Rowan offers many different trips for students, often for free or discounted rates. On April 6, 2018 I partook in a trip to the United Nations up in New York City. Many of the students did it for their participation points for honors programs. However, I went with one mission, stake out my future dream employer. (Maybe make a few connections along the way)
We left early in the morning and made it there by 11-11:30 which then led to us being cut loose in the city for lunch. A couple other girls and I went to scout out this pizza place that had been mentioned on the itinerary we had all received, Patsy’s Pizza. It is right on 2nd ave and was a mere block away from the UN building. I had never had brick oven fired pizza before. Nor was I disappointed. This pizza had some of the freshest mozzarella I had ever tasted and the restaurant itself was a nice little italian restaurant fitted with fine chairs and tableware. After having some of the best pizza of my life, we had to scurry back to meet the rest of our group for the tour.
Once through security, we had a few minutes to kill, so our group ventured down to the souvenir shop. I myself bought a nice hoodie and a battery pack (as we later realized phone batteries die quickly when lots of photos are taken). When the tour began we got taken through all the major rooms and chambers of the building, nothing of high security clearance obviously. However, we got to see the normal general assembly chamber and the treasury chamber. We had a very nice German tour guide, who served quite knowledgeable about the United Nations and the inner workings. She was pleased to answer any and all questions we may have had. She was the first to begin popping my dream bubble though.
One of our group asked about employment prospects for the UN and the guide said that the UN hires interns first, non paid of course. Then they determine from those who they wish to hire. This led many of us to believe that being hired from outside the organization may be hard. At the conclusion of our tour, we were to attend a briefing on the economic developments of the world. Riad Meddeb from the United Nations Development Plan graced us with his presence and was quite the entertaining speaker. He talked to us about the recent developments in geothermal technology especially in third world countries. Then he opened the floor to questions and this confirmed our doubts from early where he said that yes, most of the hiring is done from the inside and that languages are critical in today’s world. The more you know the better you are.
We thanked him for his information and time and headed off to dinner at Macfadden’s where some of us managed to enjoy excellent bar food and beverage. At 8 pm, we departed back home. Despite my disappointment, I found the tour and trip to be an overall success and quite a bit of fun actually, especially during our free time. I look forward to the next Rowan trip adventure.