For many, "summer internship" conjures up images of busywork and boredom, of filing and phone answering, and of sitting at dad's office to make a little extra cash. However, these images couldn't be further from the truth for 14 William and Mary students whose internships last summer, funded in part by private support, took them as far as Tokyo, Australia and Cambodia. The students are part of a growing internationally focused internship program sponsored through the Reves Center for International Studies.
"The Reves Center internship program has existed in different forms over the years, but it's just been in the past two years that we've had a real system in place," says Karen Dolan, manager of the Reves Center.
Having grown considerably in size, organization and quality, internships now cover almost every continent and include both governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Nearly all are unpaid and are discovered by the students, either through their own connections or in conjunction with the office of Career Services. Students can then apply for funding through the Reves Center, which offers grants based on a committee's recommendations as well as financial need.
More than half of last year's 25 applicants received some level of assistance. Scholarships average $1,000 each and draw from four main sources. The Christopher Wren Association, William and Mary's lifelong learning organization, funded five of last summer's 14 recipients; the Friends of the Reves Center, a group of alumni and friends of the College that regularly partners with the Center and emphasizes assisting Gateway William and Mary students, funded six; and Robert and Barbara Pate Glacel '70 and John '50 and Julie Dayton supported the other three.
One Christopher Wren scholarship recipient last summer, Mireille Williams Sharp '10, interned at an NGO called Pact Kenya, where she spent six weeks assisting with a self-help group project that seeks to improve the lives of impoverished women through group savings plans and loans projects.
"The grant paid for half of my plane ticket," says Williams Sharp, noting that the scholarship, coupled with being able to live with her parents in Nairobi, made the internship possible. An economics/pre-medicine major, she spent most of her time surveying women in the self-help groups about their communities' health conditions. Then, she researched services that could meet those needs -- for example, a group that subsidizes mosquito nets. She also assisted the organization in other ways, including translating a French training manual.
"My experiences during this internship have cemented my plans of going into development medicine and have guided my choices in major and classes to take at William and Mary," says Williams Sharp, adding that the internship also gave her first-hand experiences to bring to classroom discussions.
Amanda Roberts '09 had a similarly positive experience in a Paris internship with a humanitarian NGO called Chaine de l'Espoir, which raises money to meet children's medical needs worldwide.
"This was a terrific experience for me, as I have spent my whole life living in Virginia," says Roberts, who received a Christopher Wren grant. For Roberts, a government major and history minor, the benefits of an international internship were twofold: immersing herself in a foreign culture while providing career preparation. "This internship gave me an inside look at the inner workings of an NGO and also exposure to another country's political atmosphere, which I think is important for any profession, but especially one in government."
Three of last summer's Reves-funded interns worked at the U.S. Mission of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Brussels, Belgium. They joined two other College interns stationed there for summer positions made available through a new NATO internship program crafted by the Glacels exclusively for William and Mary students.
One NATO intern was Neil Riley '08, whose summer in Belgium was supported by the Friends of the Reves Center. According to Riley, the best parts about international internships are the real-world experience and fresh perspective they offer. "The other thing," he notes, "was that they really needed me there. At NATO, there is a large summer turnover, and they lean heavily on interns during the summer months." Riley said his internship confirmed his plan to go into U.S. foreign service.
Victoria Starks '05, a third-year law student, received funding from the Glacels for her NATO internship and was, like Riley, surprised by the amount of responsibility they were given not to mention the opportunity to directly assist U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates '65, L.H.D. '98. "I wouldn't have gone without the grant," she said. "It helped defray costs since the internship was unpaid."
Dolan says the Reves Center hopes to facilitate even more international internships in the future. "We only see this program growing -- we'd like for it to be endowed one day," she said.
To learn more, contact the Reves Center at 757.221.3590, or visit www.wm.edu/revescenter.
