Born and raised in the United Kingdom and Dubai, with parents of Samoan / New Zealand heritage, Pacific Cooperation Foundation (PCF) intern Caleb Perelini often feels conflicted when asked where he is from.
“It’s a difficult question to answer – while I haven’t lived in New Zealand, I’ve visited family here often – both my parents were brought up here,” Caleb explains in a thick English accent.
The 19-year-old also feels a strong connection to Samoa and wants to explore his Samoan culture more too.
Caleb, a University of York History student is in NZ during his summer break and has joined the PCF family to complete a six-week internship.
Part of his reason of coming to NZ is to explore his cultural identity as well as firming up his future career aspirations.
“I eventually want to go into law – I’ve already done a few internships at law firms in Dubai, but by doing an internship at PCF, I hope to experience something more relevant to my ethnic background,” Caleb says.
“PCF’s programmes are meaningful and have relevance for the people of the region.”
Another bonus of interning at PCF is Caleb will not be “pushing paper” but actually have a hands-on role to play in projects.
“I’m looking forward to gaining experience in a new professional field; I will see how to treat and deal with problems as they arise, and hopefully the project will be meaningful and have an impact on the community,” he says.
Having attended an international school in Dubai (Repton School), Caleb has already realised the importance and value of networking, so establishing connections and tracking people’s progress is a key goal of Caleb’s while at PCF.
“You cannot beat hands-on experience, working with people … what you learn at university is just numbers and theory until you’re actually working on the ground.”
Caleb started at PCF on July 4 and will be with the team until mid-August.