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Domestic Internships

The American Institute for Contemporary German Studies Internships

Affiliated with Johns Hopkins University (JHU), The American-German Institute (AGI) possesses in-depth policy and academic expertise and an extensive network on both sides of the Atlantic. AGI collaborates with policymakers, corporate leaders, and scholars to deliver in-depth, actionable analysis and fresh ideas that help anticipate trends, manage risk, and shape policy choices. AICGS internships provide a professional and educational experience in a not-for-profit think tank that works to build a smarter German-American partnership.

  • Cost-of-living stipend provided: $1700/month
  • Rolling deadlines

BSOS Summer Research Initiative 

The program provides rising juniors and seniors with an 8-week intensive experience to develop research skills, learn about doctoral training, and increase graduate training readiness. Departments involved in the SRI include African American Studies, Anthropology, Criminology & Criminal Justice, Economics, Geographical Sciences, Government & Politics, Hearing & Speech Sciences, Program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science, Psychology, and Sociology.

  • $3,000 stipend, room/board/program costs provided
  • Summer
  • Application opens in October
  • Eligibility

The Critical Languages Institute (CLI)

The Critical Languages Institute (CLI) at Arizona State University’s Melikian Center is a national training institute for less commonly taught languages, offering summer intensive courses and study-abroad programs around the world. CLI offers intensive courses in 14 critical and less-commonly-taught languages, and study abroad programs in 8 locations.

Environment America

Environment America’s summer field organizers will work to generate media attention, mobilize hundreds of citizens across their states, and build diverse coalitions of organizations and opinion leaders to push for action.
  • Unpaid, with varied overall compensation
  • Nationwide

European Parliament Internships

Deadline for 2020: October 24, 2019. Complement your studies with a genuinely international internship! The European Parliament Liaison Office with the US Congress invites recent graduates with right to work in the United States to apply for a full-time, paid internship. What better place to monitor transnational politics in action, to see global players in international affairs addressing global challenges across a range of policy areas, and to witness the interplay between decision-makers in the US and lawmakers from the European Union?
  • Requires private housing arrangement
  • $1350/month stipend provided
  • Fall intake: September-December (applications due in June)
  • Spring intake: March-May
  • Eligibility

Foreign Language & Areas Studies Fellowship

FLAS fellowships fund the study of Less Commonly Taught Languages and area studies coursework. This program provides academic year and summer fellowships to assist graduate students and advanced undergraduates in foreign language and area studies.

  • Stipend and possibly additional funding
  • Summer or year-long programs offered
  • Applications accepted October-February

Humanity In Action Fellowships

Intensive and demanding, the Humanity in Action Fellowship brings together international groups of university students and recent graduates to explore national histories of discrimination and resistance, as well as examples of issues affecting different minority groups today. Our one-year Fellowship program welcomes college and university students and recent graduates from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Poland, the Netherlands, the United States, and Ukraine. Fellows participate in intensive four-week educational programs located in cities across Europe and the United States, with approximately 20 local and international students in each program. Each program provides a site-specific curriculum for understanding the historical and cultural context in which challenges to pluralism and liberal democracy occur.

  • Unpaid but Humanity in Action provides a modest stipend for meals during the fellowship program.
  • Eligibility

International Affairs Internship

Spend 8 weeks in the nation’s capital with students from around the country and world who are all passionate about global issues. The Institute on Economics and International Affairs (IEIA) will give you an insider’s view of Washington, and by the end of the summer you may be ready to call DC home!

  • Unpaid but scholarships available
  • Applications due in March for the June-July program

Public Policy + Economics Internship

Academic Internship Program Sponsored by The Fund for American Studies. This track is ideal for students who are passionate about politics and seeking to make an impact on their community through public policy or the nonprofit sector.

  • Guaranteed internship placement in public policy or economics (federal agency, policy group, think tank, Congressional office, NGO)
  • Professional development seminars, guest lectures from policy and economics experts, mentorship program
  • Applications due in March for the June-July program

Business + Government Relations Internship

Academic Internship Program Sponsored by The Fund for American Studies. This track is ideal for students who are interested in learning about the legislative process and how it affects industries around the country and world. Students will see government relations from the inside where they will learn about representing the interests of a company or industry to the government and media.

  • Guaranteed internship placement in a government relations office (major corporation, trade association or private-public affairs firm)
  • Professional development seminars, guest lectures from business and economics policy experts, mentorship program
  • Applications due in March for the June-July program

The International Center for Religion & Diplomacy Internship

CRD is a highly dynamic non-governmental, non-profit organization that works to bridge religious considerations and international politics in support of peacemaking. They are currently seeking interns for the summer who have passion and experience in the fields of religion and conflict mitigation.

  • Unpaid
  • Full-time or part-time commitments available
  • Rolling application deadlines
  • Eligibility

Into the Fields Internship

SAF develops the leadership of college students from diverse backgrounds, giving them the opportunity to work directly with farmworkers in the Southeast. Each year, SAF trains approximately 20 students on farmworker issues, and places them to work full-time with migrant education programs, legal aid offices, rural health clinics, community-based organizations and farmworker unions. The Student Actions for Farmworkers (SAF) Internship is a 10-week program  Spend your summer meeting and supporting the people who plant, harvest and produce the food you eat everyday!

  • $4,250 stipend, free rent in furnished housing, room and board at 3 free trainings, academic credit and mentorship provided
  • Out-of-state students from farmworker families receive paid travel to North Carolina
  • Applications due in February for June-August program

The Leadership Development Program at Middle East Institute 

The Leadership Development Internship Program at the Middle East Institute is designed to provide students or recent graduates considering a career in a Middle East related field with hands-on experience at a Washington, DC-based, nonprofit organization that focuses exclusively on the Middle East.

  • $500/month stipend provided
  • Free language courses with professors in a classroom setting
  • Professional networking opportunities and workshops
  • Other Benefits
  • Applications due at the end of August (2023-2024 deadline was August 31, 2023)

Mingma Norbu Sherpa Fellowship

The annual Mingma Norbu Sherpa Community Engagement Fellowship provides $2,500 to graduate and professional students to support field study and engaged research in environmental areas at field sites. Recipients of the Mingma Norbu Sherpa Community Engagement Fellowship will be part of the larger Community Engagement Fellowship cohort and participate in cohort sessions.

Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation Institute Programs

Leadership and the American Presidency offers students unique experiences throughout the Summer and Fall to participate in programming as well as attend special events. Our program, co-sponsored by The Fund for American Studies, provides the opportunities and resources for students to interact with and learn valuable insight from top names in government, business, and nonprofit organizations. As students learn about their own leadership journeys, speakers offer their personal leadership lessons to further promote, educate, and encourage students about the power of leadership and civic engagement.

  • Unpaid but 80%+ of students who participate receive scholarship funding
  • Housing also provided during the program
  • Applications due in early April for the June-July program

National Academy of Social Insurance Fellowships

Each summer, the Academy offers paid internships for students studying for, or interested in, careers in social insurance. Students are given an opportunity to work with Members from the Academy in outstanding organizations in the DC area. Through weekly seminars and other events during the summer, interns are introduced to the Academy’s membership, an interdisciplinary group made up of the nation’s leading experts on social insurance policy.

  • Paid
  • 12-week program, typically May-August
  • Varying types of internships

National Fellowship Program for Asian American Organizing and Civic Engagement

The National Fellowship Program for Asian American Organizing and Civic Engagement develops the leadership of a new generation of activists and organizers who are deeply invested in building the power of and improving the lives of working-class Asian immigrant communities. Running from June to August, the fellowship program provides 10 weeks of intensive training, ground work, and reflection.

United Nations Summer Study

The United Nations Summer Study (UNSS) program puts undergraduate students on the ground in the United Nations and in New York City. Unlike other UN study programs, UNSS takes you beyond a narrow focus on security and diplomacy to investigate development, human rights, humanitarian action, peacekeeping and peacebuilding, and environmental and reform issues.

  • Summer
  • Applications accepted October-March
  • Program fees and housing costs associated
  • Limited funding available

US AID Student Internships

Interns generally work in one of USAID’s offices in Washington, D.C., supporting programs in fields such as economic growth, agriculture, education, health, environment, democracy and governance, conflict prevention, and humanitarian assistance.

  • Paid and unpaid internships
  • Rolling deadlines
  • Eligibility

U.S. PIRG Internship

We’re looking for students who care about solving the problems that America faces. As an intern with U.S. PIRG, you’ll help us educate and engage people on the important issues we’re working on. Whether it’s by getting our issues into the media, helping to grow our coalitions or organizing events, you’ll be helping us build the public support it takes to win.

  • Rolling deadlines

USTR Internship Program

The intern program at USTR offers paid opportunities in which students, recent graduates, and veterans may gain knowledge and experience in conducting U.S. trade policy. Assignments may include research, analysis, statistics, and coordination of briefing books, report preparation, meeting and conference planning, letter writing, and covering meetings, hearings, and/or legislative markup sessions. Internships are available in most departments of the Washington, DC office.

  • $375-750/week stipend and transportation subsidy provided
  • Spring, summer, and fall programs available
  • Applications typically due about 4 months prior to the program start date and accepted during the remainder of the year

Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) Internship

WOLA’S Sally Yudelman Internship Program seeks to give interns hands-on experience and broad exposure to human rights advocacy and the foreign policy-making process. WOLA selects three interns per session (Spring, Summer, and Fall), and each intern is assigned to work with two of the programs from the following; Border Security, Central American Monitor, Colombia, Communications, Cuba, Development/Fundraising, Drug Policy, Mexico and Migrant Rights, Operations and Human Resources, and Venezuela.

  • $18/hour pay, 20-25 hours/week
  • Applications due in July for September-December program
  • Intern Blog

Solidarity Center Internships

The Solidarity Center is dedicated to promoting and protecting worker rights worldwide. If you would like to make a difference in the lives of workers around the world, consider joining the diverse team of rights activists in Washington, D.C., or one of more than two dozen field offices around the world.

Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center Internships

Interns will provide crucial assistance to SQCC’s conferences, events, and outreach activities. Applicants should have strong research, writing, and interpersonal skills, as well as familiarity with the Arab World in general and Oman in particular.

  • Based in Washington, D.C.
  • Stipend provided
  • Spring, Summer, and Fall internships available