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.
