Internships

Apply your classroom knowledge in an everyday work setting. Graduate with real-world experience.

An internship is a structured and supervised professional experience for which a student has intentional learning goals, reflects actively on what they are learning, and receives academic credit.

Benefits of an Internship:

  • Experience: Internships give you valuable real world work experience in a professional job setting.
  • Competitive Edge: Students graduating with internship experiences, in general, are more likely than students without those experiences to find employment upon graduation (National Association of Colleges and Employers Journal 2017).
  • Career Exploration: Internships allow you to explore potential careers to help you choose what professions would fit best.
  • Professional Skill Development: Interns are engaging in substantive work requiring problem solving, communicating with clients, and project management. The majority of an intern’s time is spent engaged in professional activities.
  • Networking: An internship facilitates the development of professional contacts that may help you in the future
  • Personal Development: You will develop a personal work ethic and be able to investigate your career interests, prospective career goals, and your approach to a professional workplace

Recent internships undertaken by Politics & IR majors have included: 

  • Intern at Embassy of Papua New Guinea, Washington DC
  • Intern for Mayor’s Office of Human Services, Homeless Services Program, Baltimore MD
  • Legal intern at the law offices of Stanley J. Ellenberg, Esq., Philadelphia PA
  • Campaign intern for Steve Grossman for Governor, Boston MA
  • Conference management intern at Institute for Humane Studies, Arlington VA
  • Intern at U.S. Mission to the United Nations, New York , NY
  • Research intern at Greek Liaison Office, Macedonia
  • Intern with International Medical Corps, Chad 
  • Intern with Tagesspiegel newspaper, Berlin, Germany

Visit our pages on Organizations in the Philly Area and Organizations Outside of the Philly Region for more ideas on where to intern.

Internship Spotlights

Paige Bristow

Paige Bristow

Class of 2023 | Internship Location: US Department of State, Washington, DC

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Emelyn Rodriguez

Emelyn Rodriguez

Class of Class of 2022 | Internship Location: Judge Stephanie Sawyer, Philadelphia, PA

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Photo of Charlotte Rohrer

Charlotte Rohrer

Class of 2019 | Internship Location: Washington Institute

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Photo of Blake Thomson

Blake Thomson

Class of Class of 2018 | Internship Location: Charney Research

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