For my Cooperative Education work placement, I worked as a Clerical Officer in the Department of Foreign Affairs, more specifically Irish Aid’s Humanitarian Unit. It was planned that I would work with the Unit’s NGO Team, as interns from UL had done in years prior. However, COVID-19 was still around in early 2022 and I was working remotely for some of my placement, so it was decided that I would work across the entire Unit, to guarantee that I would get the most out of my placement. Thanks to this, I enjoyed much more variety in my work. As my colleagues were not sure of my skills starting out, I was mainly tasked with writing informative briefs on the humanitarian needs of various countries around the world, as well as attending meetings with partners and taking minutes. However, as humanitarianism is affected by constantly-evolving global politics, my work was often impacted as a result. The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022 had a huge impact, and my colleagues became incredibly busy in response to it. Shifting staff responsibilities led to me taking a more active role in the preparation of grants going to humanitarian organisations such as Trócaire and GOAL working in the Horn of Africa, which was undergoing a severe drought at the time. Thanks to my experience on work placement with Irish Aid, I realised exactly what I wanted to use my politics degree for – pursuing a career in the areas of humanitarianism and/or human rights.