CAPI student intern and scholar alumni

Hayley is completing her bachelor’s degree in social work at the University of Victoria. She is born and raised in the lower mainland and has spent many years navigating life in the global south. She has an interest in transnational migration with a particular focus on the mental and physical health of migrants. She feels passionate about seeking knowledge of the lived struggles, experiences and resilience of women, families, and communities. She is committed to breaking down stigma and barriers that prevent marginalized voices from being heard. She is very excited to be a part of this cross-cultural learning experience with MSRI and honoured to have this opportunity from CAPI. 

My Capstone project is a collaborative booklet that provides an overview of the programs that are offered at the Malaysian Social Research Institute (MSRI). I worked alongside staff and interns at MSRI to compile updated, informative and concise information that may provide an impactful foundation for future staff and interns. The booklet covers MSRI’s historical context, as well as the Sahabat Education Programm, Sahabat Healthcare Programme and the Elham Empowerment Programme. Additionally, this booklet includes prominent legal advice and information that is critical for individuals who are navigating MSRI’s work as well as general advocacy around refugees, asylum seekers and, basic human and legal rights.

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Tracy is in her third year studying Political Science and Sociology at the University of Victoria. She is interested in studying racialization, migration and economic inequality. She will be spending time in Malaysia working and learning with the Malaysian Social Research Institute. Tracy is extremely grateful for the opportunity provided to her through CAPI and the Queen Elizabeth Scholars programs.

My capstone, "Defining a refugee," is an attempt to challenge current harmful narratives around what it means to be a refugee by showcasing how refugees themselves understand the term while simultaneously showing who these individuals are as human beings. Each page contains a photograph taken of the individual representing who they are and a written account of their answers to the following questions: What makes you happy? How do you define yourself? What are you good at? What do you hope for the future? How do you define a refugee? This project is meant to ignite empathy within those of us who are far removed from the ongoing "refugee crisis" by highlighting the emotions, perspectives and experiences often overshadowed in the media.

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Jemma is currently in her third year pursuing a BA in Political Science alongside a Diploma in Intercultural Education. She is interested in International Relations, specifically migration, sustainable development. In addition, the impacts of globalization - looking at social justice and the interactions amongst cultures through this. Jemma is thrilled to be working with the Centre for Indonesian Policy Studies (CIPS) in Jarkarta, Indonesia and looks forward to collaborating with the team and understanding the effects of politics through policy and building on this through experiential learning. She is eager to explore the influence of political think-tanks in social and economic reform and grateful to CAPI and CIPS this opportunity and their support!

Jess MacIver is a fifth-year student at UVic, getting her double major in Anthropology & Archaeology and Religious Philosophy. She has worked with children for 9 years, resulting in a focus on early childhood learning, collaborative learning, and empowerment through education. For her internship, she will be working with Ukulapha and be heading to Slangspruit, a small township in South Africa. Here she will be working in the elementary school, assisting in the classroom as well as leading summer camps for the young girls during school break. Jess is incredibly grateful to CAPI and QES for this chance to really engage with not only the youth, but the community as a whole, and to further her education in this amazing way.

Throughout our time in South Africa, we witnessed the direct aftermath of Apartheid, in particular with the underfunding and lack of support from the government for the township schools. We witnessed resilience and passion within the children despite the academic, emotional, and socio-economic challenges that they were facing. We were inspired to create a capstone that would assist future interns in navigating their role at Slangspruit school, with Ukulpaha Project, and in South Africa. We hope that our handbook will assist interns in transitioning into their new role and most importantly, help them to be able to work in a way that puts the students first.

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Maeve is in her fourth year of a degree in Pacific and Asian Studies at UVic. She is passionate about food and photography and is excited to start a six-month internship with CIPS (Center for Indonesian Policy Studies) in Jakarta, Indonesia. Maeve is interested in how policy affects local communities and is looking forward to exploring this relationship with CIPS. She is very grateful to CAPI for providing this great opportunity to broaden her horizons and hopes that her experience will put her in a good place to start a Masters in International Development.

Food is our common ground, a universal experience. —James Beard

The Center for Indonesian Policy Studies (CIPS) works to promote food security in Indonesia. To understand what food means to people in Indonesia it’s important to know where that food came from, what it cost, and what is done to prepare it for the dinner table. For my Capstone project fellow intern Jemma Kosalko and I decided to document all the steps we took to make a popular Indonesian dish called Gado-Gado. Through this experience we reflected on how food in Indonesia is experienced differently than in Canada. We learned about the importance of the traditional market in food preparation, and how complicated it can be to prepare the food we ate in roadside stalls every day.

Luisa is in her fourth year of Geography and Environmental Studies at Uvic. She is very interested in resource conservation and the rights of minorities. Throughout this internship Luisa will be working at the Karenni Social Development Centre in the North of Thailand. She is very excited to teach and learn from Karenni youth and learn more about Myanmar and Thailand. She is extremely grateful to both CAPI and the KSDC for this opportunity.

My capstone project, “Karenni Traditional Storybook”, is a collection of stories and art work created and narrated by the students and teachers at the Karenni Social Development Center. The subjects for the book were chosen by the students as traditions and celebrations play an important role in their community. This project hopes to narrate the story of the Karenni people and show the importance of keeping traditional knowledge and practices alive in their culture. It also hopes to challenge the stigma often surrounding traditional rituals and bring awareness to the role that colonization has played in the loss of traditional practices over time.

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Christopher Tse is a graduate student in critical social work at the University of Victoria, with a focus on transnational migration and decolonial theory. Before coming back to school, Chris' background in anti-oppressive facilitation, international development, and social justice education led him worldwide to work alongside communities in organizing for social change. With a bachelor's degree in human rights journalism, Chris is passionate about telling stories and perhaps more importantly, dismantling the barriers that prevent people from telling their own stories. He is excited to dig into an arts-based research project in Malaysia and Thailand this fall, and is grateful to CAPI for the opportunity. Chris was a CAPI intern in 2018.

My Capstone project, Finding Voice, is a collaborative zine which attempts to showcase and explore individual voice embedded within a collective voice. How do we celebrate and acknowledge our unique differences, as well our intersections? Finding Voice strives to connect people through a creative mean, which opens a platform for expression that celebrates unique lived experiences in a safe space, while also identifying themes of similarity and running themes which bind us all together, even if just a little bit of humanity. Through this zine, my hope is to indirectly touch upon us vs them narratives and recognize strength within both independence and interdependence. It features submissions from 17+ individuals across different geographical locations, languages, and beliefs responding to the question: “how do you find voice?”.

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Jacob is an Anthropology student at the University of Victoria. Originally from Nanaimo BC, he loves Vancouver Island and is happy to be going to Indonesia, a country with many amazing islands to explore and learn about. He is interested in the relationship between culture and politics, as well as urban planning, and ethnographic research. Jacob is very excited about the opportunity to work with the Centre for Indonesian Policy Studies in Jakarta and looks forward to learning more about the process of policy making and analysis. He is very grateful to CAPI for making this opportunity possible and is doing his best to learn Indonesian!

Apart from Bali, Indonesia is not a huge tourist destination, and it can be a tricky place to live and travel in some respects – especially when it comes to finding information in English. However, once you get past the chaos you realize just how amazing this part of the world is – and after 7 months of craziness I can definitely say Indonesia my favourite place on Earth. My Capstone is a ‘living in Jakarta’ guide, with information that I uncovered, anywhere from translating decade old websites to just chatting with the guy selling chicken at the end of my street. I know this guide will help interns to CIPS after me, who I hope will use this information to enjoy their placement as much as I did.

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For my capstone project, I put together a list of guidelines, based on my own experience, for doing research ethically as an international student or intern. Interns with PRIA have the opportunity to carry out our own research projects in India. As amazing as this was, I found myself constantly struggling with questions, hesitations and doubts about how to implement what I knew about research ethics in a completely different country and cultural context from which I had learned them. My hope for my capstone project is that it will help spark discussions around research ethics and guide future interns and students, in India and beyond, in doing research ethically.

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Courtenay is currently completing her second year of the JD program at the University of Victoria.  With an undergraduate degree in biology from Queen’s University, Courtenay hopes to explore questions of environmental law and policy during her legal studies.  As part of CAPI’s Crossing Borders Program, Courtenay will have the opportunity to work for The Other Media, an organization focused on environmental and social justice issues in Southeast India.  She is looking forward to engaging with their Community Environmental Monitoring Program, which uses environmental law to hold polluting companies responsible for any environmental degradation caused by their actions.

Whenever I travel, I love to collect book recommendations. For my Capstone Project, I compiled a list of novels and short stories by Indian authors, as recommended by new friends, colleagues and neighbours in Chennai, India. For each story, I’ve included background information about the author, a short summary of the plot, and a bit of information about where the recommendation came from. I also canvassed the other CAPI interns in my cohort for recommendations, and received book suggestions from Malaysia, South Africa, Indonesia and Japan!

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Christopher Tse is a graduate student in critical social work at the University of Victoria, with a focus on transnational migration and citizenship theory. Before coming back to school, Chris' background in anti-oppressive facilitation, international development, and social justice education led him worldwide to work alongside communities in organizing for social change. With a bachelor's degree in human rights journalism, Chris is passionate about telling stories and perhaps more importantly, dismantling the barriers that prevent people from telling their own stories. He is excited to work with and learn from the the MSRI team and is grateful to CAPI for the opportunity.

In the spirit of participatory action research led by and conducted for a community, my capstone project was a program evaluation of MSRI's Emergency Support Program, which offers emergency financial aid to refugees/asylum-seekers in dire situations. Through my case work and conversations with colleagues and more importantly, clients, it became clear there were areas of potential growth where the program could really improve. The goal of this program evaluation was to gauge the program's overall effectiveness, identify determinants of financial insecurity among refugee communities in Kuala Lumpur, and consider implications for change that will ensure the program continues growing towards providing effective and anti-oppressive support for refugees and asylum-seekers.

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Charlotte is a second year Anthropology Major and Geography Minor with a focus in migration issues around the world. She grew up in Seattle WA and The Cotswolds, UK and moved to Victoria two years ago for university.  She is interested in women’s lived experiences in migration as well as young women’s empowerment. She enjoys making music, playing frisbee and listening to people’s stories. With a great appreciation for the variety and differences of people’s lives around the globe, she is very excited to be living and working in part of the world where she has never been before.

Lynn is a first year PhD student in the department of Political Science at the University of Victoria(UVic) in Canada. Previously she studied in England where she obtained a BA(Hons) in Geography and a MPhil in Development Studies.

Under the supervision of Dr Feng Xu, Lynn's research interest is in issues of Nationalism and migrant worker exclusion in the eldercare industry in Singapore, her home country. The eldercare industry in Canada, especially Vancouver, has a lot of similarities with that in Singapore. Most domestic and institutional care workers are foreign immigrants, especially from the Philippines, Indonesia, China and Myanmar among others. In Singapore, foreign workers face huge obstacles to social integration as they are not treated with mutual respect from wider society. State laws on immigration are also discriminatory in the way they imply national ownership over 'foreign' bodies, classifying and delineating immigrants in ways that do not do justice to human rights promises. My research endeavours to find a place for 'voices from the bottom', that is allowing care workers themselves to offer perspectives on what 'care' means, instead of the mainstream thinking of the '3Ds': dirty, dangerous, difficult. Participation would be a core aspect of interactions with my respondents, and I look forward to embarking on this self-reflective journey.

My Capstone project Looking in from the Outside explores the experiences of international and indigenous students in Canadian society. Through mind-mapping and informal conversation, I gathered common themes in their experiences of marginalization and daily micro-aggressions. The original intention was to focus on the perspectives of international students, but in the course of this project the fee hikes for international students were approved. Considering that the UVic Board of Governors framed this move in a way that pitted indigenous and international students against each other, I felt it was important to also include indigenous voices to show that these two groups of students have more that they can mutually relate to than fight over. The way their contributions are presented reflect the preferences of my respondents. Overall, this project emphasises the theme of relationality and caring for others based on the simple fact that we exist as human beings, differences in habit and perception aside. As I hope to show, the maps drawn by my respondents reflect many concerns that are not as different as we might think.

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