Featured events in Young Leaders Program

The internship in the Heritage Foundation, which is known as “Young Leaders Program”, attracts young conservative leaders around the country. In addition to the practical experience and skills that the interns would acquire in the office, the Heritage Foundation also offers all the interns a variety of programs and opportunities that educational and skill enhancing seminars, weekly events where the interns can meet and talk with the nation’s leading policy-makers, and other exciting events in DC.

General introduction of some featured events for the Heritage interns:

• Orientation. All the interns attended the two-day mandatory orientation. At the first day, many experts and staff in the Heritage Foundation were introduced to the interns. We also had a tour in the building and basically learned how the Heritage Foundation was operated. The second day was about team building. All the interns went to National Gallery of Art and the National Archives.

• Interns attend weekly policy briefings with Heritage policy experts on domestic and foreign policy issues. So far, we have had policy briefings regarding to education policy, energy and environment policy, the Reagan Administration policy, protect America policy, and health care policy.

• Weekly “First Principle Luncheon”, where all the interns have the opportunity to sharpen their thoughts and rediscover the fundamental principles in order to reclaim the future, by having experts who devote their time and research to increasing public understanding of America’s founding principles.

• Lectures and seminars held at Heritage, which give interns the chance to hear from prominent conservative leaders, authors and policymakers. During the first two weeks, the Heritage YLP invited Judy Schneider, who is a specialist in the Congressional Research Service, and John McConnell, who is a former White House Speechwriter for Bush Administration, come to the Heritage and provide the interns unique opportunities to understand how things really work on Capitol Hill and what it is like to work in the White House. No need to mention, the President of Heritage, Former Senator Jim DeMint, gave the interns an excellent speech on the vision of Heritage and the conservatives.

• In addition, there are many other events, such as panel discussion, book events and seminars hold by different departments in the Heritage Foundation. All the interns are welcomed to attend any one they are interested in. Personally speaking, I am strongly interested in foreign affairs in Asia and Middle East areas, and also in some US domestic policies, so that I have attended several events and discussions regarding to sustainability in Afghanistan after the 2014 withdrawal, national defense, America’s freedom, tradition and Constitution, Taiwan and Trans-Pacific Partnership, and US-India market relationship, etc. All the discussions and seminars are recorded to further research. Most of them can be reached in the Heritage official website.

• A debate between the Cato Institute and the Heritage Foundation on libertarianism and conservatism. This debate is about the two philosophies and their associated policy applications, as interns from the Heritage foundation and the Cato Institute go head-to-head to answer the perennial question: is libertarianism or conservatism the better political philosophy. All the interns in the Heritage Foundation have been researching on different issues to make contribution to this debate.

• Practical skills workshops teach researching, op-ed writing, blogging, etiquette, and resume writing.

• Interns engage with each other in reading groups and discussions, bible studies.

• Access to different briefings, hearings, and events hold in different think tanks and institutes, such as Capitol Hill, Supreme Court, Brookings Institute, CSIS, CNN, Reagan Building, etc.

• Tours include the Capitol Hill, Library of Congress, Pentagon, Supreme Court, and Mount Vernon.

In July, there are more exciting events that will be hold in the Heritage Foundation, as expected. In my next post, I will share more of my experience working in the office. Here I want to share a few pictures of some events mentioned above.

Intern Dinner with Judy Schneider

Library of Congress, Reserved Reading Room for Senators and Congressmen 

Intern Briefing with John McConnell

Intern Briefing with President Jim DeMint

About to interview the protesters in front of the Capitol Hill

A book event: America's Way Back: Reclaiming Freedom, Tradition and  Constitution

Panel Discussion: Taiwan and TPP

Launch the Internship in The Heritage Foundation

The Heritage Foundation’s internship program is usually considered one of the best internship programs in DC. It provides the opportunity to 60 young conservative leaders to participate in real policy research and promotion through each semester.

Interns at the Heritage Foundation work for different department with a variety of positions in terms of domestic policy field, such as legislation, environment and energy, education, health care and economics policies, and also foreign policy filed, such as national defense, Middle Eastern and Asian studies. What’s more, the young leaders who are interested in event coordinating, marketing, communication, administration, information systems, and data analysis will also be able to find positions that best suit their goals at Heritage, since the program is not limited to those young people that are directly interested in domestic and foreign policy.

Speaking of these, an internship with the Heritage Foundation can be a successful stepping-stone into the young leaders future career. According to many experts in the Heritage, one of the unique aspects of this program is that the Heritage professionals take great amount of time and resource to genuinely invest in the interns, and provide them with valuable learning opportunities on networking, career counseling and other workshops.

Being a graduate student, I have already considered this internship to be a great experience for me after being here for a couple weeks working in the Asian Study Center. It is not only that I have to opportunity to work for the “world-class experts in the policy arena”, according to Dr. Carafano, who is the Vice President of the Heritage Foundation and the director of the Foreign and Defense Policy Studies, but also I have a variety of opportunities to attend conservative briefings, lectures and networking events, such as the weekly First Principle Luncheon, weekly policy briefing on different issues, and other amazing workshops. In addition, the program also includes tours of the Capitol Hill, Mount Vernon, and the Pentagon.

As an international student from China, I consider this summer internship not only a lifetime experience in DC, but also a learning experience in what it truly means to be a conservative, a deeper understanding of the fundamental principles, and a better way applying these principles in the modern world. With that saying, I am pretty sure this summer will be over before I know it.