Ah, don't I wish I were a kid again?! Not really.
But I do wish I could go back in time and become one of our public policy students, especialy those who are summering overseas at fabulous internships from Poland to Palau and a dozen points in between. For weeks now, I've been so engrossed in reading their blogs that I haven't tended to mine. Their reports have been fun, fascinating and inspiring. I thought I should share their news with the rest of you.
For those of you who aren't aware of where our first-years scattered when school let out in April, one out of five went abroad. Here's a list of international travelers:
Edwin Afriyie RWANDA http://eafriyie.wordpress.com/
Edwin's working for the Rwandan Ministry of Local Governance (MINALOC) doing internal and external audits of infrastructure projects contracted to private and foreign firms.
Asmaa Ahmed JORDAN http://aahmed1231.wordpress.com/
Asmaa has a highly sensitive position with the United Nations RWA - Relief and Works Agency for Palestninian Refugees. Asmaa's research is zeroing in on issues of alleged criminal misconduct and the general administration of the UN's refugee camps.
Ryan Donohue SWITZERLAND http://rdonohue.wordpress.com/
Ryan works for another UN agency, the World Health Organization, or WHO, on a new initiative that reaches out to youth across social media. Called the UN Health Academy, it's an online center for health education - and Ryan was hired as chief advocate for the summer.
Jose Fonseca DUBAI http://www.fonseca.me/
Jose is the Research Associate for Dr. Susan Grotty at the Dubai School of Government. They are working on a study to assess hierarchies at work in Arab and multi-cultural teams.
Megan Garth DUBAI http://starauset.blogspot.com
Megan also works as a researcher at the Dubai School of Government, for Dr. Khalid Al Yahya, a consultant in governance reform.
Jeremy Grunert ISRAEL http://lawmedia.pepperdine.edu/glazerinterns/?paged=2
Jeremy works in Jerusalem for an NGO looking at humanitarian issues in Israel and the Middle East.
Keyla Herrera INDONESIA http://kk1011.wordpress.com/
Keyla is with HOPE International, a humanitarian non-profit that has undertaken an anti HIV/AIDS initiative targeting youth in impoverished regions of the country. She is studying the issue sand producing education programs.
Chad Higgins PALAU No blog; shoot him an email.
Chad has just returned from working with the Ministry of State as an historical researcher assessing political and diplomatic pacts in the past and making policy recommendations for future foreign policy.
Tom Just POLAND http://tomjust.wordpress.com/
As most of you know, Tom was supposed to work for the President of Poland this summer, but the tragedies of last spring caused the government to revise his assignment. Tom has been researching Polish foreign policy in the Middle East, particularly focusing on Israel and Iran.
Miriam Keim ISRAEL personal: http://israelsummer2010.wordpress.com/ and public - the same as Jeremy's. Miriam works in Jerusalem with Jeremy at the same NGO. Due to the sensitive nature of their work, their blog tells much about their travels, but does not disclose much about the internship.
Jillian Kissee INDONESIA http://jkissee.wordpress.com/
LIke Keyla, she is working at HOPE, but her work is analytical. She is conducting quantiative and qualitative research into the sexual and drug practices of Indonisia urban high school students.
Nikhil Mathur JORDAN http://mathurnikhil.wordpress.com/
Nikhil is another UN employee this summer, although his work is very different. He is working for the United Nations Development Programme on environmental sustainability projects.
Katie McAfee RWANDA http://kmcafee.wordpress.com/
Katie is working in the same government agency as Edwin, but her projects require a lot more work in the villages themselves. She has been conducting a very interesting series of program assessments, looking at the work done by community collectives.
Grant Tang TAIWAN No blog yet.
It turns out the city of Taipei has grown so large, it is being redistricted this summer. Grant is in his home town, helping manage a mayoral campaign.
Janet Valencia ISRAEL Same blog as Jeremy Grunert.
Janet is in Tel Aviv, the nation's capital, working at the Shimon Peres Peace Center to develop and produce multicultural tolerance and peace education programs.
Charlotte van Heurck HOLLAND http://cvanheurck.wordpress.com/
Charlotte is working for the Dutch Ministry of Finance, although with all eyes focused on the World Cup, it's unclear how much work is taking place in the Netherlands. Just joking - Charlotte is doing legislative research regarding post-recessionary financial reforms and EU recommendations.
In addition, Bohdan Kosenko left for COSTA RICA after he wrapped up his campaign internship and rumor has it he is working there with an NGO or a non-profit. Artem Zastoupailo chose a trade internship with a wine importer, Megawine, Inc. He's on a business trip to RUSSIA. Hope he blogs.
With another quarter of the class in Washington DC and all the LA-based students hard at work on internsips (or, so they tell me), it's been very quiet around here. Stop by if you're in town!
