The UNAM headquarters in Boston invited the School of Law to submit applications from outstanding undergraduate graduates to perform professional internships at the headquarters for the purpose of obtaining a degree. The objective of the call for applications is to promote the process of graduation, allowing the acquisition of professional experience at an international level, and favoring their immersion in the context of productive life.
Camila, Leticia, Minerva, and Diego are the four graduates of the School of Law who have been supporting us in the activities at the UNAM headquarters in Boston since May. Camila and Diego in person, and Leticia and Minerva remotely.
Minerva is interested in intellectual property and criminal law. She came to the call looking for new experiences in the academic field and taking advantage of the opportunities offered by our university. Minerva is in charge of gathering information, attending meetings, and preparing informative and didactic documents in her work at UNAM's headquarters in Boston. The law student tells us why she chose to graduate through this innovative modality and what this project has given her: "It was an option that interested me a lot from the beginning of my career, since it gives me the opportunity to travel to another country, learn about its culture and give something back to my university by supporting this location. It has given me the opportunity to get to know another country, interact with classmates who once had the same opportunity as me and now live in Boston, and this, in turn, inspires me to continue with my activities so that one day I can visit that location. They have also supported me in my English language, giving me the opportunity to take the classes offered by the school.
Diego, who is interested in financial law, banking law, international law, and aviation law, came to UNAM's Boston campus motivated by the immersion experience in a culture different from his own, and attracted by the interesting way to complete his degree. In addition to supporting the campus in its great Puma Summer program, Diego collaborates with the Mexican Consulate in Boston as part of his degree project. The student shares with us the contributions that this program has given him: "It has given me a unique experience in my life that I will keep with great affection, it has given me knowledge, the motivation to carry out different projects, it gave me the possibility to have a different vision of university life".
Leticia, who has excelled in public international law, aviation law, maritime law and immigration law, participates remotely from Mexico City as an intern at the firm's headquarters. Leticia's international curriculum is beginning to be extensive. She participated in a semester academic exchange to Tokyo in 2019, performed her social service at this same location in 2021, and now continues her collaboration by doing her professional internship. The law student tells us that what motivated her to sign up for the call was the opportunity to be able to contribute something to her university from abroad and at the same time help her get her degree. In conjunction with the UNAM Boston office, Leticia's project consists of working with the immigration law firm, Moreno Law, a program that has opened several opportunities for her, among them, to meet attorney Moreno.
Camila, who has focused on international law and human rights issues since the beginning of her career, aims to focus on global governance issues. This is the second opportunity UNAM has given her to study and prepare abroad, having won the mobility scholarship in 2019 to do a semester at the Institute of Political Science in Paris.
The future lawyer tells us a little about her experience: "I would like to continue with graduate studies and, sooner rather than later, start working with different international organizations focused on the protection of human rights and humanitarian action. For this, my education as a global citizen is very important. This means exploring the world and assimilating its diversity of people, culture, languages, ideas and proposals, in order to enrich my global vision. The opportunity that UNAM Boston offers me means continuing my internationalization curriculum, an indispensable experience to achieve my academic and professional goals. Living in a city as diverse as Boston, the academic and university capital of the world, has undoubtedly opened my horizons. My participation with the UNAM Boston team has allowed me to develop skills in administrative, communication, outreach and coordination tasks, under the guidance of Mr. Zavala. In addition, my collaborations with professors at Boston University and MIT fill me with passion and without a doubt with experience and learning."
The Coordinator of Relations and Management of the headquarters, Mr. Hector Zavala, explains how this program promotes the internationalization of our graduates, opening options for the next step such as academic continuity with a postgraduate study, or simply opening panoramas and experience to other directions of focus for the professional career of the graduate student by giving them the possibility of immersion in the labor market in the USA, at the headquarters and with its allied institutions. Among the objectives of the program is to contribute to the rate of graduates who graduate from UNAM with a more empirical degree option and not necessarily with a thesis, which may not be for everyone. Zavala reminds us that in Boston we have our academic home thanks to UNAM's headquarters and invites those interested to stay tuned for announcements.