Wadie Algaheim (top middle) celebrates with the Global Office staff on his final day as a URI intern.
During my summer internship with URI, I was fortunate enough to have experienced tolerance, love, and compassion. URI literally embraces these values, and act upon them. I was introduced to URI through Meritus, an organization that helps San Francisco high school students to attend colleges.
I have always considered getting involved in interfaith work, and the moment Meritus introduced me to URI's summer internship, I knew that I had to apply.
Reflecting back to my first day at URI, it was one of the most memorable days because of the warmth welcome I got from almost all the staff; in particular, Isabelle and Gaea; as they invited me for lunch, and gave me a whole week just to observe and orient myself to my new work environment. After being introduced to everyone, I was handed a project to work on, in which I was asked to input old blog entries and their associated elements into the Drupal platform employed by the new site. During the first couple weeks, I was delighted by the work that was placed on me because I got to experience what and how each Cooperation Circle enhanced the values of URI. With the help of Isabelle and Gaea, and their openness to listen to my ideas, I felt comfortable and had the sense that I was part of a team.
One occasion that stood out to me particularly was my participation in the North America Interfaith Network Connect Conference in San Diego, as part of a URI delegation. This experience brought me into contact with a wide range of different faith traditions and cultures on all levels from grassroots to academic. I was so amazed to see how all the presenters spoke the language of peace as a fundamental asset to community building, the individual’s personal growth, and ensuring productive, meaningful lives and sustainable communities.
As a person of faith, I saw this gathering as an enriching experience to establish peace within my life, even in the most challenging of circumstances.
As I grew up Muslim, Peace-Building is profoundly important to me because it guides us to not only tolerate our differences but, more importantly, embrace them and allows us to support one another to the fullest extent possible.
URI’s commitment to creating a peaceful environment for everyone on this tiny planet made me appreciate the beauty of life and extol diversity more than ever. I have been so moved by the work that URI is doing and I am very grateful to have the chance to work with such talented, wonderful, and adorable professionals, whom I considered now a family. Thank you URI for this opportunity and allowing me to discover my potentials, as I am diving into discovering my desire to learn and grow over the years to come!
Wadie Algaheim worked as a Communications intern in URI's Global Staff Office in San Francisco, CA, USA for the summer of 2017.
