Author: Sara Fatimah

I interned with ARCH International during the summer of 2018 – remotely, from my location in Eugene, Oregon to their headquarters in Arlington, VA. As a Geography and Environmental Studies student, I was interested in learning how sustainable tourism in Afghanistan might one day serve as an alternative method of generating income in Afghanistan’s agriculture-dominant economy. After two weeks of interning with ARCH, I found my interest in many of ARCH’s other projects as well. With limited time, it was unrealistic to participate in every project. However, ARCH’s staff was flexible enough to allow me to pick more than one.

So while I researched tourism, the Bamiyan Buddhas, and art exhibitions on Afghanistan, I also spent some time working on the Pavlopetri project in Greece, where I virtually advertised the annual Pavlopetri Watch Day and afterwards wrote a newsletter highlighting its main events. I was also given the opportunity to co-manage ARCH’s social media, where I posted relevant stories, articles, pictures etc. This taught me a lot about the world of communications and how to virtually keep an audience engaged.

Some of the projects I worked on, I had no experience with before. Therefore, as a student close to graduation, I gained a lot of mentorship and guidance through my supervisor, Sophia Schultz. Working remotely, I made a lot of mistakes and had some challenges with communication, however, Sophia was extremely patient with me and guided me through all my mistakes as I learned new ways of doing work.

With every article I posted on ARCH’s social media, I learned something new about ancient hidden gems we have in this world, some of which lie in areas that are ongoing active conflicts. For me, the most rewarding part of this internship was learning about the threatened cultural heritage sites and the amount of work organizations such as ARCH are putting in every day for their protection.