If learning about the law in Australia leaves you hungry for the opportunity to learn about other legal systems, or if you’re simply looking for some legal experience – why not consider an International Legal Internship as part of your degree. UTS:Law offers students the opportunity to take part in ‘real world’ legal project placements in Asia, South Africa, and the USA for academic credit.
UTS: Law alumna (2015 graduate) Kate Stanley took full advantage of the many opportunities offered by UTS, when she interned in Bangalore, India with 40K Globe, as part of the undergraduate law subject Applied Human Rights Fieldwork. The program really appealed to Kate due to her keen interest in human rights law, and enabled her to gain the academic credit she required to complete her degree.
40K Globe is a social entrepreneurship program, where participants aim to develop a business that tackles an ingrained social issue such as unemployment, poor water quality or restricted access to electricity. Profits from the business are then reinvested into the education of children in rural India. The program is run in partnership with UTS and BUiLD and allows business and law students the opportunity to undertake the program for academic credit.
Kate says she learned a lot of real life lessons about the implementation of human rights and how business can offer a sustainable alternative to charity intervention. Her time living and working in India also taught Kate about cultural relativity. For her, the most rewarding personal element of the internship was the confidence it instilled in her. Kate’s group inherited the 40K Tote business from earlier teams and worked towards making it autonomous. This required perfecting the bag’s design, working with two amazing tailors, Netravathi and Lakshmi, and negotiating with suppliers to secure the product supply chain and ensure production costs were kept low.
“India isn’t an easy place to do business, especially when you’re working in a group of young, Western women,” she says, “Despite that, my team worked incredibly hard, stayed focused and positive and we smashed our targets. It definitely instilled faith in myself that if I can set up a successful business in India I can do anything!”
Kate says she would recommend the experience of an international internship to everyone and describes the internship as unforgettable and valuable.
Kate is currently completing her third month in India with 40K. After returning as a Team Leader in July, she is now working as a Group Leader project managing and motivating six teams in the development of their projects. When she returns to Australia she will move to Canberra to start work as a graduate with the Department of Social Services. She believes that the skills of tolerance, teamwork and resilience she developed and displayed through her internship were instrumental in securing her new role and sparking her interest in social policy and development.
Find your passion, for more information about international internships in our undergraduate or post-graduate law degrees, click here.
Story by: Rebecca Brediceanu
Photo: Kate Stanley
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