Internships in East Asia

“Exchange student researcher by day and a tourist by night, this double life enabled me to experience Taiwan through a unique lens,” said Christine Quan ’15, who was one of 32 students that received an international summer internship through the East Asia Internship Program, managed by the Division of International, Comparative & Area Studies (ICA), with support from the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia Pacific Research Center.

The internship program is open to all Stanford undergraduate students. It draws majors from a variety of departments and programs including product design, economics, history and biology. Funding for these internship opportunities is provided through a stipend from the program, host organization or both and covers travel, housing and other living expenses.

“Interning at Asia University was a more diverse experience than I had anticipated,” said Quan, a bioengineering major. “I harvested rice, extracted plant DNA and visited a technology exhibition. I especially enjoyed being able to apply my skills and coursework to a new set of problems.”

The 2013 East Asia Internship Program attracted over 65 applicants for the opportunity to intern at 28 companies across East Asia. Participating companies included Samsung Consulting in Beijing, Lenovo in Shanghai, Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs in Seoul, Morrison & Foerster LLP in Tokyo and Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital in Taiwan.

Interning at Lenovo in Shanghai, Jasmine Park ’16 had a transformative experience.

“Going to Shanghai and interacting with my coworkers and the interns was a new world,” said Park, a science, technology and society major. “I began to understand that there are things about the IT industry and localization patterns that I had not known. Rather than wondering why something would be useful, I started to see that there may be a different target for this that I don't understand, so I wanted to learn more about it.”

Mathieu Rolfo ‘16 interned with NEC Corporation in Tokyo and had a similar experience.

“It was incredible working and living in Tokyo,” the undeclared major commented. “As the only foreigner in the 200-person Global Energy Systems Integration Unit at NEC, I was immersed in a traditionally Japanese yet forward-thinking business culture.”

Caroline Hernandez ’15 was able to put her past yearbook experience to use at Time Out Magazine in Beijing.

“Journalism is something that I've been interested in for a long time.  Interning at Time Out was a great capstone to my experience working on my high school's yearbook staff and taking communication classes at Stanford,” Hernandez stated.

In addition to gaining invaluable experience working in an international setting, many students found that it was their immersion in a new culture that left the biggest impression. 

“My colleagues were very welcoming and offered to show me many aspects of Japanese culture,” Rolfo recalled. “With them, I visited traditional temples as well as modern cultural neighborhoods in Tokyo.  We ate delicious food, traveled to Kyoto by bullet train and even climbed Mount Fuji.”

Hernandez had the opportunity to learn about Chinese culture through the host family she lived with.

“They taught me more about Chinese culture than I could ever learn in a classroom,” she said. “They took me to eat Peking duck and to the park on Saturday mornings.  They even brought me to a Chinese wedding. They showed me more generosity and hospitality than I ever could have asked for.”

More information on the 2014 internships can be found on the Center for East Asian Studies website, or by contacting Denise Chu at denise.chu [at] stanford.edu.  Applications are due by noon on February 17, 2014.

Tre'vell Anderson is a student in Stanford's Graduate Program in Journalism.