Research Opportunities Some students concentrating in Southeast Asia Studies are selected as research assistants to faculty members. Southeast Asia concentrators are also eligible for participation in the funded study trip to Southeast Asia discussed below. Co-curricular Activities The Southeast Asia Studies Program brings Washington policy experts, foreign diplomats and government officials, journalists, development specialists and businesspeople together with SAIS students in a weekly luncheon seminar. Discussions cross a range of interests, allowing students to learn firsthand from practitioners about critical issues in the region. In conjunction with the summer internship program described above, the Southeast Asia Studies Program sponsors a study trip to selected countries for students interning in Southeast Asia. In 2006, a group of 10 Southeast Asia students and two faculty members visited Thailand and Vietnam prior to their undertaking individual internships in the region. The group met with government, political, business, NGO and media experts. In 2007, students traveled to Malaysia and Cambodia. Since language skill is an important element in the development of regional expertise, the program assists students in acquiring three weeks of intensive Indonesian, Vietnamese and Thai language training in the region during the January semester break. The program also sponsored informal no-credit, no-cost, co-curricular classes in the Burmese language in 2006 and 2007. These courses, which emphasize speaking, listening and reading skills, are taught by a professional Burmese instructor and are made available to the SAIS community.
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