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Hello, everyone.

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My name is Javeria Kella.

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I'm a junior double major
in International Relations

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and Geography.

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And today I'll be presenting
"Beyond Textbook Theories:

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Peacebuilding in
Post-Conflict Liberia."

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So just pre-internship
questions for me

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going into this
internship was first

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deciding whether I wanted to do
an internship, sort of research

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think tank in the US or an
international somewhere abroad

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in an NGO setting.

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I decided NGO setting could help
[INAUDIBLE] internationally.

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McCulloch Center for
Global Initiatives

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helped me in finding
the internship.

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We had a Skype interview,
and these are [INAUDIBLE]..

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So where exactly I work, I
work at Gbowee Peace Foundation

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Africa in Monrovia, Liberia.

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This foundation was founded in
2011 by Nobel Peace Laureate

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Leyhmah Gbowee.

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So just a little bit
about the project,

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Liberia went through a
civil war 15 years ago.

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So it was women,
and Leymah Gbowee

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was sort of the
head of those women

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who brought peace
about in the country.

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They did not stop there,
and Leymah Gbowee went ahead

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and found this foundation.

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And the two things they focus
on is education and community

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development.

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So first, they provide
a lot of scholarships

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to domestic students, to high
school and university level,

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to study in Libera, but
also internationally.

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And they do a lot of
community development

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to maintain and sustain
the momentum of peace

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that these women built
in the first place.

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So what did my
average day look like?

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I woke up any time between
6:00 AM to 9:00 AM.

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I lived like five
steps next door,

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so there was no commuting.

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People would come in
and out of the house.

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It was a very casual community,
family-oriented internship

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for me.

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This was my everyday view,
the beach, the palm trees.

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So after 6:00 PM, when
everything was done,

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this was what I would
look and reflect on life.

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[LAUGHTER]

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At the [INAUDIBLE],, there were
these two things that I did--

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office work and field work.

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Office work is usual mundane
stuff, grant proposals,

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writing sort of stuff.

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But my favorite was field work.

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I was there exactly 60 days,
and around 30 to 35 days, I

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was in the field, which is what
I wanted out of the internship.

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So some of the
things that we did

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was a lot of children retreats.

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So high school students,
university students,

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we would bring them
together and have a retreat.

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Field survey was like
social work, where

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we'd go out in the field, talk
to students around scholarship.

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Are you OK with what kind of
education you are getting?

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How can the foundation
help you more?

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So just that sort of work.

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But some of my favorite
parts were this camp,

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Peace through Fair Play.

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Again, talking about
Liberian civil war,

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this camp brought children from
two different counties, who

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historically have
presumed animosity,

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and sort of started the
process of reconciliation

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from the very beginning.

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And sort of understanding
that reconciliation

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is not just, as [INAUDIBLE]
was saying, a top-down model.

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It's not what just the UN is.

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It starts from the bottom,
and this what this camp did.

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These are all the
volunteers and interns

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who helped with the camp.

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This is OAU, a monument.

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So you can see three countries
who signed it in Liberia--

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Guinea, Liberia, and Ghana.

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Another [INAUDIBLE]
in this camp was,

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every day, towards the end,
we would meet Leyhmah Gbowee,

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sort of have our
moment, where we

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would discuss things we
learned, things we didn't like,

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things we would change,
and sort of reflecting

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on an everyday basis.

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But also interacting
with a person

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who's worked so-- she
is a peace activist,

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and she's worked in
the field so often,

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so just to have that
exposure for me at this level

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was amazing.

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Another was Her Story.

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Again, so after the
civil war, these women

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were the ones who
brought peace, and this

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was a reunion of like 20.

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Obviously, the ones who worked
were hundreds and hundreds

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of them.

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But all of them came together
and talked about the sisterhood

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that they had during
the [INAUDIBLE]..

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So often in [INAUDIBLE],, we
talk about the sisterhood

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of building each other up.

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For me, to see that on a
whole, grand, larger scale

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was absolutely amazing.

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And to see the
things I aspire to,

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and the people
and the friendship

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and the family and
community I want

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in the future, sort of this
is what represented it to me.

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I've met a lot of cool people.

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I met vice president of
Liberia Joseph Boakai.

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He's also running for
president right now.

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Elections just
happened, and he will

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be in the second
election for president.

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We will see.

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I saw the chief justice.

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This is one of the personalities
I personally loved in meeting,

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was prominent human rights
lawyer, Tiawan Saye Gongloe.

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He first shared
personal anecdotes

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of [INAUDIBLE]
Charles Taylor, who

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was a warlord during the war
time, was being arrested,

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and how the whole
thing turned out to be.

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So again, I want to be
in human rights, or did,

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and interacting with someone
who's done that and been

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in the field was amazing.

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Takeaways, personal and
professional, independent

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living.

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Living in a different country,
you have no connections.

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You don't know people, culture,
language, just an idea.

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That was amazing.

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I learned cooking skills.

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This is something I
made, [INAUDIBLE],, rice

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and lentils [INAUDIBLE]
Liberian [? apples. ?]

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It is absolutely
amazing, if you ever go.

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But language, too, other
than their standard English,

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they had [INAUDIBLE],,
their regular language.

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And learning inappropriate
words and using them here

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and there, just sort of finding
community through language

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was amazing.

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For me, cultural differences,
but more than that,

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similarities.

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I'm from Pakistan, so just
seeing how Pakistan is

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and how Liberia is.

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They have a game they
call [INAUDIBLE],,

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we call [INAUDIBLE].

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And going back and forth,
bickering with other volunteers

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and interns, like,
my version is right,

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just those sort of things
was really something

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that I gained out of it.

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Professionally, NGO
setting was something

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I knew I wanted, to work
in NGO in the future.

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So that's what I got out of it.

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An open perspective,
again, going back

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to what [INAUDIBLE]
initially mentioned,

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VCU development is
a top-down model.

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But here, I saw that the
peacekeeping, peacebuilding

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is not possible without
an open perspective,

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without local women.

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UN, US can come in
for all they want.

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But it is not possible unless
you bring in these women,

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unless you bring in the local
people in the conversation

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and make that happen.

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On networking, I know I can
always go back to Liberia,

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and I will have a home, if
not a lot of homes, there.

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There are people
I still talk to.

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There are interns, and
there are professionals,

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and there are mentors
who are out there for me.

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Lastly, it just solidified
my future aspirations.

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I realized I want
to connect traveling

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in a specific region
in peace conflict

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and women in the NGO setting.

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So I know the major
components of it.

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I don't know how
it will turn out,

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but this internship
definitely helped.

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[CHEERING]

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One or two questions.

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I'm curious if you could talk
a little bit about the process

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of return, and how you integrate
a lot of what you experienced

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with being back here, and
you have a year and a half

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[INAUDIBLE].

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As a [INAUDIBLE] the
process of return

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was probably the hardest.

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This was the easy part of it,
just like meeting new people

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and doing all of that.

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It was almost
like, for me, being

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a first year all over again.

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Like, coming from Pakistan,
I was always like,

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why do people complain about
personal problems here?

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And coming here from
Liberia, I literally

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felt that all over again.

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So I think one thing
I did, obviously,

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was talk to a lot of people.

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I talked to Kirk Lange, who
helped me find the internship.

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I talked to you.

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I talked to [INAUDIBLE].

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I went to a counselor, and I
talked to every possible person

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I could.

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And I think literally every
single person who I was talking

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[INAUDIBLE] was like, take
your time in transition.

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It's almost like a
curve, where you feel

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like you don't want to be here.

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And I did for two,
three weeks, I really

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didn't want to be in this place.

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But I feel like just
taking the time and space

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and like, OK, I went
through this change,

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and constantly reflecting.

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Not [INAUDIBLE] your
experience, but also

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sort of giving yourself some
time and space to coming back

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in [INAUDIBLE].

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What were some of
the things that

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were [INAUDIBLE] in
[INAUDIBLE] camp?

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So when I was [INAUDIBLE]
about these techniques

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on reconciliation.

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How do you start that process?

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These are big words,
but seeing that in play.

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So these kids from one
county to another county,

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they were paired up
together in the same group.

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You look back, and they
were talking [INAUDIBLE]..

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Or when they had teams,
they were mixed together.

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Other times, the process
of reconciliation

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was that all these girls came
together and started like, OK,

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what do you see yourself
as, who you are?

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And then building the idea of
identity from a very young age,

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and having that as normal,
and not something like us

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versus them.

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It was all together.

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One short question.

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[INAUDIBLE]

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You mentioned during your
presentation, at that point

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you did want to become
a human rights lawyer?

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How did [INAUDIBLE] involved in
the course of your [INAUDIBLE]??

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A part of me still really wants
to be a human rights lawyer.

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But over the years, the
two years here, I've

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realized that it is a very
bureaucratic position to be in,

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and I don't want to
go into that position

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without having the local
perspective, being in the field

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for as long as I want.

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And I've talked to people
from UNICEF and stuff.

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And they're like, as [INAUDIBLE]
you're young, be in the field

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as much as possible.

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You can always get the
bureaucratic job up there

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when you're old and wise.

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[LAUGHTER]

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But right now, you need
to be in the field.

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I think I do want to be
a human rights lawyer,

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but maybe just not right now.

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[CHEERING]

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