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My name is Leo Larman Brown. I am a 4th year student studying Political Science. Over the past summer, I had the opportunity to do an internship at the Ontario Native Women鈥檚 Association (ONWA). ONWA is the oldest and largest Indigenous women鈥檚 organization in Canada. It provides front-line services to Indigenous women in Ontario and does advocacy work at the local, provincial, federal, and international level. A major part of my political science degree was spent studying the issues facing Indigenous people in Canada, so I wanted to gain first-hand experience by working to support Indigenous women in Ontario. My learning goals were to understand the unique challenges facing Indigenous women in Ontario, learn about the work culture of an NGO and learn more about how the provincial government functions.

Although I was officially titled as Policy and Strategy Intern, I had a diverse range of responsibilities. Mainly, my role was focused on supporting my co-workers in higher level meetings by creating briefing notes, doing background research, and preparing slide decks. I also had the opportunity to attend several high-level meetings with ministries in the Ontario government and represent ONWA. In addition, I supported the organisation鈥檚 Marketing and Communications Department by creating advertising materials, press releases, and media connections. Finally, I managed a grant proposal for a capital build project.

I will be receiving academic credit for this internship. Over the course of the next semester, I will be working with Professor Yann Allard-Tremblay and writing a research paper focusing on the rights of Urban Indigenous women in Ontario and exploring how Indigenous nations and the Federal government often neglect to serve them. My internship provided crucial first-hand experience to give me an intimate understanding of the topic.

The internship was a transformational work opportunity that provided me with hands-on work experience. It also showed me what working in an NGO is really like and what my day-to-day could potentially look like if I take it on as a career. Furthermore, most of my coworkers were former government employees which gave me insight into what a government job would be like. My coworkers were happy to give me career advice! In addition, it was incredible for my educational journey. I was able to see first-hand the problems that I was studying in class, and it gave me added perspective on what policies can be created to create real and systemic change for Indigenous women.

Funding through the Carol & Lloyd Darlington Arts Internship Award enabled me to do the internship. Thank you, Mr. Lloyd Darlington and Mrs. Carol Darlington, for this opportunity. This funding allowed me to pursue an internship without financial worries. I am very grateful.