Why NAOC?
When I began my internship at the NATO Association of Canada (NAOC) as a Grade 10 student, a position typically filled by university students and graduates, what immediately drew me in was its mission: to educate Canadians about NATO’s role in “promoting peace, prosperity, and security through knowledge and understanding of the importance of NATO.” That mission spoke to me on multiple levels. I have always been curious about how the world functions, not just at the surface level of headlines and sound bites, but in the deeper structures, decisions, and relationships that shape international affairs.
Joining the NATO Association of Canada offered a rare opportunity to connect that curiosity with meaningful work and, in a sense, to be the change you wish to see in the world. That phrase has always resonated with me because it’s a reminder that making a difference begins with deliberate, individual action, no matter how small.
For me, contributing to the NAOC’s work was one of those actions. It meant helping bridge the gap between the often labyrinthine realities of global security, defence cooperation, and international diplomacy, and the people most affected by them: ordinary citizens. Working at the NAOC felt like a way to make those subjects clear, approachable, and engaging for a broad audience, especially students encountering them for the first time. “Security” is the reason a hospital can treat patients even if a server is attacked, transit runs on Monday morning, shelves stay stocked when supply chains wobble, and the heat clicks on in January.
Closing a Curriculum Gap: The Security in Community Course
One of the most meaningful projects I’ve been involved in at NAOC so far is the development of the Security in Community (SIC) Civics Course, designed for Year 10 students with the long-term goal of integrating it into the Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) curriculum. As someone who recently completed Grade 10 and the OSSD civics course myself, I’ve seen firsthand the limitations of the current curriculum.
Right now, Civics teaches how government works more than how the world works around it. We memorize levels of government and rights, but we rarely touch upon the mechanics of deterrence, alliances, and the threat of disinformation. We also rarely address how melting sea ice, new shipping routes, and northern infrastructure gaps turn Arctic security into a day-to-day Canadian issue, from surveillance and search-and-rescue to continental defence.
That gap is where Security in Community (SIC) sits. It engages subject-matter experts who explain the tools countries use to keep Canadians and people around the world safe, and why the international community matters. In a world where instability feels increasingly close to home — tariff threats that raise prices for Canadian families, debates over foreign interference (including from the PRC) in Canadian politics, and renewed Russian activity in the Arctic — equipping students with the knowledge and tools to engage critically with these challenges is more important than ever. The course also helps students make better sense of the news they encounter every day, particularly as global conflicts multiply and headlines grow more complex. By making global security issues both accessible and relevant, the course empowers students to become more informed, thoughtful, and globally minded citizens.
Having recently been the course’s target audience, I pushed for choices that meet students where they are: plain language over jargon; short, high-signal readings; and activities that feel like real decisions, not worksheets. We trimmed anything that did not survive the “Would I use this?” test. The course is also delivered mainly through a video/documentary style, which I believe is particularly effective at the Grade 10 level. Teenagers are already accustomed to processing ideas through visual media, and video gives us room to pair explanations with images, examples, and tone of voice in ways a handout cannot.
For me, that work is exactly NAOC’s mission in practice: taking complex security issues and Canada’s place within NATO, and making them clear, testable, and worth a teenager’s attention.
Engagement and Work Culture
In addition to my work on the SIC course, I also joined the Engagement Team, where I helped support outreach, organizational, and promotional efforts. The experience gave me a clearer sense of how mission-driven organizations actively build relationships with the public and key stakeholders in a collaborative, fast-paced setting.
What stood out most to me, however, were the people. Despite being a high school student entering a space filled with mostly university students and graduates, I never felt out of place or that I did not belong. I was never made to feel that my contributions were any less valuable. NAOC fosters a culture of trust, intellectual curiosity, and mutual respect. Everyone shares a genuine interest in global affairs and a willingness to learn from one another.
The open exchange of ideas and the emphasis on initiative made the experience feel less like a typical internship and more like a dynamic, idea-driven environment. There was never a moment when I felt hesitant to ask a question. Everyone operated out of passion, and that authenticity shaped the culture in the best way. Much of the work was self-paced, with a great deal of freedom in how we approached problems. That flexibility encouraged creativity and allowed each individual’s strengths to shine through. Being part of that environment not only strengthened my confidence but also gave me a model for what effective, inclusive teamwork can look like.
What the Day-to-Day Taught Me
Working at NAOC day-to-day taught me that maximizing impact requires constant, considerate, and holistic evaluation. Every project involved trade-offs, and in meetings, we’d often ask not “What’s everything we could say?” but “What will a teacher, student, or partner actually use?”
Word choices mattered. A debate over whether to frame a section as “cyber warfare” or “cyber resilience” was not inconsequential; it changed who would lean in, which examples made sense, and how schools and parents would receive the content. That process — draft, test, cut, and reframe — showed me how education policy is built: iteratively, with stakeholders in mind, and with a constant eye on the last mile of understanding.
Conclusion/Advice for Future Interns
In an era of mounting geopolitical tensions, we start from a simple premise as a NATO-affiliated NGO: the Alliance is a force for collective defence. The challenge is not proving that in the abstract; it’s the visibility gap. When security works, nothing happens, so most people do not see the machinery that keeps daily life predictable. That is where NAOC matters, as a translator making NATO’s role in the world legible — how deterrence, interoperability, and resilience show up in Canadian life, and turning strategy into plain language, and a concrete, tangible understanding. Working where international engagement meets public education convinced me that comprehension precedes participation; only when people understand how security works can they meaningfully support, question, and improve it.
If I had one piece of advice for future NAOC interns, it would be this: treat ambiguity as your brief. Do not wait for perfectly defined tasks; define them. Show up to meetings having read the material, bring a draft (even if rough), ask one specific question, and volunteer to own a small deliverable end-to-end. Write for an audience, not for yourself: choose clarity over jargon, and test whether a teacher, student, or partner would actually use what you have made. Keep a running log of decisions and trade-offs; it will save you time and make your work easier to hand off. Finally, be generous with curiosity; listen first, then add value.I began at the NAOC believing awareness and understanding were the first steps toward meaningful participation. I now see that they are also the last mile: where strategy becomes something people can use. If the SIC course and the work we have done help even a few students see international security as a set of choices they can engage with rather than a distant conversation happening elsewhere, then this internship will have been more than a line on a resume. It will have done what good public service should do: make the important understandable, and the understandable actionable.
Photo by Alex Lian, brown and white concrete building with flags on top during daytime, accessed via Unsplash.
The NATO Association of Canada is not currently accepting general applications for internships from high school students, but those interested in the SIC demo project can email naocsic@gmail.com.
Disclaimer: Any views or opinions expressed in articles are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the NATO Association of Canada.
