Hiram Students Interning With U.S. State Department

Though summer may be a break from classes and studying for Hiram students, it is not a break from learning. Three students have taken the opportunity to learn more about the world around them and themselves this summer through internships.

Hiram was chosen by the U.S. State Department to participate in a new Internship Fellows Program. Of the 15 colleges and universities to receive invitations from Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice, only two are liberal arts institutions.

Hiram nominated five students to participate in the program, which provides State Department fellowships to up to four students from each institution beginning next summer with the aim of attracting college students into careers in Foreign Service. 18 students applied for the program and ultimately, three students are taking part in these exciting internships.

The students are:

Charles Kraus, a senior majoring in political science and history from Canton, Ohio, and graduate of Hoover High School is interning in China;

Katherine Eppley, a junior undeclared major from Stow, Ohio, and graduate of Stow-Munroe Falls High School is interning in Montreal;

And Nadrienna Damaris, a junior education major from Detroit, Michigan, and graduate of Renaissance High School is interning in Washington, D.C.

The Fellowship allows students to have a full-time, paid internship with the State Department either in Washington, D.C. or abroad for 10 weeks either during the summer or fall of 2009 where they won’t just be making coffee. They have been given professional-level work assignments, which may include things like helping American citizens, attending meetings and writing reports, or conducting research to assist as needed. Interns in Washington, D.C. have the opportunity to participate in activities coordinated by the intern activities coordinator, which include events like brown bag lunches with senior Department officials, tours, and social activities.

Kraus wrote to us detailing his time in China:

“In short, it has been a wonderful experience so far. I’ve been able to work under some great minds at the US Consulate in Shanghai, meet forward thinking Chinese scholars as well as more traditional government officials, sharpen my understanding of China/Chinese politics, learn more about careers in the Foreign Service, and live in a dynamic, ever important city, Shanghai.

I am an intern in the Political/Economic Section. As it is summer time and many Foreign Service Officers are coming and going from summer leave, my day to day tasks tend to shift fairly often. I have done a few reporting trips with my supervisor to local universities to speak with scholars about China’s foreign relations. This involved me doing preparation beforehand and preparing the questions/discussion points that we raised. After the meetings, I was responsible for drafting the cables (telegrams) describing the key points that were raised and any new developments relayed to us that were sent back to Washington, D.C. and other posts throughout China and the world. In the next few weeks I’ll be doing more of these types of reporting trips, although our focus won’t necessarily be foreign relations.

One of the other highlights so far was accompanying the Consul General on a trip to Ningbo, a city about two-hours south of Shanghai. Ningbo doesn’t have the name recognition of Shanghai, but in fact it’s an important port city in East China and there are more than 12,000 foreign invested enterprises located there (not to forget it’s a city of more than 5 million people). While we were there we were invited to several meetings with a variety of government officials, including a dinner hosted by the Party Secretary of the Ningbo Municipal Communist Party Committee (the highest ranking official in the city) at a ritzy five-star hotel. I checked the Ningbo local papers the next day (in Chinese) and sure enough our visit was mentioned, but disappointingly my name wasn’t listed. Once we returned to Shanghai I was once again responsible for drafting the cables related to our visit, summarizing and highlighting the key points of our meetings.

My tasks have otherwise involved drafting newsletters for internal US government circulation on environmental and financial news in the Shanghai Consular district, attending local events, organizing a few briefing events for other interns and myself, and occasionally translating documents or letters from Chinese into English. The briefing events I just mentioned are opportunities for interns to have lunch with Foreign Service Officers to learn about how consulates/embassies function and career paths. There’s always important visitors coming through the city as well—last week Secretary of Commerce Locke was here for the groundbreaking of the 2010 World Expo US Pavilion. There will also be some other visitors here shortly.

The work atmosphere has been totally excellent. I am surrounded by many Foreign Service Officers whose knowledge of China/Asia is extensive, and who at the same time are eager to get me involved in whatever project they might be working on. Also a plus are the free services being provided, including housing (living out in an expat neighborhood in a town house, can’t complain) and transportation to and from work. Shanghai is a huge city, somewhere in the vicinity of 17-million residents, so the choices for restaurants and entertainment are pretty much endless.”

Damaris also told us a bit about her time in Washington, D.C. so far:

“Hello! My internship is going wonderfully. I am working with the Educational and Cultural Affairs Bureau in the office of Cultural Programs, and we have just finished up grant season (which was busy to say the least). We are also getting ready for our big move from our current location to a new building in downtown D.C.

I’m afraid I won’t be able to send too many photos of what happens in my office (they’ve warned us about that), but I can send you a few photos from events we sponsor that I’ve gone to, or meetings outside of the office – such as the one where I met Hilary Clinton.”