NEWS

Originally from Algeria and a Fulbright scholar at Lehigh, Radja Benmansour’s involvement in the university’s UN partnership shaped her path toward fulfilling a childhood dream of interning at the UN. As an intern in the Department of Public Information and NGO Relations, her responsibilities opened doors to new perspectives, helping her break barriers and grow professionally while representing her Algerian heritage on an international stage.

What was your involvement/role in the Lehigh/United Nations partnership or with the UN, and what did some of your responsibilities include?

When I went to Lehigh as a graduate student, I had a Fulbright scholarship from the U.S. Department of State. I'm from Algeria. Everything seemed far - the U.S., the UN, that whole world seemed far to reach. I remember my first meeting with Bill the morning after I arrived at Lehigh, and he started talking to me about the UN partnership that Lehigh has. I was very excited. That was big news to me because ever since I was seven years old, I used to tell my mom that one day I'd work at the UN. She said, well, you need to work really hard. You need to study really hard. But it all seemed, again, very far, like a place that I’d probably never reach. Bill said to me, Radja, you speak three official UN languages, and I think you have all the chances. I started going to the UN with Bill through that Partnership. I went a couple of times to attend meetings, and it seemed to me that was the next step I would take. It would be an amazing opportunity for me to finally make that dream come true, and Lehigh made it possible. I really am very grateful that I was part of and benefited from the partnership that Lehigh had with the UN. Thanks to Bill, and I believe also the work that I put in, I ended up having an internship with the UN at the end of my two years at Lehigh. It was all like a dream, but it was also a lot of work, and I'm very grateful. I felt very grateful and happy to be there.

When I was at Lehigh, I completed a master's degree in International and Comparative Education. Throughout my education at Lehigh, while taking all those courses in globalization and post-colonialism, it helped me understand a little more of the world that we live in that is actually quite intricate when it comes to politics and the importance of having your people be represented in a platform and an organization as big as the United Nations. It is important to be there, to show up, to say, Yes, I'm from Algeria, and probably break some stereotypes. Today, it's very difficult to have a conversation about human rights and what it means to have a place to belong. I think that's where the UN comes in. I know it's very controversial because a lot of people do think the UN needs to provide some sort of miracle, but it's not the end goal, the miracle. It's bringing people together under the same roof, which I thought was something that enlightened me when I was at the UN.

How did your involvement in the partnership and at the UN impact your worldview? 

Life has taken me to very unexpected places, and everywhere I go, I mention that I interned at the UN. First of all, you get that surprised reaction - oh my god, really? It is really thanks to being at Lehigh. Today, I work at the Pan African University in the Institute of Water and Energy Sciences and Climate Change. It happens to be in my hometown. It is thanks to that exposure to different cultures, to learning how to speak to different people, to learning how to always be respectful of each other's differences that I know we can break barriers and have some sort of positive change within the African continent. Through my UN experience, when I have students from different places throughout Africa, I can easily communicate with all of them. It is through being in international places as diverse as the UN and also being at Lehigh that helped me see people for who they are, and not just the country they belong to. We can all come together, we all have a place, and we all have a voice. Those voices need to be used in such a way to make our lives better, which is quite hard to achieve sometimes, but it is something that truly did help me broaden my perspective of the world that's around me.

How did your involvement in the Lehigh/United Nations partnership alter/shape your career path?

When I came back to Algeria after my internship was over and I finished my degree, it took me one month to land my first job. I thought this was quite spectacular, given the job market in Algeria, where it is sometimes quite hard to find a good job. I remember during my interview, I was freshly out of the UN. It was very surprising to the people that interviewed me. We were here in Tlemcen, a very small town in the northwestern part of Algeria, and you have this girl who's from Tlemcen, born and raised, and I got to tell them, well, I just came back from a two-year masters program at Lehigh University in the US and a six-month internship at the UN, and I'm willing to bring everything that I have learned and acquired during that time. It was always in those interviews or conversations, that helped me tremendously to show people that actually, dreams take you places. 

It helped me acquire such an ability to get out of my comfort zone and be able to speak to different people and not have that imposter syndrome that I had before going to Lehigh. It helped me see that I, too, can have my place wherever I go, regardless of the challenges or if I know everything or not. My international experience and six months at the UN allowed me to have people trust my capabilities and my professionalism. The general reaction is  - if you could have a six-month internship at the UN, that means that you would be fit to learn and to be professional in our institution.

If you could give one piece of advice to current Lehigh students looking to engage with the Lehigh/United Nations partnership, what would it be?

What I would say to any student is they have it in them if they want to do it. It's one of the things that could help them learn a lot about the world that we live in. They will develop themselves. They will develop their personalities, in and outside of the professional world. It's an opportunity to learn things, to be uncomfortable, to be in places where not everything is tailored to your needs or your beliefs, but still, you will have a seat. You will listen, and people will listen to you. It might seem intimidating, but it’s not. It's something that everyone has in them, and it's an experience that I would do again and again.