Voyager Scholar Sydney Wilhelmy
is a senior in the Frederick Honors College and the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences majoring in Political Science.
The Voyager Scholarship provides a generous $10,000 stipend for a Summer Voyage experience where winners design a domestic or international summer experience to learn more about their areas of interest. This is distributed as a lump-sum, which allowed me greater flexibility in how I spent it, either to access it in emergencies or in the case of unplanned opportunities arising over the Voyage.
After learning that I had won, the rest of the academic year was spent on preparing for my voyage. I had the opportunity to work on a plan with my program advisor and attend workshops developing a vision, assess my strengths and capabilities, and then review my options. Between the self-designed and internships tracks, I chose to pursue the internship track. After identifying a focus on human rights work, and a location of one of the international hubs in the European NGO community, I began applying for internships in the winter prior to the Summer Voyage. I applied to both large organizations as well as smaller, lesser-known ones. I ultimately applied to and accepted a position at a smaller organization, which was the best fit for me: in a smaller organization, there is often more room for forging personal connections and networks, it may have a more intimate and collaborative culture, and there is more room for innovation and exploration of new aspects of your discipline. While I was rejected or did not hear back from several other organizations, it all worked out for the best for me when I secured my place at the International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) Secretariat, hosted by PIRON Global Development in Bonn, Germany. While the position was unpaid, the Voyager stipend allowed me to take it without too much financial burden, and I was then able to begin the process of searching for housing options through Airbnb.
Formative, challenging, and unforgettable best describe the experience I had during my Summer Voyage as part of the inaugural 2022-2023 cohort of the Obama-Chesky Scholarship for Public Service.
I was welcomed with open arms to the ISHR Secretariat upon my arrival in Germany. While there, I had the privilege to work among a global and inspiring team to support human rights defenders around the world. I helped update the Secretariat’s global network, assisted in running virtual Twitter speaker events, contributed to articles, authored a policy brief, and helped prepare the newsletter. I was also given the unique chance to assist with work in PIRON's other portfolios. I had the opportunity to learn about and participate in projects on faith-based climate sustainability and NGO restructuring and organizational strategies, among others, that were outside of my direct day-to-day work. I travelled to Thessaloniki, Greece to visit a PIRON partner there, a whirlwind 36 hours which included deeply memorable and enlightening visits to their refugee care center, a food delivery visit to a camp north of the city, and a quick pop up to the Greek-North Macedonian border. The lessons I have taken from this internship will without a doubt last a lifetime.
In my spare time, I was able to use the remaining funds from my stipend to visit several countries across the EU and deepen my knowledge of the region. I visited the old town of Kaunas in Lithuania, toured an ex-NATO underground tunnel network in Malta learning about their resistance efforts during WWII, prayed in the Vatican, crisscrossed the Oresund bridge between Denmark and Sweden, and explored the EU institutions of Luxembourg and Brussels.
My summer voyage was an experience I will never forget. To all who have supported, encouraged, challenged, and even critiqued me along this academic, professional, and personal journey—you are the reason I am where I am today, and I want to genuinely thank you.