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Summer 2009 Internships

Summer internships not only provide practical experience and work on challenging projects with some of the best leaders in public service, they provide valuable contacts and a direct channel for opportunities for life after Fels.  

This summer more than 150 Penn undergraduate and graduate students interned in Washington DC in a diverse set of organizations from DLA Piper to the Institute of International Education and the U.S. Department of State. Melissa Field (MGA ’10) spent the summer in the State Department’s Bureau of Public Affairs (PA) and even received a mention by Ian Kelly, the State Dept. Spokesman, in his daily press briefing on July 28th. Patrick Bauer, a political science major and MGA submatriculant in the Fels program, interned with the White House and was assigned to the Office of the Vice President where he prepared briefing materials for the Vice President and on the advance team for a Vice Presidential visit.

In addition to their internship responsibilities, some students participated in Penn In Washington programming, which included one-on-one mentoring with Penn alumni, networking events, and a speakers series that featured Washington Post Columnist E.J. Dionne and Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Our nation’s capital isn’t the only place for rewarding public service internship experiences, two Fels students traveled to Botswana with the Botswana-Upenn Partnership; two students, who are also Teach for America alums, continued their work in the education field through internships with Omnivest and Education Pioneers; and many students chose to stay in the Philadelphia area and secured internships with local organizations including:

Fels Research and Consulting Group also provided internship opportunities to Fels students Chris Kingsley and John Higgins.  They were assigned work on two projects: 1)researching and writing a Promising Practices reports on how government is usingWeb 2.0 and will offer 10 tips to managers who want to use these strategies and 2) preparing for the launch of the Fels Public Policy challenge, a casecompetition for Penn students that will debut in the spring.