| College of Arts & Sciences |
|
Highlights from “Advocacy and Public Policy Internships” Panel
1/24/2005
Moderator: Sharon Fleshman
PRESENTERS
Jennifer Fowler, College Undergraduate, Former intern with Ashoka
Jennifer Tom, Wharton Undergraduate, Former intern with US Agency of International Development
Michael Brownfield, Wharton Undergraduate, Former intern with Las Americas
Jennifer Wade, College Undergraduate, Former intern with the Foreign Policy Research Institute
David Luger, College Undergraduate, Former intern with Legal Aid of Washington, DC
DISCUSSION
What were your day-to-day duties like?
Fowler
• After my freshman year, I worked for my congressman, Joel Hefley (R-CO). I read newspapers, summarized articles and handled constituent phone calls.
• This past summer I worked in Washington, D.C. for Ashoka (http://www.ashoka.org), which is an NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) that funds social entrepreneurship.
• I worked on the Full Economic Citizenship Initiative, which was looking at potential partnerships between private companies and non-government organizations. I did research on potential partnerships in India, South Africa and Mexico.
Tom
• I worked two summers for USAID (http://www.usaid.gov).
• Two summers ago, I did Malaria Vaccine Development. They brought me in to add in business aspects to their work. Before I could write a project proposal for them, they sent me to all of their vaccine developers.
• My second summer, I worked on Health Systems. We look at the different health systems of developing countries and work together to strengthen them. We developed financial methods to help increase the budget and facilitated communication between governments. It was a lot of talking to Kenya everyday.
Brownfield
• There are several advocacy centers that deal with immigrant issues in my hometown of El Paso, Texas.
• I did a lot of different things in the center because it was a small NGO.
• We would go to the detention centers where juvenile immigrants were detained and interview them to see if we can reunite them with their families. The deportation process can be very lengthy, so the center tries to reunite them with family for that court process so that it’s less traumatic for them.
• On the political asylum side, we did a lot of research trying to figure out what protections applicants had under US law.
• I also worked on domestic abuse cases involving immigrants. A lot of immigrant women are scared that if they get a divorce, they will be deported. They can actually get special VISAs that can protect them during their divorce proceedings and set them on the way to becoming a US citizen.
• A lot of work I did was not always encouraging, but at the end of the day, small successes make you feel good about what you’re doing, even if you don’t get paid. That’s the reward you look for.
Wade
• I interned this past summer at the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI; http://www.fpri.org), which is just downtown.
• I had a unique position. I worked as a research assistant to the president of the institute, Dr. Harvey Sicherman. He’s also an adjunct professor at Penn. He is writing a book on US grand strategy, so I spent the entire summer doing research for him. He gave me topics and I would do research on it through books, journals, etc.
• I also wrote memoranda on policy topics. Because I am an Economics major, he had me working on foreign financing of the US deficit, regional trade agreements and different aspects of the commodity market. I also edited the bulletins that FPRI publishes from time to time.
Luger
• I worked for the Legal Aid Society of DC (http://www.legalaiddc.org) as a Legal Intern. I was the only undergraduate with twelve law students. I had similar responsibilities as them.
• Legal research and policy advocacy were the two areas I covered.
• As far as the legal stuff goes, I didn’t have the training to do it, but I did a lot of discovery and on-site stuff. They also came to me with non-legal research.
• A major part of my job was the intake process. The mission of legal aid is for people to be able to get legal help any time they need, so they had the interns be the intermediaries between the attorneys and the clients.
• Legal Aid takes positions on policies that affect their clients, so they had me research a lot of those issues.
How did you get your internship? Why did you choose that internship?
Fowler
• I found out about the internship with Congressman Hefley through a program I did in high school. I just went to his website and applied from there.
• With Ashoka, my extra-curricular interests at Penn are in the intersection between business and society, so my work for Social Impact Management at Penn hooked me up with a lot of professors and speakers. One of the speakers we had talked about Ashoka, and that’s how I heard about them.
• The application process for me was very ad hoc, but now Ashoka has a formal application process. It still takes a lot of effort, though, and it’s more about connections than a more formal application processes, like OCR (On-Campus Recruiting).
Fleshman
• There are a couple of Penn alums that have links with Ashoka, so try to seek them out if you’re interested.
Fowler
• Alums in the non-profit sector are typically more approachable than in other industries.
• I also heard about Ashoka through the Robert C. Everett fund (http://www.everettinternships.org).
Tom
• I worked for Merrill Lynch three years before USAID. I was in DC working at Merrill Lynch, and I saw a lot of public sector organizations who were making a difference. Also, I’m a big wanderer and I came across the Reagan building, which is where USAID is headquartered.
• I didn’t know what they did, so I researched it and their mission seemed interesting so I started cold-calling them. I went to USAID’s directory and started e-mailing people, asking for internships. Most of the websites say they only accept grad students, but some people aren’t that strict.
Fleshman
• It seems like you really have to be adventurous when you’re looking for these internships. How did you prepare for cold-calling?
Tom
• It helped that I went to Penn and that I had a business background. They have so many public-private partnerships that they wanted someone who could help out with the private sector.
• Merill Lynch actually had me do a lot of cold-calling as well, so I learned how to do that there.
Brownfield
• I got in touch with Las Americas through a friend who’d worked there the previous summer. I missed OCR because I was abroad in the spring last year, but I wanted to keep practicing Spanish and to go back to my hometown and re-immerse myself in the language in the non-profit sector. I wanted to pursue my interest.
Wade
• I’m a unique case. I worked in a financial services firm my freshman and sophomore summers. I did OCR last year, thinking I was going into investment banking. I realized that I wasn’t really interested in what I was applying for, so I called Dr. Sicherman, who I’d had a course with, and asked to talk to him about career planning.
• We worked through the possible paths, and in the end of our conversation he offered me an internship. I’d done well in his class and he knew that I had an economics background, which helped a lot.
• I realized that our professors are really well-connected, so developing a personal relationship with professors helps immensely.
Luger
• My case shows that the process can be very arbitrary. I cold-called Legal Aid and asked them about their program and it ended up working out. It was really a case of ‘right place, right time.’ I also speak Spanish, so they needed me for that. Just be bold and apply to tons of things.
Fleshman
• So I guess you can say that your language skills were the clincher?
Luger
• Yeah, in my case definitely. I think they also liked the initiative on my part because the positions aren’t offered to undergrads.
What did you take away from the experience? What did you like or dislike? How did your internship influence you?
Fowler
• My work at the congressman’s office helped me decide to do economics and not political science. The work was tiring, and it ended up not being my passion.
• My time at Ashoka showed me how important the culture of a firm is. I was frustrated sometimes about how the organization was run.
• I also learned what it was like to have a 9 to 5 job. It exposed me to the difference between school and work.
Tom
• For my first internship with USAID, I got sent all over and got to see all sides of the Malaria vaccine issue.
• I was also exposed to a huge network of interesting people, and I also discovered that I enjoy working in the public sector even though my schooling is in business.
Brownfield
• I learned that non-profit work can be personally satisfying.
• It’s also marketable if you are looking for work in the private sector. Every single time I interview, they always talk about my time at Las Americas.
Wade
• I enjoyed forming a relationship with my boss. I had access to great events, and if I were interested in an issue, I could go talk to an expert about it.
• Since I’m going to law school, the research that I did will help me.
• Also, the president of FPRI is now my thesis advisor.
Luger
• I was considering going to law school, and I was glad to see the more idealistic side of the law.
Fowler
• For people in DC, Penn runs a great Penn in Washington program (http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/piw/piw.html). It involves a lot of social events and speakers, which are all fun and interesting.
Brownfield
• Also, if you’re on the fence about working for a non-profit, I say go for it. It’s rewarding and you may not have another chance once you start working.
Wade
• It’s easy to get caught up in OCR. Trust me; nonprofits can be better than doing Finance. Just try it to see if you like it.
Tom
• It’s good to have something that differentiates you from the crowd, and nonprofit experience will help you with that.
Top of the Page
Q&A
Q: Jen (Wade), did every intern at FPRI get your experience?
Wade
My experience was atypical. They have an organized internship program, in which someone will assign you a topic to research and report about. Some of the interns were at the office instead of working independently. For me, the relationship made it personal and rewarding.
Q: Did you all get a lot of responsibility immediately, or did you work up to a level of responsibility?
Wade
Yes, I got a substantial amount of responsibility immediately, but again, I am a unique case.
Tom
I found that actively trying to get more responsibilities is important. The whole experience was relatively unstructured.
Fowler
Mine was structured and had explicit goals. Other interns felt underutilized, so they asked for more responsibility.
Q: Was the workload stressful? Were there a lot of deadlines?
Wade
I was helping to write a book, so the deadlines changed a lot according to the author’s schedule.
|
