This year I visited Canada on the Mitacs program as a student intern. Every year, thanks to funding from Mitacs, students from different countries have the opportunity to go to Canada and work on various academic projects under the guidance of professors. For three months, I became a student at the University of Alberta, located in Edmonton, Alberta. The topic of my project was “Identifying psychiatric disorders and predicting treatment outcomes using machine learning and multimodal data”.
In general, an internship looks like a job, but on a non-commercial project. Everyone chooses their own schedule, has a workplace in the lab or campus office (depends on your project), attends meetings with the team and the professor to discuss various issues related to the projects, on weekends my colleagues and I would go to lunch or picnic together, meet to play in board games in the cafe.
Canada left incredible impressions and warm memories! Every week, the international office organized different events and activities: from gallery visits to camping and hiking. Canada is an international country, represented by more than 50 nations, despite a population of 38 million people. Thanks to this, my circle of communication expanded significantly and I met people from other countries such as England, Scotland, China, Bahrain, Germany, India, Japan, South Korea, Serbia, etc. Incredible landscapes, rich flora and fauna, active recreation, incredibly friendly and pleasant people – this is also about Canada.
Internship under the Mitacs program gave me the opportunity to improve my skills and gain new knowledge related to my professional field. In general, travel, new acquaintances and research of other cultures significantly broadens one’s horizons and has a positive effect on the perception of the world.
I would like to advise you not to doubt yourself and try to apply for one of the programs offered by our International Mobility Office! Spend your student years interestingly and with benefit
