The Internship Experience

What sets The Washington Center's internship experience apart from almost all other internship programs is the combination of three distinct components: the internship itself, the career readiness programming, and an academic course.

Internship

The Washington Center has developed relationships with hundreds of internship sites in and around Washington, D.C. Those sites include government agencies and offices (such as the Department of Justice, the Library of Congress, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission); non-profit organizations (like the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and the Turkish Heritage Organization); businesses (such as CBS News, Marzulla Law, Capitol Management), and lobbying organizations (The Potomac Advocates and others).

You will work closely with members of The Washington Center's staff to determine potential internship sites. This process will take into account your academic interests, knowledge, skills, and the career paths you're considering. Your completed application materials will be forwarded to these potential sites and interested internship sponsors will contact you to arrange a virtual interview. You will make the final determination of your site placement, dependent on offers received, at the end of this process.

All internship experiences are full-time and you will be completing real, substantive work. You will leave the experience with a robust portfolio as well as unparalleled professional experience. 

Career Readiness Programming

This programming consists of a mix of professional development workshops, career exploration sessions, networking events, and one-on-one career advising designed to help you make the most of your internship experience and gain the tools and insights you'll need to launch your career. 

Academic Course

One night a week you'll attend one of TWC's seminar courses. Depending on the course you choose, you may be able to fulfill a major or minor requirement, delve deeper into a topic you've always been interested in, or learn what it's really like to work in your career field of interest by experiencing a course taught by an expert with years of experience. 

Course offerings cover a wide variety of academic disciplines including business and management, communication, international affairs and foreign policy, leadership, history, national security, and law and criminal justice, among others. Past academic courses have included: Media and the Movies, International Human Rights, Campaigning for a Cause : How Advocacy Groups Change the World, Forensic Psychology, and Government and Business in the New Economic and Political Reality, in additional to Scandalous Washington. 

For a current listing of academic courses, visit The Washington Center's website

As a culminating activity, you will complete a professional portfolio, which includes a resume, cover letter, reflection assignments, internship work samples, completed assignments from your academic course, and other related documents.