorporate her Pacific Studies learning and to engage deeply with her PASI 428 internship.