The Middle East Studies program encourages its students to complete internships in the region or with relevant organizations in the U.S. Below are examples of internships students have secured in the past.
Maysam Ali (class of 2011)
Council on Foreign Relations and Aspen Institute
Washington, D.C.
Maysam spent the summer working at two think tanks in Washington, D.C. She worked for two months at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), where she helped a CFR Senior Fellow with an upcoming book about the United States and Egypt. Maysam also worked at the Aspen Institute, where she managed the Lebanon Program for the Institute's Middle East Programs. She wrote a weekly bulletin on Lebanon and organized panels which focused on Lebanon and the Levant. Maysam also managed the Policy Paper Initiative for the Program, overseeing the publication of several papers exploring issues of critical importance to the country and the region.
Maiko Nakagaki (class of 2011)
International Finance Corporation (IFC)
Cairo, Egypt
Maiko spent 10 weeks in Cairo, Egypt during the summer 2010. The main purpose of her stay there was to complete an internship with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), which is the private sector arm of the World Bank. The internship was a great experience to learn about many of the private sector development issues that IFC is trying to resolve in the region (Cairo is the regional hub for IFC, so Maiko got to work on projects throughout the MENA area), understand the work culture in Egypt, and to interact with the best and brightest Egyptians. The main focus of Maiko's internship was to examine how IFC can improve on integrating gender into current and future projects in the region. This was a great way for her to grasp a fuller understanding of the various issues that the region faced because she worked on various projects—from SME management training project in Yemen to corporate governance initiative in Pakistan.
Lauren G. Cohen (class of 2011)
Israeli Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor: Foreign Trade Administration
Jerusalem, Israel
Lauren worked for two months primarily analyzing free trade and government procurement agreements. Her work was used by the Foreign Trade Administration to prepare for future bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations. She also did some research on intellectual property rights issues. Over the course of her internship, she had the opportunity to interact with employees of the WTO and OECD and attended an academic conference on trade at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Natalie Breen (class of 2011)
Near East South Asia Center (NESA), Department of Defense
Washington, D.C.
From late January through early May of 2010, Natalie worked for National Defense University's NESA Center as an Outreach Associate. NESA works on increasing and improving ties between civil and military leaders in the United States and the NESA region. It fosters strategic communication, educational opportunities, and cooperation on national security issues. As an Outreach Associate, Natalie worked to edit NESA publications that were read by U.S. government and foreign officials. Beyond her job scope, Natalie had an opportunity to work directly with two senior faculty members on putting together a joint US-Yemen conference focusing on Yemen's national security issues, and researching various causes of instability in the NESA region.
Maroof Ahmed (class of 2009)
U.S. Department of State: Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs (NEA)
Washington, D.C.
As a press officer in NEA, Maroof was responsible for drafting press guidance on all Middle East related issues as well as writing speeches and press statements for senior State Department officials. He also served as an Arab Media Officer where he liased with local Arabic news media outlets such as Al-Jazeera, monitored Arabic news reporting, and moderated Arabic webchats between Arabic-speaking populations and State Department officials. He switched into the NEA Regional Affairs office and now deals with political-military issues including foreign military sales, peacekeeping operations, and other global issues concerning the region.
Lauren Smith (class of 2009)
U.S. Department of State: Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL)
Washington, D.C.
In the summer of 2008, Lauren completed an internship in the Office of International Religious Freedom, where she worked on the Near East team. During her internship, Lauren edited sections of the annual International Religious Freedom report and wrote memos and conducted research related to religious freedoms and minority groups in the Middle East. Since then, Lauren has continued to work at the office through the Student Career Experience Program.
Emily L. Duran (class of 2009)
Goldman Sachs: Office of Global Security, Summer Analyst
New York, NY
Emily spent her summer in New York City working on security risk analysis. Through the formal summer analyst program, she gained exposure to various departments with which the Office of Global Security routinely liaises.