For a first-year MSFS student, securing a summer internship can be a daunting task. In order to help the students out, each of the MSFS concentrations—International Development (IDEV), International Relations & Security (IRS) and International Commerce and Business (ICB)—hosts a panel discussion to clue first-years into the types of opportunities that are available to them during the summer break.
Each panel is hosted by and features second-year students, who describe how they arranged their internships, what they actually did during the internship, and how it has affected their career choices and paths. For panel participant Mary Parrish (‘13), a second-year IDEV concentrator, last year’s panel helped her focus in on what she wanted to achieve over the summer. “[After] going to the same event last year, it gave me an idea of how the internship process works and it helped me get into focus what I really wanted to develop as far as deliverables,” she said.
For Sulaiman Nasseri (‘14), a first-year student from Afghanistan, the panel was helpful in broadening his awareness of summer opportunities: “As an international student I can’t get the same jobs as Americans can, so hearing about the wide-range of options for internships over the summer was really helpful.”
Participants in the IDEV panel had completed internships with Mercy Corps in Niger, USAID in Peru, the Uruguayan government in Montevideo, Uruguay, the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington D.C. and Somali Family Services in Somalia and Kenya.
Brian Hurd (‘13), the event’s host and second-year IDEV concentrator, focused on the importance of the internship panels in selecting the right concentration, a decision first-year students make halfway through the fall semester. “For development we try to answer questions about what development really is and what opportunities are available to students who choose this concentration,” commented Hurd. “We try to get a group of second-year panelists together from different backgrounds and different career pathways to show what comes next when you choose this concentration.”
Students also emphasized the importance of networking, both inside and outside the program. Austin Lewis (‘14), a first-year student who attended all three panel discussions, said the students he spoke to at the post-panel receptions affected his plans for the summer. “It was really useful talking to second-years after the ICB panel,” he said. “One second-year I spoke to had been working at the U.S. Treasury over the summer, and explained to me that no matter what I want to do after, the skills I would build would be useful. I’ll definitely be writing him an email to see if he can help me in securing a similar internship.”
Second-year Hurd also chimed in on the importance of networking: “What I tell the first years is to get out there and talk to people,” he said. “There are a lot of different backgrounds here. Other students can really give you a hand in finding internship and career opportunities.”
In planning their summer internships, the current crop of first-years will have a formidable task in matching the second-years’ prolific coverage of the globe last summer. According to Parrish, she and her MSFS classmates interned in 42 different countries last summer.