By Leah Persons

When I first started my summer internship with Accountability Lab, I was very excited about the work I would be doing, the skills I would develop, and the people I would meet. As an International Studies major from a small college in Georgia, I was very intrigued by AL’s important global efforts of citizen engagement, accountability, and anti-corruption. I was able to learn about and help with these efforts alongside the Lab’s amazing Global team. However, my internship at AL did something more: it taught me to push myself out of my comfort zone. 

Firstly, I had the opportunity to explore issues around the world that I previously did not know about. During my internship at AL, I was able to help the Lab out with its anti-corruption work by researching corruption reporting issues in Johannesburg, South Africa, as well as writing a blog on how investigative journalism impacts anti-corruption efforts. This blog was especially impactful for my learning at the Lab. 

Before writing it, I watched an AL Open Board call hosted by Rajneesh Bhandari, a Nepali investigative journalist. He discussed using investigative journalism to expose the corrupt practices in Nepal such as human trafficking. I was immediately struck by how important anti-corruption efforts are and how much investigative journalism contributes  to anti-corruption efforts. 

Another project that pushed me beyond my comfort zone was researching and writing a report on diaspora bonds. Initially, I knew almost nothing about what diaspora bonds were or what impact they made. Through my research and report-writing, I was not only able to describe what the bonds do and the lessons learned from their usage, but I was also able to come up with various strategies the Lab could use to make the bonds more accountable and transparent. 

Research was not the only place I was pushed. Before interning at the Lab, I didn’t have any experience in customer service. That all changed one day when my amazing supervisor, Program Officer Alawi Masud, invited me to promote the Lab with him at the 2023 Mandela Washington Fellows Summit. I was a bit nervous as we were setting up our booth, not entirely sure what to say or do. 

Through Alawi’s guidance and a few initial practice runs, I felt much more comfortable and confident. All of the fellows I met with were very gracious and curious, and I greatly enjoyed talking with them. By the end of the event, I felt much more confident in myself and much more knowledgeable about how to do customer service. Overall, this event stands out in my mind as one of the best moments of my internship.

I was able to complete all of these tasks with the help of AL’s Global team. The people at Accountability Lab are amazing people, and I greatly enjoyed getting to know them. We had a weekly team meeting where we started off with an ice breaker question to get to know one another better, and it was one of the highlights of my work week.

From questions like, “What is your favorite board game?” and “How badly have people mispronounced your name?”, to playing Scrabble online together, I felt like I was really able to connect with the AL Global Team and learn more about each member. Furthermore, the AL Global Team really helped me in my professional development with all of my projects. They pushed me to try new things beyond my comfort zone, so that I could further learn and develop.

Thus, the main lesson I learned from my time at Accountability Lab is that sometimes you should push yourself to try new things and step out of your comfort zone in order to truly grow. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Unless you do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.” And that was true for me. 

I did not know anything about diaspora bonds before my report or about investigative journalism’s impact on anti-corruption, but through stepping out of the comfort zone of what I knew, I learned and grew so much. The Summit helped me develop the skills needed for customer service, which I would have never gained if I had stayed in my comfort zone. Accountability Lab really humbled me and grew me through giving me the opportunity to learn and experience more. I am truly grateful for my internship at Accountability Lab.

Leah Persons