This is the second entry in our recap of summer internships completed by SIPA students working in the Admissions Office this year. Richard Parker is a second year MIA student concentrating in International Security Policy.
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This summer was great. I returned back to my second favorite city, Washington D.C. for an internship with the Department of Homeland Security. Although I was hoping for an internship abroad, there is no other place I’d rather be than D.C. As an ISP concentrator D.C. is a great place to be for the networking opportunities. I mean most of the jobs I’ll be applying for are in the District so I guess it was a good thing I was there anyway.
My internship was enjoyable. I learned a lot and made some great contacts. I even got to go to the White House for an event on the South Lawn (and yeah the President was there). My internship was with the office of the Deputy Chief of Staff. Her staff was cool and very helpful. I mostly worked on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill situation. I attended daily briefings with senior staff and other department officials regarding response and cleanup efforts. I also worked on and edited an internal counter terrorism memo used by DHS staff and prepared clips which were included in the weekly report to the White House. Overall the experience was good and the contacts I made were great.
Another good thing about the summer was catching up with my classmates who were in D.C. SIPA (especially my classmates) were in full force this summer in the District. So there was plenty of time to hangout, grab a drink and talk about ‘our busy jobs’ during the summer.
But alas all good things must come to an end. The summer is gone and with it the good weather and my tan. But all is not lost, I’m back at SIPA and all my buddies are back and my schedule is pretty great too (No Friday classes!) Cheers to a great summer and cheers to an even better semester!
