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[Summer Programs]
SAIS Reports
September - October 2007
Summer Internships Strengthen Skills, Open Doors
With support from the Office of Career Services, SAIS students pursued internships around the globe this summer, applying classroom knowledge and sharpening their practical skills.

“This summer has been especially fruitful, and I couldn’t be more pleased,” said Susan Smith, a second-year student pursuing a general concentration in International Relations. “I came to the Republic of Georgia for a State Department internship, but by the end of the summer, I had also worked for the Millennium Challenge Corporation and secured two short-term contract jobs—one for the U.N. Development Programme and one for an NGO called the International Foundation for Election Systems.”

SAIS Career Services, as well as faculty, “work constantly to identify student internship prospects” for students like Smith, according to Ron Lambert, director of Career Services. The office maintains internships across a range of fields and aggressively pursues opportunities for students with employers in all sectors. “Alumni also play an integral part in the process,” said Lambert, “either by providing actual internship positions for students or by making their professional community aware of the possibility of having a SAIS intern for the summer.”

Lillian Norton, a second-year student in the China Studies Program, found her internship through a SAIS alumnus. She worked this summer with Young and Rubicam in the advertising agency’s Beijing office. “I learned so much about the advertising and marketing industry as well as the Chinese market, which I can apply to future employment,” said Norton. “I feel I am going into my second year at SAIS with more focus and a much clearer picture of what I would like to do after graduation.”

Because some internships are unpaid, SAIS’s Summer Internship Fund gives partial support to students on all campuses in any concentration. The fund, which includes several awards endowed by SAIS alumni, parents and friends, provided a total of $94,900 to 78 students this year. The International Development, Strategic Studies and Middle East, China, Latin American, South Asia and Southeast Asia studies programs provided support to an additional 67 students.

Minsun Kim, a second-year student in SAIS’s International Development Program, interned with the Sanchuan Development Association in Qinghai, China. The association works to empower eastern Qinghai’s most impoverished populations through economic and social development projects. “I visited the village project sites, which was one of the most special experiences in my life.”

Some SAIS students are able to secure internship funding on their own. Josh White, a second-year South Asia Studies student, obtained an external grant for a summer research internship to examine Islamist political parties in Pakistan. White reported that his personal security in the country’s tense environment relied in no small part on his ability to adapt to the local culture. “With my beard and my shalwar kameez, every single person I met thought I was a Pashtun until I started speaking English,” he said.
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