On 24 January 2024, Asia Centre manned a booth at the University of Reading Malaysia (UoRM) Career Fair 2024. The fair, which featured more than 40 companies and organisations across Malaysia, consisted of booths and career talks by experts to help students make informed decisions for their future career paths.
Asia Centre was invited by UoRM Head of School of Law, Associate Professor Anne Vergis to the Career Fair to introduce the Centre’s human rights work, including legal research and advocacy for law reforms.
About 20 students dropped by the booth during the course of the day. At the booth, students took in information through the videos and posters at the booth to gain insights about the internship programme. Asia Centre’s Regional Director, Dr James Gomez, and Programme Coordinator, Lina Sakina Salim, were also at hand to explain how an internship at the Centre can benefit law students interested in the practical aspects of International and Public Law.
UoRM Provost and Chief Executive Officer Professor Wing Lam also visited the booth to chat and learn about the Centre’s work in Malaysia and the region.
In addition to manning the booth, both Dr Gomez and Lina Salim also delivered a career talk on the topic “Working for the Non-Profit Sector – The Culture of Giving”. The talk emphasised that human rights work, just like pro bono law, is not motivated by monetisation and personal gain, rather it’s driven altruistic giving, creating social impact and serving others.
The career talk piqued the interest of several law students, who then came up to discuss their interest in applying for the internship programme and visiting Asia Centre office, at the ION Complex in Medini, Iskandar Puteri.
Asia Centre is scheduled to open its Media Hub in Iskandar Puteri, Johor, in April 2024. The Media Hub will focus on transforming its human right research into bite size digital content for public advocacy. This includes creating designs, infographics, podcasts and videos and organising media-related activities with partners in Educity and beyond. A key attraction will be the Centre’s close proximity to Reading University.
The Centre offers three internship streams: 1. Research, 2. Communications, and 3. Programmes at any of its offices across three locations: Bangkok, Johor Bahru and Phnom Penh. To learn more about the internship programme, please visit the page here.
Professor Andrew Harding, a Professor of Law with UoRM, and Member of the Asia Centre Advisory Board has endorsed the internship programme through a widely viewed video message.
Asia Centre had previously partnered with UoRM School of Law to deliver media literacy training through its ASEAN Digital Literacy Programme (ADLP) Malaysia in 2022. It delivered on-site training to 25 UoRM academic and non-academic staff.
Asia Centre is a civil society research institute in Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. It serves as a knowledge partner and undertakes evidence-based research as well as provides capacity-building training for end beneficiaries. If you would like to collaborate with the Centre, please send an expression of interest to contact@asiacentre.org.
Follow Asia Centre’s social media channels for more information.
