Internship Spotlight: Summer Internships in International Affairs

Interested in pursuing an internship in international affairs? Learn about the experiences of your classmates, all of whom interned at various international affairs organizations with the assistance of the Eagle Intern Fellowship.

Rebecca Speer, MCAS ‘23
Major: International Studies
Internship Organization: U.S. State Department

During my time as the Western Hemisphere Affairs/PDA intern at the Department of State, I had the opportunity to work on a multitude of projects, from press guidances on issues relating to the Western Hemisphere to writing tweets for the Department of State account on the COVID-19 vaccines being donated around the world. 

However, my favorite project will be used after my internship ends this summer for future digital media managers in D.C., and hopefully, be added to by other interns in the future. I had the opportunity to use the platform Rise to create a series of digital training courses on various topics, researching best practices for future digital managers at Embassies around the world to use with their social media and marketing strategies. For example, I created a Photo Boot Camp project that detailed the best photo-taking techniques of events at the State Department and the embassy visits by principal members of the state department. I also created a course with quizzes to be widely distributed for Instagram and social media best practices, full of articles and video training that showcased some of the social media innovations created by other embassies. 

The experience was rewarding because it both taught me a new technological platform to add to my repertoire, but also allowed me to be creative and innovative with how best to engage future participants in learning a new skill in an understandable format. From this experience, I will now have new technological skills to continue to carry with me on my career path.

Lucas Peuch, MCAS ‘23
Major: Political Science
Internship Organization: Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU)

As an Africa and Europe Program Officer intern, I would begin by creating a ‘Daily Briefing’, a list of articles on current affairs in Africa and Europe, each with a summary. Every day of the week corresponded with the current events of a different sector, including agriculture, environment, financial sector, ICT, infrastructure, and education. Since BCIU is a company with both vertical (sector-specific) and horizontal (region-specific) departments, the variety of sectors in daily briefings helped to give an idea of which sectors were worth creating a program for at that specific point in time. 

The next few hours of the morning would consist of relatively simple tasks which always need to be done. Usually, this meant creating the invitation for different programs. For example, if BCIU was doing a program with Ambassador Geeta Pasi, the U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia, I would provide her bio, the program agenda, the date and time of the program, link similar upcoming ones, and send this to our member companies. When companies responded with interest, we would propose hosting opportunities, and I would create participant lists to then send to the ambassador to inform her of the companies she will be interacting with.

After lunchtime was the research part of the day. Depending on member and non-member company interests, I would do research on which country, intergovernmental organization, or NGO leaders would be best to have on a program. Working the other way, as middlemen do, I would do market research to find which companies would be interested in certain programs, as a program’s existence lies in sufficient company participation. Although every day was different, it was normally with the completion of this research that I would sign off.

Pearson Love, MCAS ‘22
Majors: International Studies, Islamic Civilizations
Internship Organization: The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START)

This summer I had the opportunity to work at the The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), a Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence at the University of Maryland. At START, I worked on the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) and was responsible for reading through selected articles and then putting the details about terrorist incidents into the database. What I most looked forward to, though, was the opportunity to do my own project using the database. 

Even before the internship began, I started brainstorming what I wanted to research. I could have chosen any topic related to terrorism that could have been researched within the bounds of the GTD and it was honestly overwhelming to try to narrow down what I wanted to look into. As the U.S. began to pull out of Afghanistan, I became increasingly interested in understanding how foreign intervention impacts terrorism, and focused my project on the fight against ISIS in Syria and Iraq. 

It was an incredibly rewarding experience to be able to use the database that I had worked so hard on throughout the summer to produce my own research. I started with a question that I wanted to answer, and was able to use the database to answer it myself, which was a great experience and taught me invaluable research skills that I will take with me to future internships and classes and opportunities. I also really appreciated the opportunity to present it to my supervisors and other people in the organization, and enjoyed working on my presentation and oral communication skills.

Want to learn how to secure an internship in international affairs? Check out the resources on the Government, Law, and Public policy page and schedule an appointment with a career coach!