Academic-year internships

Continuing the internship theme that Roxanne kicked off for us yesterday, today we’ll consider the question of internships during the academic year.  We’re often asked about the opportunity to pursue an internship alongside classes, and it’s slightly tricky to answer.  On the one hand, YES, you certainly may pursue an internship!  Absolutely!  And many students do.  On the other hand, it’s not the culture at Fletcher to push students out the door to those internships (except during the summer, of course).  Like so many choices students make (Should I pursue a dual degree?  Exchange semester?  Language study?  Cross-registration?), the decision on an internship depends completely on the individual student’s academic and professional objectives.  There’s plenty going on at Fletcher and elsewhere on the Tufts campus — you won’t be bored if you commit yourself to two years of doing everything there is to do here.  On the other hand, if you tell us you have an internship, we’ll tell you that we’re glad to hear you’re taking advantage of that opportunity!

All of that said, I asked current students about their academic-year internships, and here’s what I found out:

Bob, first-year MALD:  I work as an intern with the Tufts Office of Sustainability, which is located just a short walk from the Fletcher School in Tufts’ Miller Hall.  I spend around 10-15 hours here per week, and some of my work can be completed at home.

Nathan, second-year MALD:  I have done work for two outside organizations while at Fletcher.  The first, in my first year, was at a small governance and peacebuilding organization in Cambridge, about a 30-minute walk from campus.  I worked 16-20 hours during the fall, and scaled back to 8-10 during the spring.  It was enriching to combine the academic environment with a more applied one, but I had to work during normal business hours, which was inconvenient for scheduling study groups and meant missing other opportunities at Fletcher.  This type of work comes down to balancing the experience (and need for extra income!) with the opportunities and community available on campus.  I decided not to continue this during my second year.  My second internship, which I’m doing currently, is a long-distance, on-my-own-time consultancy.  This, of course, means more flexibility but less direct engagement with the organization and the material.  It still involves sacrifice, but it’s less a cause of stress in my life, and I do appreciate having at least one toe in the real world while at an academic institution.

Justin, second-year MIB:  I worked at Converse in Latin America strategy 18-20 hours per week this year.  I was able to do my capstone on Converse’s three-year strategy for Brazil.

Marie, second-year MALD:  I worked at Conflict Dynamics International for about 9 hours a week last fall and this spring.

Katie, first-year MALD:  I have had an internship for both the fall and spring semesters of this year.  It is at WorldTeach, an international education nonprofit in Cambridge (it was formerly affiliated with Harvard).  The internship is 10 hours per week, or 40 hours per month.

John, first-year MIB:  I intern with the U.S. Commercial Service (a division of the Department of Commerce).  I intern at the downtown Boston office, 10-15 hours a week.  My responsibilities include market research and creating market entry strategies for Massachusetts companies to export and expand operations overseas.

Michael, first-year MIB:  I have been working at State Street this semester.  I am in the enterprise risk management division, in the probability of default group.  My group worked on calculating the counter-party risk of broker-dealers for regulatory purposes.  It is very quantitative.  I work approximately 15 hours a week, all on-site in downtown Boston.  The internship is paid on an hourly basis, and I found it through a posting from Fletcher OCS.

Leila, second-year MALD:  Last spring I did an internship at Mercy Corps’ Cambridge office.  I worked 10-12 hours a week with the Director of Governance and Partnerships.  My main tasks were to help with logistics for their Partnerships summit in Bangkok, and to conduct research for an internal paper on private-sector partnerships.  I found out about the internship through an OCS email.

Albert, second-year MALD:  I’ve been interning on the Governance and Peacebuilding team at Conflict Dynamics International both this past summer and during the year.  The internship is focused almost entirely on research in the areas of governance and peacebuilding, particularly in Sudan, South Sudan, and Somalia.  I worked 16 hours a week last semester and am working 12 hours a week this semester, paid on an hourly basis.

Cherrica, first-year MALD, and Chris, first-year MALD both intern at CargoMetrics, downtown Boston, 10-15 hours each week, paid, and say:  It’s a technology-enabled hedge fund founded by Fletcher alums.  They prefer you to work in the office but on occasion they are flexible and allow you to work from home.  Great office with several Fletcher grads and students.

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