Baker Institute interns to share political summer experiences

Baker Institute interns to share political summer experiences

BY B.J. ALMOND
Rice News staff

Six Rice students shouldn’t have any trouble coming up with interesting stories about how they spent their summer vacation when they speak to a select group of faculty at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy this Saturday.

All six participated in the Baker Institute’s Jesse Jones Leadership Center Summer in D.C. Policy Research Internship Program.As interns, the students got at least a two-month sample of the hustle and bustle and muscle of the nation’s capital while working on research projects.

“It was great to have a chance to live in D.C. for the summer and see what goes on there,” said David Brown, who worked at the State Department’s Bureaau of Population Refugees and Migration in the resettlement office. His research project entailed analyzing data on the employment status of refugees at 90 and 180 days after resettlement to evaluate how various refugee groups are doing and the success of nongovernment agencies that were hired to help the refugees.

“You can study international relations in college as much as you want, but being on the inside and seeing how things function between government and international agencies and between agencies and Congress gives you a different perspective on how things work,” said Brown, a Jones College junior.

While the experience will benefit his career interest in humanitarian work, it also had an impact on his role as editor of the Rice Thresher. “Working in a federal bureaucracy gives you an appreciation for the freedom you have as a journalist,” he said.

Steven Lewis, who coordinates this internship program for the Baker Institute, said the program offers a generous stipend to Rice undergraduate students so they can afford to live in Washington during the summer while pursuing research-oriented internships at government agencies and nongovernment organizations. It also offers a unique education component focused on globalization and policy-making, requiring the interns to attend three day-long seminars and read classic books for background information and discussion.

“We’re hoping that participants can use these experiences to obtain even more extensive and prestigious research-oriented fellowships, scholarships and internships later in their studies at Rice or on the way to graduate school,” said Lewis, who is also a research fellow and head of the Transnational China Project at the Baker Institute and professor of the practice in humanities and director of the Asian Studies Program at Rice.

The summer program emphasizes diversity both in the backgrounds of the participants and in their internships and research interests. This Saturday, each intern will give a presentation about the research project they worked on to Baker Institute staff and a group of faculty members.

In addition to Brown, this summer’s interns included:

• Hrishi Hari, a Jones College junior, who worked for a congressman on Capitol Hill, researching everything from foreign relations to social policy to assist the congressman with writing letters to send to constituents;

• Jason Lee, a Wiess College senior, who interned at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where he studied the changing role of the U.S. as China takes on a larger role in the Middle East;

• Jordana Mosten, a Will Rice College senior, who worked at the American Civil Liberties Union Legislative Office on projects involving reform of the Patriot Act and a grant proposal to increase national attention to racial profiling legislation;

• James Prohaska, a Sid Richardson College senior, who examined the effectiveness and evolution of U.S. foreign policy toward the Central Asian states at the Center for Eurasian and Russian Studies;

• Joe Vavra, a Wiess College senior, who worked at the Council of Economic Advisers to the White House in the executive office of the president, where he researched economic issues related to areas such as trade, energy security, social insurance and tax reform that the White House is likely to become involved in or take a position on.

Applications for next summer’s program, which is open to all nongraduating Rice undergraduate students applying for policy research-oriented internships in the D.C. area, are due in January 2007. This year’s interns encouraged other students to apply and to start searching for D.C. internships during the fall semester. Lewis said undergraduates can also work in Houston with Baker Institute researchers during the academic year and over the summer as part of other internship programs.

Lee said public policy experience is invaluable for students in the social sciences. “Opportunities like the Baker Institute program offer actual hands-on research opportunities that can go a long way toward helping students figure out what they want to do with their future,” he said.