I am writing this to reflect on my experience interning with the Fish Welfare Initiative, and to provide my thoughts on why more students looking to build EA experience should do something similar.

Back in October, I cold-emailed the Fish Welfare Initiative (FWI) with my resume and a short cover letter expressing interest in an unpaid in-person internship in the summer of 2025. I figured I had a better chance of getting an internship by building my own door than competing with hundreds of others to squeeze through an existing door, and the opportunity to travel to India carried strong appeal. Haven, the Executive Director of FWI, set up a call with me that mostly consisted of him listing all the challenges of living in rural India — 110° F temperatures, electricity outages, lack of entertainment… When I didn’t seem deterred, he offered me an internship.

I stayed with FWI for one month. By rotating through the different teams, I completed a wide range of tasks:

Made ~20 visits to fish farms
Wrote a recommendation on next steps for FWI's stunning project
Conducted data analysis in Python on the efficacy of the Alliance for Responsible [...]

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First published:
July 22nd, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/SmiXeQcnMD7qmAfgS/why-you-should-build-your-own-ea-internship-abroad

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Images from the article:

Me at an animal rehabilitation center in Andhra Pradesh, India.

Indian Major Carps suffocating to death during a fish harvest in Eluru, Andhra Pradesh, India.

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