Nastya Andreeva, second-year MA student of Political Science, shared with us her experience of the internship at the V-Dem Research Institute at the University of Gothenburg.
Nastya's academic interests include political communication, experimental research design, voting behavior, and policy preference. As an intern, she's been responsible for producing graphs about recent political events or trends made with V-Dem data, coding factual variables for the general dataset, and interviewing pro-democracy activists from around the world for the collaborative project with World Culture Museum in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Intermediate Social Quantitative Research, Voting Behavior, and Introduction to Political Communication courses prepared Nastya well for her tasks at the V-Dem Research Institute.
To students who are concerned about how to balance studies and an internship, Nastya has a piece of advice: "Do not be hesitant to reach out when you feel overwhelmed! When you feel like there is too much on your plate - contact your internship supervisor and ask for a little break. They will definitely be supportive. However, to avoid this in the first place, try to plan your main tasks in advance. For instance, if you know that you have two major deadlines for papers for your internship, maybe a good idea would be not to volunteer to make a big presentation at one of the classes at CEU the same week."