Accepting Applications: 2017 Global Studies Internship Program

Jeffrey Yu interned at China Medical University in Taiwan.

Applications are now open for summer 2017 Global Studies internships. 

Click here for application information.

The Stanford Global Studies Internship program enables Stanford students to extend knowledge beyond the classroom while engaging in immersive, cultural and professional experiences around the world. The program is open to undergraduate students in ALL majors, including those who have not yet declared a major. Graduate students are also eligible to apply to some positions in Asia.

Internships are available in a number of fields, including business, non-profit, media, education, medicine, arts, technology, engineering, science, law and government. The program also supports students for self-arranged internships at locations without travel warnings issued by the U.S. Department of State. The overall stipend base (from the program, the host organization, or both) for summer 2017 is $6,000 per intern.

In the summer of 2016, students interned in Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Estonia, Germany, Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Japan, Nicaragua, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, and Uganda. Islamic and Iranian Studies related positions were also available in the United States. More geographic locations might be added based on student demand. 

Applications for the summer of 2017 are due at midnight on February 7, 2017. 

Former interns share their experiences:

Josh Peterson

European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium

"This summer, I interned with the Alliance for Liberals and Democrats in Europe Group (ALDE) at the European Parliament (EP). In particular, I was working with the policy advisors for Human Rights and for Civil Liberties, Justice, and Home Affairs. These committees work on particularly contentious affairs, such as the Common European Asylum System, refugees, visa waivers, terrorism abatement, and data protection. On any given day, I might help brief members of parliament, analyze new legislation, or write independent research notes. I often attended meetings, hearings, and negotiations with other political parties. I even got to be a representative of the ALDE group in a meeting with top-level researchers from UNICEF, Amnesty International, and other NGOs. Most of the legislation I worked on will affect refugees, immigrants and asylum-seekers in the immediate future. 

I cannot express how grateful I am for this internship. I was one of a very few U.S. citizens getting to intern at the EP this summer. I got to meet people that politicians in the EU wait a lifetime to meet. Furthermore, without the financial support of Stanford, none of this would have been possible. Giving such possibilities to other students, in my opinion, should be one of Stanford’s number one priorities if it wishes to increase its representation in public service, government, and governance in the future." 

 

Rosie La Puma

Rio 2016, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

"This program gave me the opportunity to step out of my comfort zone linguistically, personally and professionally. Over the course of two months, I went from cautiously interacting with my host family with my two-quarters- worth of Portuguese two giving detailed flag-hanging protocol instructions to a group of native Brazilians all in Portuguese and relating arrival updates to my supervisor through a crackly walkie-talkie. Flexibility and improvisation were definitely required skills, especially when, for example, my supervisor showed up two hours late to work and we had no key to enter the office or when two hundred flags need to be raised and there are only 2 volunteers in the office. In each of these and many other cases, I learned to find a "jeitinho Brasileiro" and make things work (i.e. the Village mayor was found to let us in, and we were able to recruit volunteers from another area to help us out).  

The experience has certainly made me fall more in love with Portuguese and Brazilian culture. I am going to hopefully continue to maintain my Portuguese and look into what job opportunities may allow me to use it in the future. Working with the Olympics more generally has made me more excited to work in an organization that hires people from all around the world, because I really enjoyed the diverse and empathetic work environment an international organization creates."

 

Rebecca Cheng

Museum of Occupations, Tallinn, Estonia 

“Learning about the history of Estonia while being surrounded by the culture gave me so many insights into why the country is where it is and what kind of direction it wants to go. I’ve learned so much from both living in the biggest city in Estonia as well as traveling to more rural areas to see how many people still live. This internship has opened my eyes to the merits of doing public history and how the ability of a museum to convey accurate history in an interesting/ creative way becomes integral to the collective memory of a people or country. This experience has also inspired me to do my senior thesis on Baltic German history because it is very understudied and very rich.” 

 

Ali Hoffer

blueEnergy, Bluefields, Nicaragua 

"My project was building a greywater filtration system to filter and clean water from the kitchen sink, shower, and laundry. The filtered water can then be recollected and used for irrigation or flushing toilets. It is one thing to know that people in developing countries live in complete poverty with a lack of access to so many basic resources such as electricity, clean water, and sometimes even food. It is completely different, however, to go live that life for 2 months, especially after growing up in a developed country with all these comforts, and more, for 20 years. I learned a tremendous amount about the resilience and intelligence of people in these rural, developing regions, who, despite their poverty, works hard everyday to educate themselves and better equip themselves with mechanisms to combat the hardships they face."

 

Andrew Ntim

IMANI Center for Policy and Education, Accra, Ghana 

"Here’s a short list of the things I learned about Ghana: The ins-and-outs of culture and celebrations — I thankfully had the opportunity to go to many festivals, funerals, and weddings, and seeing how these worked in practice was a truly eye-opening experience. The similarities and differences between the American and Ghanaian political systems. Seeing huge billboards and street parades dedicated to presidential candidates, along with administrative issues was pretty new for me, but getting the chance to see how issues are trying to be solved and how the democratic process works in a foreign country was something I really enjoyed. And finally, the realities of life in a developing country. I had the chance to visit a number of rural villages in Ghana, which had poverty worse than I’d ever seen in my life. Though things are slowly getting better, this certainly motivated me in the work I was doing, and made me want to do more research on West Africa’s economics."