Isabel Hacket

My name is Isabel Hacket. After arriving at SIHMA, I got a chance to get involved with multiple aspects of the organization and engage with the motivated and kind people who work there. My first two weeks were exclusively with SIHMA as I did research with a visiting professor from Northern Arizona University on one of Scalabrini Centre's very own programs, the Women’s Platform. For that work, I took notes during focus group interviews, and I am currently in the process of coding and writing a literature review for the report that the researcher will eventually write up on her findings even though she is back in the United States. I also wrote up a report on migration in Uganda for an interactive map feature on our new website. Because my SIHMA supervisor is very into the role of communications, I’ve been writing weekly blog posts. For one of the blog posts, I had the chance to sit in on a talk given by a Fulbright researcher who had been conducting research on the programs offered by Scalabrini. Her talk on the evolution of integration techniques was so interesting, and I’m glad that I had the chance to go to it as a part of the SIHMA team.

By the third week of my internship, I officially became a part of BASP (Bachelor Academic Support Program), a service offered by Scalabrini and Southern New Hampshire University where refugees can take online college classes and earn an associate’s or bachelor’s degree in a handful of subjects. I’ve really enjoyed engaging with other aspects of my office, and even though having two distinct jobs leads to challenges in terms of balancing responsibilities, I’m happy to have these exciting opportunities. When comparing my internship with others from my school, I can see how truly lucky I was to get a job here at SIHMA and Scalabrini.