At the midpoint for my internship with the Department of State, I can say I am progressing on all of my learning goals and having an amazing professional experience. In particular, I am progressing rapidly on my goal of increasing my professional awareness of different career paths in International Affairs, along with my goal of enhancing my networking capabilities. I am monitoring my growth by setting benchmarks along the way. My current goal is to talk to at least one person a week in order to ask them about their career and experiences within International Affairs. I’ve already learned a great deal by doing this, and it is definitely helping me to narrow down my career options for after graduation. I love learning about the careers of the amazing people at the State Department because they always have interesting stories and great advice for young professionals in the IR field.
The past few weeks I have been working on writing a memo for the Assistant Secretary of the Bureau. I am very proud of writing the content of the memo with my co-intern and two other interns within our Bureau. I had the opportunity to refine my professional writing and research topics that I am passionate about for review by Department officials. This project was extremely rewarding, and I’m looking forward to all of exciting updates that will come from it!
This internship has supported NCI’s mission of developing female leaders by supporting my growth. I have learned more about what it takes to be a leader in International Relations. I’ve worked on my interpersonal skills and I’ve been able to watch excellent leaders every day of my internship. By watching my supervisor and other employees in my office, I’m learning what it takes to be an amazing leader and manager. I’m very thankful for every day that I spend here, and I know that NCI’s mission is being supported by my personal growth!
Additionally, I am learning from some incredible women leaders in my office, which is helping me to develop as a female leader. International relations and diplomacy have definitely been considered a man’s world, particularly because of the stress it can put on families to move around the world every two years. However, in my office, I’ve met incredible women who haven’t let this career path stop them from achieving professional advancement and having great family lives. It is very inspiring to meet so many women excelling in this career path, and I have so much respect for all of them.
The skills that I am building here at State will be highly transferable to my academic life and to my professional life. I am already considering writing an Honors Thesis on Defense Department contracting in Afghanistan because I have found my work here to be so interesting! I want to continue working on Afghan issues in my professional life and being able to get an introduction to an international career focusing on my region of interest has been an unparalleled experience. I am learning so much about immigration, regional issues, and government processes that I will be able to use at Tulane and in my professional career.
I’m loving every second of my internship, and I am so thankful to Newcomb for making my dream a reality!
