Samantha Amberg, CAS ’13, is one of few American University students to have worked in an operating room as an undergraduate.

Amberg, a biology major in the College of Arts and Sciences, found out about an internship opportunity at DaVinci Plastic Surgery during her junior year and couldn’t pass it up.

Though most of her time at DaVinci was spent tracking supply inventories and maintaining medical records, for Amberg, watching and assisting with surgeries was the most valuable part of her experience.

During operations, she prepared surgical tools and materials, scribed and kept track of the time, and served as a general assistant for physicians—tasks most medical students don’t get to do until their second or third year of medical school.

Amberg quickly learned that a day in the operating room can be quite stressful, typically starting at 6 a.m. and ending at 5 p.m.

"Being in the operating room is like running a very stressful marathon," Amberg said. "The first few times I assisted with surgery, it was a deer-in-headlights situation. But I learned quickly and eventually was able to be of greater help to the team, while also learning how to deal with this crazy schedule."

American University is known for fostering an environment that promotes active internships like Amberg’s. The class of 2012 set a new school record, with 88 percent of students completing at least one internship before graduation. 

Like Amberg, they’re not all interning in fields like politics, international service, and communications—traditional strengths of AU. They’re interning in all corners and sectors of Washington, D.C.

"Internships help [students in smaller programs] achieve professional goals in the same manner as any other student by adding specific skills and accomplishments that supplement in the classroom experience," said Sue Gordon, director of career development in the Career Center.

When Maria Schneider, CAS ’13, tells people she majors in American Studies, the first questions she has to answer are "What’s that?" and "What do you want to do with that?"

Luckily, Schneider has a response for both questions. Throughout her coursework, she has focused on education reform, specializing in programs for disadvantaged youth. To supplement her studies, she currently interns at City Kids Wilderness Project, a nonprofit that focuses on outdoor education and leadership for D.C. middle and high school students.

As part of her internship, Schneider organizes weekend retreats that focus on topics like diversity and social justice with the students.

"Most people don’t even think of something like this as a possibility for an internship," Schneider said. "I think it’s important that students know that there are opportunities in D.C. to satisfy every possible interest."

Schneider’s work with City Kids reminds her every day why she is pursuing a career in the education field. Her internship has also helped her land a job teaching middle school Spanish in New Orleans through Teach for America following graduation in May.

"Through internships, students hone their skills and capabilities to build a strong resume and become a more competitive job applicant," Gordon said.

Swathi Nuli, CAS/SPA ’14, is taking advantage of another D.C. institution—the National Institutes of Health. Like Amberg, she interns in the science field, but their internships and long-term goals couldn’t be more different.

Nuli, a pre-med student majoring in psychology and justice/law, interns at NIH’s Institute of Allergens and Infectious Diseases. At NIH, Nuli helps proofread manuscripts from around the world, creates visuals for scientific publications, and assists with HIV research.

"My job [at NIH] has been one of the most influential opportunities I have had as a pre-medical student at AU," Nuli said. "I think a lot of political science and School of International Service majors at AU come to D.C. to work with the top politicians in the world, and I feel similarly fortunate to be working with the top scientists."

Nuli said that her NIH experience inspired her to bring a chapter of Phi Delta Epsilon, an international medical fraternity, to AU. She points to engaging and helpful mentors as the most important resource for pre-med students. 

Nuli will be extending her HIV work by volunteering in South Africa this summer and said she hopes to stay in this field for the long run.

Amberg, on the other hand, decided to pursue a new field after her time with the plastic surgeons. After interacting with patients and hearing their individual stories, Amberg discovered that her true passion is in psychology. She is grateful for her internship experience and the fact that it gave her a clearer vision of her future goals.

"My time at DaVinci has given me so much more than another bullet on my resume," Amberg said. "I’ve gained plenty of practical skills, but my most valuable takeaways are intangible: how to behave in a professional environment, how to interact with clients, and how much I can accomplish if I push myself."

If there’s a single word that describes Eric Rodriguez, it’s focus.

For the AU anthropology major and 2012–13 Udall scholarship winner, that focus begins and ends with his identity as a descendant of the Yakima Nation in Washington state and an enrolled member of the Fort Belknap Indian Community in Montana. 

Rodriguez was one of only 50 new Udall scholars nationwide out of more than 400 applicants, and one of eight Native Americans. American University, which has had 12 Udall scholars in the past seven years, ranks second in the nation in producing Udall winners. 

Particularly in Indian Country, where the Udalls’ family history in Congress and the Department of the Interior and their work as champions for the environment loom large, winning the scholarship "is really prestigious," Rodriguez says. 

Helping his people 

From an early age, Rodriguez strove to help his people. But one event sharpened his focus. 

"I grew up in the housing projects, with all the effects of the reservation, all the domestic violence, the teen suicides, the alcohol and drug abuse. That was my world; that’s what I was surrounded by," he says. "And so growing up I wanted to help my community and became a volunteer firefighter and EMT after graduating from high school." 

By the time he was 21, he said, he wanted to do more than put out fires and "patch everybody up" as a volunteer firefighter/EMT. He was accepted as a tribal police officer in the Yakima Nation Police Department. 

Then came the experiences that changed his life. 

"Being a police officer was a great opportunity," he says. "But what really put me on the path was all the teen suicides I had to handle. Within a few months’ period I had to handle three suicides. That was me showing up first on the scene, having to cut them down, start CPR, and stuff like that. The trials and tribulations I experienced really focused me on wanting to accomplish my goals because I know that developing tribal policies you can help prevent these things. You can’t solve everything. But building stronger tribal nations is where you can help them, giving them different opportunities." 

Building stronger tribal nations also means learning from the elders, Rodriguez says. The desire to understand his culture better is why he became an anthropology major at AU, for his tribal identity is very important to him. 

"It’s what makes Indian people their own sovereign entity," he says. "It reinforces our self-determination." His life experience, Rodriguez acknowledges, is worlds apart from most college students’. 

"To me, it’s like studying abroad, living here in D.C.," he says. "Usually I’m part of the countryside, being able to go somewhere without seeing all the concrete buildings. I’m used to a lot more trees, a lot more open space."

The next step 

Before coming to AU, the desire to do more for his people led Rodriguez to the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Artesia, New Mexico. After returning to his community in Washington state, he was recruited by the Pojoaque Pueblo (tribal police department) in New Mexico as a tribal police officer. There he continued to learn about the jurisdictional complications tribal police encounter in incidents involving non-Indians, as well as working with different police agencies such as the sheriff’s department and the state police. 

It was his decision to return to the Yakima Nation, with its new approach to policing, that allowed him to pursue a more proactive course. Instead of just keeping the peace he could address problems before they spiraled out of control. 

"It’s a different philosophy for the Yakima Nation for community policing," he says. "Instead of just showing up at the scene of domestic violence, teen suicides, or alcohol abuse, you work with the community to figure out what’s going on to try to fix it. This different approach was our ability to use the community, their own resources, to solve problems. And so what I did was work with the outlying community to establish a community coalition." 

That entailed setting up joint patrols with other police agencies to work on jurisdictional problems, but also working with students to educate them about suicide prevention, to teach them to watch out for signs that a classmate or friend might need help. 

The program saved lives. 

As an AU student, Rodriguez continues to teach tribal police officers about community policing via webinars he conducts through his internship at the Department of Justice, where he is a Tribal Meth fellow. (Methamphetamine addiction is a big problem on and off the reservation in many communities.) 

Rodriguez previously interned at the U.S. Census Bureau, a position he got through AU’s Washington Internships for Native Students (WINS) program. There he worked on a project to develop life tables—actuarial tables that show the likelihood of someone in a particular group dying before his or her next birthday—for indigenous peoples. No such life tables exist for Native Americans. 

The long-term plan 

Rodriguez came to D.C. to learn as much as he could about federal agencies and processes that have an impact on Indian tribes. His next step: law school. 

"I want to become an assistant U.S. attorney," he says. "After getting that experience, I want to go back and become an in-house counsel for my tribe. This [his life away from the reservation] is just leading up to getting the experience and contacts so I can go back and use them and develop new policies within the tribe to strengthen it." 

The prestige of winning the Udall scholarship, beyond the $5,000 it provides for tuition and the opportunity to network with other scholarship winners in August in Tucson, Arizona, should go a long way toward helping him succeed. Half of the Native American/Alaska Native Udall scholars are pursuing tribal public policy careers and half health care. At AU, Rodriguez is the first Native student pursuing a career related to public policy. In winning the scholarship, Rodriguez is quick to credit the help he received from Joan Echols, associate director of the Office of Merit Awards in the Career Center. They worked together on dozens of drafts of his application. 

"I truly enjoyed working with Eric on the Udall scholarship," says Echols. "I have no doubt that he will make a significant contribution to his Yakima tribe and more broadly on tribal policy and justice. His demonstrated leadership as a tribal community policing officer was impressive." 

The Udall Foundation, an independent federal agency established in 1992 to support college students seeking careers in environmental protection and Indian students interested in tribal public policy or health-care careers, has provided about $6.8 million in scholarships.

When Michelle Maile, CAS/BA ’12, was a senior at American University, she spent her days studying how amphetamines affect memory.

Her research at AU was critical in propelling her into her current job as a Postbaccalaureate Intramural Research Training Award Fellow at the National Institutes of Health.

As a student, the psychology major had the opportunity to design her own study and carry out all the research. The experience so paralleled the real world of scientific research that when Maile accepted the position at NIH after graduation last year, she fit right in.

Maile’s experience entering the post-college job world is mirrored by the majority of AU’s graduating seniors from 2012, according to the university’s Graduation Census.

Eighty-one percent of 2012 graduates shared their status within six months after graduation. Among the findings:

• Ninety-three percent of graduates with a bachelor's degree had a positive outcome.

• A total of 69 percent of graduates with a bachelor's degree were working, 13 percent were pursuing an advanced degree, 7 percent were working and pursuing an advanced degree, and 4 percent had other intentional plans.

• Almost half of those working secured jobs before completing their degrees.

• Nine out of 10 of those gainfully employed 2012 grads found employment related to their degree or career objective.

Outcomes were similar of 2012 graduates of a master’s degree program who shared their status. 

• Eighty-seven percent were working within six months of completing their degree. Almost half of those working secured jobs prior to graduation.
  

• Ninety-six percent of master's program graduates who work hold a position related to their degree or career objective.

These numbers are impressive, especially when you consider the job market is still slowly recovering from the 2008 recession. What they suggest is that despite the economy, there are jobs to be had and many AU grads are receiving offers.

"The market is slowly improving," said Gihan Fernando, executive director of the Career Center. “There are opportunities for students in a wide range of fields. You still have to work hard for the jobs, but it’s not like it was at the height of the recession."

AU senior Matt Dorf, SOC/BA ’13, is one of the students who worked hard for his job. After working in the AU Athletics Department doing communications and interning last summer for Major League Baseball, Dorf landed a position after graduation with MLB Productions as a broadcast logger.

That means Dorf will get paid to watch baseball — a dream job for a sports enthusiast like him.

Dorf first got a taste of sports production in AU Athletics. The School of Communication student worked on a variety of projects from producing game tape to writing game summaries. That experience helped put him on his current career trajectory, he said.

"In my time at AU working in the Athletics Department, I learned I had a huge passion for sports production,” he said.

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At the end of May, just a couple weeks after graduation, Dorf moves to Secaucus, N.J., to begin his new job. The self-described "workaholic" said he’s anxious to get going in the real world.

"I’m ready to start working my butt off," Dorf said. "I have goals I want to achieve."

It’s likely that Dorf’s internship with MLB Productions helped him land his current job. He’s in good company. Nine out of ten AU students who interned or studied abroad were employed or enrolled in grad school within six months. Of those who are working or in graduate school, 92 percent had internships and 61 percent studied abroad while at AU, according to the 2012 Graduation Census.

The census figures, which are compiled by the Office of Institutional Research, in conjunction with the career centers and college and schools, are the result of extensive post-graduation surveying and research.

This means AU understands where its graduates have been and are headed. While the Career Center doesn’t yet have survey numbers for 2013 graduates, there are some indications that the job market is improving, Fernando said.

At the recent AU Job & Internship Fair sponsored by the Career Center, the number of employers who were participating was up 32 percent over the previous spring’s fair. Many of those employers were recruiting for more than one opening.

"It’s a reflection of a better market," Fernando said. "The employers have needs. They wouldn’t come if they didn’t have positions they needed to fill."

Of those recruiters at the job fair, 17 were representing federal agencies. That’s good news, Fernando said, especially in the face of the sequester.

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The federal government remains one of the largest employers of AU graduates. The list of top 20 employers of AU grads boasts 12 federal agencies, including the Department of State, the F.B.I., and the U.S. Senate, according to the Career Center.  

Maile is one of those recent grads working for a federal agency. At NIH, she has had the opportunity to do research in an established lab and focus on her specific career interests.

Recently, Maile learned she had been accepted into the neuroscience and behavior doctoral program at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She hopes the position will serve as a springboard for a career in academia.

While Maile nabbed the job she wanted, Fernando advises students to consider a couple of career paths in an economy that is still somewhat precarious.

"Don’t just focus on one area. Have a backup plan," he said. "But always bring your A game, and highlight your assets and what you bring to the table."

Last year, American University rose from No. 7 to No. 5 nationally for its number of Presidential Management Fellowship (PMF) finalists. This year, AU has one-upped itself, rising to No. 3 in the national rankings for both finalists—of which AU had 19—and semi-finalists—of which AU had 45. This year’s finalists, announced in early April, hail from all of AU’s schools and colleges. 

“We have some outstanding candidates,” says PMF and School of Public Affairs career advisor Robert SanGeorge. SanGeorge helped prepare all of AU’s semi-finalists and finalists for the application process. “This year, they came from all AU schools … and we’re glad they did, because we would like to see that kind of diversity and interest campus-wide in the program.”

For more than 30 years, the PMF program has attracted advanced degree-holders for positions within the federal government, including the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA, USAID, and the Department of Transportation, among others. The application is a two-step process, beginning with an online test that gauges an applicant’s psychological profile; 12,120 people took the test nationwide this year, according to PMF’s website. Of that pool, the program selects roughly 1,600 semi-finalists who then participate in an intensive series of interviews and group activities. Selected finalists are then able to apply for jobs specifically set aside for them, with two-year appointments, competitive salaries, and benefits; PMF finalists—there were 663 this year—also receive “additional mentoring and training that is not available to other people,” notes SanGeorge. He trained ’AU’s semi-finalists with several workshops, one-on-one meetings, and various online resources.

“You are being groomed to be a future federal manager at a significant level,” adds SanGeorge. “Once you’re finished with those two years and you transition into regular federal employment, you have PMF on your resume, and that really is a big deal for people who want to pursue the federal government as a career.”

Of the 19 AU finalists, seven are from the School of International Service, five are from the Washington College of Law, three are from the School of Public Affairs, two are from the College of Arts and Sciences, one is from the School of Communication, and one is from the Kogod School of Business. But coaching for these students and alumni doesn’t stop after they have been named finalists: The Career Center will continue to provide guidance on crafting a federal resume, reaching out to certain federal departments, preparing for job interviews, and connecting with AU alumni of the program, SanGeorge says. 

Finalist Keri Sikich, SPA/PhD '13 and SIS/BA '02, is already emailing other AU alumni to discuss how she should present herself to various federal departments during the application process. Sikich, who studies juries and comparative legal systems, has taught many classes as an adjunct at AU. She hopes to parlay her background in public policy and experience working on Capitol Hill into opportunities with the Departments of State or Justice.

“It’s a great opportunity, especially now that I’ve seen other friends of mine try to get jobs after their PhD—I see how hard it is to get into the federal system,” Sikich says. “So it’s not an opportunity that I plan on passing up. The government is certainly a great place for me to be.”

Equally excited is Josh Jones, SIS/PhD '13, who, before attending AU, served a tour in Iraq during his four years in the U.S. Army and spent a summer with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Serbia. His experience in the Army was not only the inspiration for his dissertation, but the leadership and time management skills he learned while in the service became invaluable during the PMF application process, he says. 

“I think the benefit of the military is that it gives people the opportunity to lead, to take responsibility for people and goals in ways that may be harder to come by in other forums,” says Jones, who is keeping an open mind regarding which federal positions may interest him. “To paraphrase Teddy Roosevelt, I want to ‘work hard at work worth doing.’ I would like to find a position in which I can support a department or agency in accomplishing its mission and to add value to the organization.”

Similarly liberal about his ideal federal department is Brian Thompson, CAS/MEd '11, who became a teacher after being deployed to Afghanistan while serving three-and-a-half years in the U.S. Army; a care package from his mother with the book Teacher Man by Frank McCourt inspired him to join Teach For America (TFA) when he returned to the U.S. Thompson received his master’s through TFA’s partnership with AU; has taught 10th-grade world history at Cardozo High School in Washington, D.C., for the past four years; and has been awarded with numerous teaching awards from the District of Columbia Public Schools for his success with students. Thompson hopes to land a position with the Department of Education or Veterans Affairs, but he doesn’t plan to limit himself.

“I think I’ve always been committed to public service; in the military and in teaching, I’ve kind of been the boots on the ground, whether in the classroom or the battlefield,” Thompson says. “I’m just looking for something that blends my passion, and an opportunity to do something meaningful. I’m not looking to push paper all day long—I’m looking for an agency that will provide me with opportunities to grow and do great things.”

Congratulations to all of AU’s 2013 PMF finalists: Ann Mangold, Anna Naimark, Brian Thompson, Colin Bishop, Elena Green Feroz, Erin Swetland, Jason Whittle, Jennifer Flowers, Jessica Torres, Josh Jones, Kathleen Larkin, Keri Sikich, Lauren McCarty, Nicholas Beadle, Nicholas Fechter, Robert Brodell, Samuel Hedlund, Sheen Munshi, and William Daming. 

The application process for the 2014 PMF program will begin this fall, and will be open to students and alumni who hold advanced degrees earned between December 2011 and August 2014.

From his first few days on campus until now, Stephen Bronskill, from Seattle, has done more for the campus and the Washington, D.C., community than most people ever could dream of doing. 

At only 21, the senior's resume is longer than most people’s twice his age.

"Stephen exemplifies the idea that when you’re passionate about something, time expands," said Assistant Professor Margaret Marr, director of the School of Public Affairs Leadership Program, of which Bronskill is a part.

Bronskill isn’t just passionate about one thing. He will earn two degrees upon graduation, one in environmental science and one in political science. His interests span many disciplines including democracy, environmental sustainability, leadership, and public service.

As the winner of the President's Award, Bronskill will receive American University's highest undergraduate honor during commencement.

While at AU, Bronskill also won a national Udall Scholarship for his commitment to environmentalism and he was a national finalist for a Truman Scholarship for public service. 

In addition to the President’s Award, Bronskill will also receive the Stafford H. Cassell Award for his dedication to the university during commencement weekend.

A Natural Leader

Talk to anyone who knows Bronskill and they will tell you the same things about him. He’s motivated, engaging, a natural leader, and a community builder. This began even before he first set foot on campus.

In 2008, Bronskill, who was born in Toronto to Canadian parents, volunteered for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. It was his first taste of national politics and the enthusiasm surrounding then candidate Obama helped plant a seed.

"In 2008, I was seeing what we’re capable of," Bronskill said. "I still feel a lot of the themes of that time resonate now."

As a freshman, Bronskill took part in the SPA Leadership Program, which helps identify young leaders. He was also part of University College, where students live and take seminars together, as well as participate in community learning experiences. Associate Professor of Environmental Science Kiho Kim first met Bronskill through University College.

"He was one of those students whom you know right off the bat is special," Kim said. "It was clear right from the beginning that his level of thinking was very mature, like a senior or a grad student."

During that first year, Bronskill also participated in the College Democrats and Eco-Sense, a student environmental club that Bronskill would become president of. 

He also found time to intern with the environmental justice organization, Groundswell. It’s one of a handful of internships Bronskill has had while at AU.

"The beauty of being in D.C. is that there are so many organizations that need interns for things," he said. "This city is a laboratory."

It was in his freshman year that Marr, clearly impressed with Bronskill’s drive, took him to a leadership conference at the U.S. Naval Academy. There, Bronskill listened to journalist Tom Brokaw talk about the need for civilian leadership academies not unlike the service academies.

Brokaw’s speech ignited a fire in Bronskill and as a part of a project for the SPA Leadership Program, he instituted the Community Service Coalition on campus. The coalition includes about 40 campus groups. The CSC allows them to draw from each other and make use of varied resources for community service projects.

Bronskill served as the director of the CSC for a year and then turned over the reins to another student. Today, the CSC is still active and an important part of the campus community, which is a testament to Bronskill's work with the coalition, Marr said.

As part of the SPA Leadership Program, Bronskill interned at the White House during his junior year. He worked in the Visitors Office, which processes requests for tours. The experience was intense and time-consuming, but worth it.

"It was an amazing opportunity to see public servants at work," he said.

The following semester, Bronskill, encouraged by professors like Marr and Kim, went to Pune, India, with AU Abroad. He wanted to understand global environmental issues and India, with its rapidly expanding economy and population, seemed the perfect setting.

When he returned from India, Bronskill went to work for an organization called The Washington Bus, which helps young people in Washington State get involved in the political process. Because of his time at AU, Bronskill is more interested than ever in politics, he said.

"Here I saw the political and environmental realms coming together. I’m interested in the intersection of the two," he said.

Giving Back

Bronskill has accomplished much while at AU, but he is quick to acknowledge all the support he’s been given along the way. From Kim to Marr to Assistant Professor Simon Nicholson, who teaches global environmental politics, these professors and others have guided him as he’s blazed his path.

Bronskill views his final year at AU as a chance to give back to the programs that have helped him during his time here. As such, he has been a program assistant in University College, as well as the student director of the SPA Leadership Program.  

After he graduates, Bronskill is headed to the Mississippi Delta region to teach ninth grade biology through Teach For America. He first got a taste of teaching during an SPA Leadership Program project with a nonprofit that served African American boys in Wards 7 and 8.

"I want to learn how the policies I’ve learned over the last four years actually affect people," he said. "The opportunity gap in education is one of the biggest social justice issues."

Doing Teach For America is just one of the many things, Bronskill said he never thought he’d have a chance to do, but AU made a reality.

"AU really empowers students to figure out what it is they want to do," he said.  

For most of Thomas Cheng’s 21 years, he’s felt disconnected from his Chinese heritage. Being a first generation American, he wanted to transcend his race and ethnicity.

As a result, his Mandarin skills aren’t great, even though it’s his parents’ native language and he travels to China yearly to visit family. Since his family speaks a mix of Chinese and English at home, Cheng hasn’t been forced to fully learn the language.

That will soon change when Cheng, SPA/SOC ’13, moves to rural China after graduation to teach English with a program called Teach For China.

He will be thrown in the cultural and linguistic deep end and will have to improve his language skills if he wants to succeed.

"I know it’s definitely not going to be a walk in the park. But I want to reconnect with my heritage," he said. "As uncomfortable as going to a new place can be, it’s often the most rewarding."

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If his experience at American University is any indicator, Cheng will do just fine. In his four years at the university, Cheng has taken advantage of many opportunities offered to him.

During his freshman year, he volunteered for DC Reads, worked as an AU Student Ambassador leading tours for prospective students, participated in TALK, an intercultural discussion group, and joined AU’s improv troupe, Mission: Improv-able. He’s performed with them for four years and has taken a leadership role in the group.

"When the auditions came around, I went by myself and said, 'Why not?'" he said.

During his time with Mission: Improv-able, Cheng has learned how to manage a budget and deal more effectively with people in the entertainment business. He performs in five to six shows on campus a year and a handful around the region. 

He’s even performed at the College Improv Tournament National Championships, something he never could have anticipated doing when he was a high school student in Columbia, Md.

"I like that when it goes really well, it’s the most rewarding thing. When it doesn’t go well, it’s a great learning experience," he said.

Improv isn’t the only activity Cheng has participated in since freshman year. In the years that followed, Cheng has worked as an orientation leader, a Freshman Service Experience Coordinator, and a program associate for University College. Currently, he’s a residential advisor for the Washington Semester Program. It’s his way of giving back.

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"Because I have done study abroad, I know how important it is to have those residential resources," Cheng said, explaining his decision to work for Washington Semester.

Cheng studied abroad his junior year in Copenhagen through AU Abroad and he participated in two alternative spring breaks — one in Cuba and one in Louisiana and Alabama.

 "I very much want to do everything and try everything," Cheng said. "I like being able to surprise people."

Despite his Justice, Law & Society and Public Communication double major, Cheng wants to try his hand at teaching. DC Reads is the only teaching job he’s had, but he’s hoping his other experiences at AU will fill in the gaps.

Cheng leaves for China in the middle of July. He’s not sure yet where he will be posted — either Yunnan or Guangdong province, he thinks. He’ll be placed in an elementary school to help close the education gap that has occurred over the years in rural China due to the exodus to large cities. Along the way, he’ll work on his language skills and learn more about where his family comes from.

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When he was younger, Cheng would travel to China to stay with his grandparents over the summers. They didn’t speak English and he didn’t speak Chinese. Communication was tough and Thomas had a difficult time connecting with his surroundings due to the language barrier.

"Now I’ll be really immersing myself in Chinese culture in a way I hadn’t before," he said.

The fact that he’s graduating soon doesn’t make him anxious since he’s already secured employment for the next two years. But he will be leaving the "luxuries and comforts of D.C. and AU" for a new environment.

"It’s a mixed bag" of nervousness and excitement, he said. "But I’m really looking forward to seriously having a substantive experience over there. I want to use these next two years to get a better idea of what I want to do."

During her three years at American University, Carla Faustino has met more celebrities than most people come across in a lifetime.

Singer John Legend, former senator Olympia Snowe, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, and Rep. Paul Ryan are just a few of the many luminaries that have come into the AU junior’s orbit.

And then there was former president Bill Clinton.

"I just kept thinking, I’m in the same room as Bill Clinton. This is so crazy!" Faustino said. "I posted a picture with him on Facebook and everyone was asking how I met him."

The answer to that question is three words: Kennedy Political Union. Faustino, a double major in Communications, Law, Economics, and Government and political science, is the deputy director of KPU, the student-run political lecture series.

KPU has a long history on campus. Now in its 44th year, the organization has brought top political thinkers and activists from around the world to AU.

Faustino, who grew up in suburban Chicago, knew from a young age she wanted to be involved in politics. In high school, she volunteered for Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign. After that experience, she couldn’t see going to college in any other city but Washington, D.C.

"When I visited AU, it just seemed like everyone was into something. Everyone seemed motivated, like they were here to accomplish something," she said.  

Her freshman year, Faustino volunteered for KPU. The fact that such an important campus entity was run entirely by students piqued her interest.

One of the first KPU events that Faustino volunteered for was a town hall style Q&A with the self-proclaimed Republican "Young Guns" — Representatives Eric Cantor (R-Va.), Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), and Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who went on to become Mitt Romney’s running mate in the 2012 presidential election.

The event began with an interview with FOX News’ Greta Van Sustern for her show On The Record. The evening made an impression on Faustino.

"It was so cool that a group that’s just a bunch of students could do something like that," she said.

After her freshman year, Faustino wanted to become more active in KPU so she applied to be the organization’s publicity coordinator. In that position, she handled all the promotion and logistical support for the events.

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Junior year, Faustino wanted to be more deeply involved in KPU and applied to be the deputy director. In that role, Faustino reached out to many elected officials and other notable names to schedule them as speakers.

This year, she’s helped land Snowe, former Obama advisor David Axelrod, reproductive rights activist Sandra Fluke, and MSNBC television host Rachel Maddow, who is speaking at AU on April 21.

Faustino’s experience as a legislative intern for Senator Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) has helped her navigate Washington politics and made it easier to connect with potential speakers. Her most recent internship at Crosby~Volmer, an international communication firm gave her a taste of public relations, which is part of her role with KPU.

MORE YOUR AU: Freshman 'Eye on the Eagles' Host Soars

All of the speakers KPU brings to campus have an opinion. That’s why they’re invited, Faustino said. And that’s why AU students respond to them.

"We’re trying to get people to think critically," she said. "You don’t have to agree with the speakers politically. But you have to understand that they have something interesting and valid to say."

KPU isn’t Faustino’s only brush with leadership at AU. She’s also a member of the Phi Mu sorority and a delegate to the Panhellenic Council.

As deputy director of KPU during her junior year, it might make sense that Faustino seek the directorship her senior year. But she’s spending the summer studying abroad in Spain through AU Abroad's Madrid Summer Internship program and won’t be around to help plan the 2013-2014 series.

Still, she anticipates continuing her involvement in KPU. Being that close to D.C.’s power brokers and intellectual giants makes it nearly impossible to resist.

The experience of the past three years has certainly left an indelible impression. One of the speakers who resonated most with her was Snowe, a hero of Faustino’s for her commitment to compromise and moderation.

After working to secure Snowe as a speaker, Faustino was asked if she wanted to introduce the former lawmaker. It was an especially important event for her because her father came to see it.

"I freaked out. I was so excited," she said. "It’s such a cool opportunity to have as a student."

This article is the third of a four-part series called, "Your AU." The articles detail the experiences of American University students during freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior year.

Deon T. Jones, SPA/BA '14, has been named a 2013 Harry S. Truman Scholar. Jones—the youngest elected official in the history of Washington, D.C.; a former White House intern; and a first-generation college student—stands out for his exemplary record of public service. 

The award, established as a memorial to 33rd President Harry S. Truman, provides recipients with up to $30,000 for graduate study leading to careers in the government or nonprofit sector. Jones is one of 62 Truman Scholars selected from a nationwide pool of 629 candidates.

“Unimaginable,” says Jones of his most recent accomplishment. “American University changed my life; completely changed everything. … Part of who I am right now wouldn’t be possible without the people I met who supported me at AU.”

MORE: Jones's undergraduate experience at AU

Jones, who interned in the Vice President’s Correspondence Office and ran into Vice President Joe Biden at the U.S. Embassy in London this semester while studying abroad at King's College London, will spend this summer as a Public Policy and International Affairs fellow at University of California, Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy. After graduating from AU next year, Jones plans to write a memoir about his life so far—touching on his experience as a national spokesperson for the Campaign for Youth Justice, a campus campaign coordinator for Teach For America, and an emerging leader for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation—before attending law school.

MORE: Jones's White House internship

He hopes to continue advocating for youth in the juvenile justice system—a cause he became directly involved in with his creation of the MANifest Leadership Institute, a series of workshops for young men who are newly released from the D.C. juvenile detention center—and may dabble in motivational speaking as a way to inspire other African American students and those from diverse backgrounds to apply for the same kinds of scholarships and opportunities he has received, Jones says.

“One of the things I love so much about winning this is it shows it’s possible, that you can actually do it—it all goes into believing in yourself,” he says. 

This year American University nominated five students, including Andrew Menefee, SIS/BA '13, and Alifa Watkins, CAS/BA '13, who were named national finalists. AU is one of 17 universities in the country to have three or more finalists in 2013. Since 2000, 11 Truman Scholars and 22 national finalists have hailed from AU.

MORE: Office of Merit Awards and other scholarship opportunities

Jonathan Wallen’s academic life has been forged by mentors.

First, there was the high school debate coach who took an interest in the high-achieving student and encouraged him to consider American University because of the institution’s emphasis on the scholar-teacher ideal.

Then there was Assistant Professor Xuguang Sheng, a highly regarded econometrician who hired Wallen, then a freshman, to be his research assistant. 

Their project, for which Wallen was recently awarded an AU Summer Scholars & Artists Fellowship, uses "econometric analysis to assess how central bank policy reduces information rigidity in macroeconomic forecasts."

In addition to those mentors, Wallen has had other champions at AU. School of Public Affairs Associate Dean Margaret Weekes recommended Wallen for an advanced economics course last summer at the prestigious London School of Economics and SPA Associate Professor Douglas Klusmeyer asked the sophomore to be his teaching assistant for his Western Legal Tradition class.

"I have a really great relationship with a number of professors and it’s happened in a very endogenous way," Wallen said. "The motivation for doing the work is the fact that I’ve had many good mentors throughout my life." 

As a youth who was often a foreigner, it makes sense that Wallen would seek out these connections. He was born in Sweden to a Swedish father and Korean mother. He spent his elementary years in China where his father worked in the telecommunications industry. In China, Wallen attended a British international school with students from all over the world.

YOUR AU: 'Eye on the Eagles' Freshman Host Soars

When he was in middle school, his family moved to the Dallas area and Wallen found comfort in academics. They were stable, predictable. He took an interest in math because it was a "universal language."

When he arrived at AU his freshman year, Wallen knew he wanted to study math, economics, and finance. He is now double majoring in math and economics with a finance minor. 

Because he is in the University Honors Program, Wallen has had access to smaller classes, which in turn has given him greater access to professors and has introduced him to like-minded classmates.

During his first semester at AU, Wallen met Sheng and the two hit it off. Wallen was intrigued by Sheng’s research in economic forecasting and Sheng was happy to work with such an inspired undergraduate.

Every Tuesday, the pair meets to discuss data and results to plot where to take their research next. So far they have transformed numerous forecasting reports compiled by an economics survey organization into a working data set for analysis.

"We have a wonderful working relationship," Wallen said.

Wallen’s collaboration with Sheng comes on top of a full course load this semester. His schedule is comprised of two 400-level classes and four 500-level classes, including Intro to Stochastic Processes, not a class that typically appeals to second-year students.

Wallen admits his course selection might have been a bit ambitious, but it’s part of his plan to finish his major coursework by the end of this year so that his next two years can be spent pursuing independent study. Research is really what drives Wallen.

"I believe in active learning, not just classroom learning," he said.

While he still has two years left at AU, Wallen is already planning his post-college life. He sees graduate school in his future, and then hopefully a career that combines his math and economics skills with his international background, perhaps in the field of risk management.

That’s where he wants to turn his research attention next — risk. In the past decade, risk has been a major focal point in financial literature.

"This area has serious, real-world applications. It’s fast-moving and there’s a lot of scholarship around it," Wallen said.

Until he enters the real world, Wallen will just have to be satisfied with continuing his research at American. He has some ideas percolating that he wants to pursue and he is staying in Washington, D.C., over the summer to continue his research with Sheng.

His advice to students coming to AU is to develop connections with faculty and get to know their research. Hopefully, that legwork will yield a professor interested in mentoring a student.

It worked for Wallen, who is getting to do more academically because of his dedication than many upperclassmen.

"College has succeeded my expectations," he said. "I had some ideas about research projects I wanted to do when I came here, but I never knew they would develop so quickly."

This article is the second of a four-part series called, "Your AU." The articles detail the experiences of American University students during freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior year.

How many interns can say they helped manage a sales territory that generates over $7 million annually?

Thanks to her internship with American Greetings this spring, Rachel Rea, BSBA/BA '13, can. 

Rea is working alongside Jerry MacGillis, the company's area supervisor for Washington, D.C. and the surrounding area. Her hands-on experience involves managing more than 150 retail accounts, including supermarkets, mass channel, and drug stores to ensure their territory is generating revenue.

The job is no cake walk: the Cleveland, Ohio-based company is the largest publicly-traded greeting card company in the world. Rea must develop and maintain relationships with store management; hire, train, and supervise a staff of 55 part-time merchandisers; and travel in- and outside the Beltway, visiting accounts to make sure everything is running smoothly. 

No two days are the same, said the Washington, D.C. native.

"The American Greetings internship is easily the most hands-on and intensive internship I've ever had," she said. "It's an excellent opportunity to learn from top-of-the-line management professionals about leading a team, efficient planning, and interpreting sales reports to improve team performance."

Beyond gaining experience in field sales management, Rea has the opportunity to connect with other interns and executives at American Greetings. Each week she participates in the team’s LinkedIn group, which includes all of the interns, trainers, district managers, and even the vice president of field sales.

"I've sharpened my analytical skills and my professional communication," she said. "I recommend [the internship] to anyone interested in sales or management."

The internship program launched in 2012 and actively recruits business students. American Greetings generates annual revenue of approximately $1.6 billion; the Cleveland, Ohio-based company's major greeting card lines are American Greetings, Carlton Cards, Gibson, Recycled Paper Greetings, and Papyrus.

Rea will graduate in May with two degrees: a BS in Business Administration (BSBA) with a specialization in Entrepreneurship, and a BA in Broadcast Journalism from the School of Communication.

When Lisa Lumeya did her first screen test to host the Eye on the Eagles TV show, she was so nervous, she didn’t think she’d be able to get through it. She’d never thought about getting into TV when American University Athletics scouted her, so being featured on a show was not on her radar.

Since that first time on camera, Lumeya has made an impressive go of it, hosting the sports round-up show for the 2012-2013 season. Not bad for a freshman who came to AU thinking she’d be a lawyer, not a TV personality.

"I just want to take full advantage of all the opportunities and resources here," Lumeya said.

Lumeya’s journey to AU was long and winding. She was born in Sweden to a Swedish mother and a Congolese father. Shortly after her birth, the family moved to the Democratic Republic of Congo where they stayed until war broke out, which forced them to flee. 

They returned to Sweden for a bit and then went back to the Congo when the war had ended. Ultimately, the family ended up in Fresno, Calif., where Lumeya did most of her schooling.

Having experienced war and conflict up close had a significant impact on Lumeya, SPA ’16.

"It spurred a passion in me for justice and international human rights," she said.

From a young age, Lumeya, who was her high school’s valedictorian, knew she wanted to be a lawyer and thought Washington, D.C., was the perfect place to cut her teeth in law. 

She applied to AU sight unseen on the merits of AU’s political science program.

"This school could offer me the most in terms of what I wanted to do," she said.

As soon as Lumeya arrived on campus for AU’s Summer Transition Enrichment Program, she began to take advantage of all the opportunities she could. 

She joined the AU Dance Team and Phi Alpha Delta, the law fraternity; she took a job at the Davenport Coffee Lounge; and became a teacher’s assistant at the DC Dance Collective near campus. 

She also joined the University College World Politics program, a full-year interdisciplinary course covering global issues in the contemporary era.

During one of her performances with the AU Dance Team, Lumeya caught the eye of Nancy Yasharoff, associate athletics director for communications. Yasharoff asked Lumeya if she’d consider hosting the Eye on the Eagles. Despite not having any broadcast experience, Lumeya said yes. She figured the experience of being in front of a camera would come in handy one day.

"I’ve definitely gained an understanding of speaking and an awareness of how I look when I’m doing it," Lumeya said. "Public speaking is a very important skill when you’re a lawyer, so this is very helpful."

Not only has hosting Eye on the Eagles laid a foundation for public speaking, but it has also given a new appreciation for what it takes to be a broadcaster.

"It’s a lot harder than it looks," she said.

One thing Lumeya has had to work on while hosting is holding her pose at the end of a shot. The pause seems interminable, but Lumeya’s getting better at it because "she’s extremely teachable," Yasharoff said.

Another thing Lumeya has come to appreciate since taking over host responsibilities is athletics at AU. Before coming to American, Lumeya had no idea that the university fielded 16 Division I teams. Now she knows a little something about all of AU’s sports.

Hosting Eye of the Eagles has brought the freshman some recognition around campus as well. More than once, someone has come up to Lumeya asking if she’s “the girl from the Eye on the Eagles.” Lumeya laughs at this, especially when it happens in the Terrace Dining Room.

With so much on her plate, including taking 17 academic credits this semester, Lumeya’s planner is her life. It’s full of commitments from fraternity meetings to class projects. But she wouldn’t have it any other way.

"I work best when I’m under stress," she said. "But I enjoy everything I do."

To that end, Lumeya has some advice for incoming AU freshmen: Explore all of your options once you get here. Then participate.

It’s how Lumeya has adjusted to college life.

This article is the first of a four-part series called, "Your AU." The articles detail the experiences of American University students during freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior year.

Global Environmental Policy program student Adam Jadhav, SIS/MA '14, has been awarded a research grant from the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board to study social capital among fisher communities in India.

With the research scholarship, Jadhav intends to conduct a large-sample survey of fishing communities in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. He wants to examine sources of social capital and political organization within the fishing community, and argues that a better understanding of fisher social relations, norms, institutions and imaginations will offer potential avenues for more sustainable and equitable fisheries governance.

Jadhav spent the summer of 2012 in southern India, first working for Greenpeace on an ocean conservation mapping project. He later conducted research with the Dakshin Foundation on mechanized fisheries, collective action and community governance in and around Mangalore. Research from both projects - including dozens of hours of interviews with fishers, policy makers, activists and academics and thousands of pages of quantitative data - helped lay the foundation for his Fulbright proposal.

"I'm in Mangalore, hearing all these very standard responses that together add up to the so-called Tragedy of the Commons - everyone is competing against each other, no one has an incentive to fish less, no one can organize, there's no property regime, it's a free-for-all, the community has lost all control, and so on," Jadhav said.

"Yet when it came to organizing resistance against an ill-conceived and arbitrary state regulation on engine sizes, the fishers cooperated quickly and decisively to pull political strings," he said. "There's obviously some social capital and collective interest still at work in the fishery. I honestly am not sure the Tragedy of the Commons exists and I see underestimated potential for collective action."

Jadhav has consistently focused his graduate studies on India as a geography. The Journal of International Service recently published his examination of India's semi-free trade regime and its implications for environmental and social sustainability.

"I've had a lot of opportunities at AU and been influenced by a lot of good people," Jadhav said. "Professors have pointed the way, but also let me run. I wouldn't have won this Fulbright without that simultaneous guidance and free rein."

The Fulbright scholarship funds at least nine months of research. Jadhav expects to start in August of 2013 and hopes to publish policy and academic work based on his research. He also expects that the data generated while on Fulbright will become the basis for a doctoral dissertation.

Between culture shock and adjusting to a foreign language, studying abroad can be as tough as it is rewarding. According to Senem Bakar, returning home can sometimes be even tougher. With that in mind and with a population of more than 1,000 international students on campus, Bakar is working to help ease that transition for students.

“Like orientation, [we think] how can we orient them to? I think we need to orient them from,” she explained.

That’s why International Student & Scholar Services recently held its Re-Entry Workshop for international students soon returning home. Developed and organized by Bakar – ISSS’s associate director for exchange visitors and student services – the afternoon-long workshop featured everything from speakers and alumni perspectives to group activities, all aimed at prepping students for any obstacles they might face when rejoining their home cultures.

Bakar is particularly proud of this year’s iteration of the evolving event.

“We’ve been piloting it for a couple semesters. We finally figured out the content that could address the re-entry issue from several important perspectives,” she explained. “We are very fortunate that we have all these resources to tap into and bring to our students.”

The resources Bakar mentioned include Career Center advisor David Fletcher, the Counseling Center’s Dr. Keum Hyeong Choi, School of International Affairs professor Kyoung-Ah Nam and international alumni who themselves had the experience of returning home.

Paola Daza is finishing her last year as an SIS master’s student in international development. Looking to turn her degree into a successful career back home, the Bogotá, Colombia, native found Fletcher’s advice on leveraging her AU education particularly helpful.

“Just being abroad and studying abroad in a country with a different language, it’s giving you all the value in the world. How to play that card to make yourself marketable, it’s really important to learn,” she said.

Drs. Hyeong Choi and Nam spoke on how to cope with the common anxieties of returning home as well as how to recognize the strengths of a global hybrid identity. Having already dealt with re-entry issues after previous US studies, SIS master’s student Eduardo Ulloa shared his perspective as well.

“Having faced so many, if not most, of the re-entry challenges presented in the workshop without real preparation, I felt a sense of responsibility to graduating students to share my experiences,” Ulloa said. “In going through a re-entry shock, it is good to understand that while everyone's circumstances may be different, we most likely share common experiences and can support one another.”

Most surprising to graduating SIS master’s student Neda Nazmi were those similar experiences and feelings Ulloa referred to. While the group of 22 students in attendance had diverse backgrounds ranging from Scandinavia and Latin America to South Asia and the Middle East, they shared many concerns.

For Nazmi, that was a critical thing for everyone to realize – they’re not alone.

“The most important thing in this kind of workshop is that you see other people have the same concerns as you,” she said. “In the first months [at AU], everyone is focused on ‘Did you have culture shock?’ and all those expectations, but no one talks about how difficult it can be when you’re going home.”

As the evolving Re-Entry Workshop hits its stride in supporting students, Bakar notes that the event highlights AU’s attention to its place in international education.

“AU is very globally aware,” she explained. “Our students in the classrooms are prepared for a global education. The administration and services are also leaning that direction. [The workshop] says a lot about AU’s commitment to an international education.”

Beyond that, AU is simply an institution committed to an unsurpassed education for its students. So, while a transition home may be difficult, Bakar will continue to strive for a better “orientation from” that the entire AU community can be proud of.

“AU is a place where people are very committed to helping students in any way. Everybody takes pride in it. You could see how happy everybody was to be a part of this program,” she said. “This is one more thing we can do to make the student experience better.”

Job search strategies rarely change despite shifting economic times.

To nab a solid position, you still have to research the industry you want to enter, understand all the players, network with those on the inside, and follow up to keep your name in the air.

All of that typically takes a lot of time and endurance. The job hunt is neither quick nor easy.

But at the Career Center, Sue Gordon is making it easier for students to find gainful employment — she’s teaching them how to strategically use LinkedIn.

The professional networking website has been around since 2003 and is currently the world’s largest website of its kind with more than 175 million members. Now, LinkedIn is a critical part of job seeking.

MORE: How to Develop Your Online Brand

It’s so important that Gordon and her colleagues at the Career Center host workshops on how to use LinkedIn and counsel students one-on-one on how to leverage the website’s features for their benefit. Online branding has become an integral part of the Career Center’s playbook to help students.

"LinkedIn is a tool to see who is in your network. Before this, the problem for job seekers was not knowing who was in their network," said Gordon, director of career development. "This really makes networking so much easier."

As LinkedIn’s influence grows, so too will the need to use it. Having a professional LinkedIn profile is essential for students, Gordon said.

MARCH 26: Job & Internship Fair at American University

Unlike a Facebook profile or a Twitter account, LinkedIn is meant to showcase you as a professional, so no photos of last Saturday night or a 140-character accounting of your most recent date. Instead, LinkedIn allows you to do the following, Gordon said:

• Build and manage your professional presence

• Connect professionally with classmates, faculty, family, work, or internship colleagues, and other important contacts

• Find new career opportunities

• Manage and maintain your list of professional contacts

Before students can take advantage of all that LinkedIn offers, they first need to set up an account. We asked Gordon for her tips and tricks to make a profile sing and use it to help land your dream job.

1. Create a profile

A LinkedIn profile is a summary of a student’s professional experience, interests, and capabilities. Prospective employers check out an applicant’s profile after they’ve applied for a job, so keep it professional. "I strongly feel that [not having a LinkedIn account] is not an option," Gordon said.

2. Be comprehensive

Once you’ve created the profile, take the time to fill it out in its entirety. Copy and paste your resumé, choose a professional photo, outline your skills, write a profile headline and a succinct summary, and post any portfolio work you think is relevant. Check out the profiles of mentors or others in your field of interest to see what they’ve chosen to include. Do not forget to proofread your profile before letting it go live.

3. Make connections

The American University alumni group on LinkedIn has more than 15,000 members. Join it and look for alums in your field. Also, join groups for professional organizations pertinent to your field. These strategic connections are crucial for online networking. But allow your connections to grow naturally by starting with people you already know. "The value comes from seeing who your connections know," Gordon said. "Building connections is extremely important." Be sure to personalize your invitations to connect.

4. Get recommended

Increasingly, Gordon said, employers are looking to see if candidates have recommendations on their LinkedIn profiles. While these might seem like Yelp reviews for individuals, they’re important because they’re used. They tell an employer that you have people willing to recommend you. Ask people who might serve as a reference to write a recommendation — previous employers or internship supervisors, professors, etc.

5. Start reaching out

Maximize LinkedIn’s networking possibilities by contacting people you’d like to know. There are a couple ways to do this. You can ask a mutual contact to introduce you. Or you could contact the person with whom you’re interested in corresponding directly. "You could say something like 'I’d love to pick your brain about what it’s like to work for your company,'" Gordon said.

6. Check in regularly

Once you have a profile set up and you've started to make connections, don’t let your profile lie fallow, Gordon recommends.Update your status. Go to pages of the groups you belong to and see what’s being discussed. Possibly post a question or make an endorsement of someone's skills (on LinkedIn, users have the option of "endorsing" another user's listed skills as a way of authenticating). This helps get your name out in front of users who are in the field you want to go into.

The online job search is a numbers game with hundreds of people applying to each position. Even just getting an interview after applying online can feel like winning the lottery.

If a student is organized, proactive, and persistent, and makes LinkedIn a big part of the job search, Gordon said, it might help get the student’s name pulled out of the pile and onto the hiring manager’s desk. 

Lori Billingsley, SOC/MA '91, vice president of community relations for Coca-Cola Refreshments, believes in the power of mentors. Having someone to help guide you through the working world is an integral element of professional success, Billingsley said—and that advice has been impactful throughout her career.

“One of my first mentors had me do a five-year career plan, [which] really helped focus me on where it was I wanted to go,” Billingsley said of her early interest in public relations. “At the end of those five years, I had accomplished everything that was on that list. It was through the power of focusing on what I wanted to do, and also having mentors along the way who were able to help me get where I wanted to go. … Listening to others who have gone down the path you’re trying to go is very powerful.”

Billingsley spoke to a group of AU students, staff, and alumni on February 25 at the semester’s first Alumni in the KNOW event. Launched in 2012 by the AU Alumni Association, Alumni in the KNOW is a distinguished alumni speaker series featuring AU graduates sharing their pathways to success. Billingsley, who saw her participation in the series as a way to give back to the AU community, focused her presentation on cultivating relationships with mentors, embracing diversity in the workplace, and recognizing the value of “connection points,” or shared commonalities between people.

Billingsley credited much of her success to her mentors, including one of her undergraduate professors at Howard University who has been instrumental in each job that Billingsley has held. She also expressed gratitude for an AU alumna, who was influential in bringing Billingsley to Coca-Cola, though they didn’t realize their “connection point” until after Billingsley started.

“That AU connection—make sure you maintain that,” Billingsley said. “We live in such a global society; it’s not just about the United States, it’s not just about North America. It’s about the whole wide world that’s out there and really having a worldview and understanding global issues and understanding that everything is connected.”

On top of cultivating strong mentorship relationships and finding shared experiences with your coworkers, it is also important to work hard and perform above others’ expectations, Billingsley added. As an African-American woman, Billingsley has seized opportunities for diverse candidates that have come her way—but stresses that doing the job well is just as important as getting through the door.

“At times, when you are the person of color, there’s a tendency to be pigeonholed into just doing diversity stuff, and so I think as you’re going on and making your career choices, you need to decide if that is something you want to do,” Billingsley said while discussing her vice presidency with Porter Novelli, a leading PR firm. “And if it’s not, you have to be very vocal about not wanting to do that. But I chose that and was able to co-start Porter Novelli’s multicultural communications practice.”

Billingsley left Porter Novelli to start her own public relations and communications consultancy, LG Communications, and later joined Coca-Cola. She has been with the Fortune 500 company for 11 years and has served in numerous roles within the Public Affairs and Communications (PAC) department. As vice president of community relations, she currently manages community giving and engagement in North America. A typical day might include working on a water replenishment project in Africa with USAID or sorting through thousands of requests for funding, which must fit within Coca-Cola’s five focus areas of sustainable packaging, active and healthy lifestyle, diversity and inclusion, water stewardship, and education.

Her job is multifaceted and never really stops, Billingsley said—“I’m a master multi-tasker,” she joked—and in today’s evolving workplace, AU students and alumni should expect the same level of high expectations, she added. Strong writing and public speaking skills are essential in any profession, Billingsley said, and an understanding of the politics and hierarchy of your workplace is also important. But most key, according to Billingsley, is being truly passionate and invested in your career: Be able to envision and articulate what you want to do with your life, from applying for internships to attending graduate school, and work tirelessly and with experienced, intelligent people to make it happen.

“Be well read, be knowledgeable, be able to know what’s going on in the world and in the country and in business and politics and culture and in our community, so when you’re out there meeting other people, you can have a point of entry, a point of contact, a commonality,” Billingsley said. “If you make a commitment to do something … do it, and with excellence. The final product should be something you would be proud of, and something your parents would be proud of. The more integrity and character you have, that is a differentiation point for you in the workforce.”

Billingsley’s talk resonated with attendees, including Tangela Richardson, SOC/MA '13, who said Billingsley’s advice encouraged her to “not be afraid to try something new and different.”

“Lori’s talk inspired me professionally to take more risks in terms of my career … to set high standards and achieve with excellence,” Richardson said. “Hard work, dedication, and perseverance pay off for complete success and complete happiness.”

The next Alumni in the KNOW event, featuring SOC alumnus Jim Kennedy, senior vice president of strategic communications for Sony Corporation of America, is scheduled for Wednesday, March 27.

Because of her class schedule, Jade Ryan, SOC/CAS/BA '12, only had 45 minutes to attend AU’s spring 2012 Job and Internship Fair. But she made the most of it—walking away with an interview that led to a job offer from the PR solutions company Meltwater Group.

“I had marked down a few different people I was interested in speaking with, and I got at least three or four interviews, one being [with] Meltwater,” Ryan says of her senior year fair experience. “I ultimately went with Meltwater, whom I liked the most. … They help cater you to where you want to end up, and help provide you with whatever you need to be able to go there.”

Meltwater, which has 57 offices globally, a workforce of 1,000, and 23,000 clients, prides itself on a “fun, dynamic culture” that makes it a perfect introduction to the working world for young alumni, says Johnny Vance, managing director for the Meltwater Group. Meltwater employees work in “online intelligence,” helping clients understand how they’re being mentioned in traditional and social media and determining if that coverage is the kind they want. Employees build relationships with specific clients and “provide them with actionable insight” regarding their reputation and brand, Vance says. And because Meltwater has a vertical training model, all entry-level employees are guided into becoming managers, and will then be sent to other offices around the country or world to continue the training process.

As head of the company’s Washington, D.C., office, Vance is responsible for recruiting in the metropolitan area and has specifically focused on AU in the last year. After hiring three AU alumni from last spring’s Job and Internship Fair, Vance aims to hire five more employees to start in June. When filling openings left by promoted employees who recently relocated to New York, Chicago, and Buenos Aires, Vance said he will pay close attention to job-seekers at AU’s upcoming fair on March 26. Presentation is key, Vance stresses: Students must understand that actual job connections can occur from these interactions and should prepare themselves accordingly, he added.

PREPARE: utilize Career Center tools, videos, and events to prepare for the fair.

“Wear what you would expect to wear at the sort of job that you’re looking for,” Vance advises. “I’ve seen people ranging from the suit and tie with that executive presence, which is what we’re looking for, all the way down to a basketball jersey and a pair of jeans, which is unfortunately not what we’re looking for. … I think it’s really refreshing when candidates come up to me and have been on the Meltwater website … that’s a lot more conducive to productive conversation as opposed to just coming up and saying, ‘Tell me about Meltwater Group.’ It’s very easy to pick out, as an employer, the people who have sought you out.”

And that is exactly what Ryan; Ben Kessler, SPA/BA '12; and Kayla Fenner, SOC/BA '12, did at the fair: recognize Meltwater’s potential for young grads. All were interested in companies that worked with social media, marketing, and communications, and Meltwater appealed to them both for its intimate feel (the D.C. office has about 10 people total) and international presence (with offices in Europe, South America, and Asia). According to Ryan, Kessler, and Fenner, their professional experience has mirrored, in some ways, their undergraduate education at AU. The university is a tight-knit campus built on strong relationships between professors and students and with numerous opportunities to travel or volunteer abroad, much like Meltwater, which has a cozy D.C. office and often jettisons its employees to far-off destinations to build their management ability.

“The training I’ve received has really brought me to an experience level that is appropriate for people who are two, three, four, five years ahead of me,” Kessler said. “I feel like I’ve gotten a real kick start to my learning experience. … I’m miles ahead of where I thought I’d be after graduation.”

And one of the best parts of being employed at Meltwater is the shared connections and experiences between the AU alumni, who knew each other from classes, they said.

“Everyone is each other’s cheerleader,” Fenner said. “Seeing [Jade and Ben] grow, and have them be my cheerleaders as well as my co-alumni and my colleagues now—it’s really great to have that support, no matter if it’s an up day or a down day.”

Vance hopes to augment Meltwater’s workforce with candidates he meets at the upcoming Job and Internship Fair, and will keep his eye on promising undergraduates he, Ryan, Kessler, and Fenner met at a networking reception co-hosted by the Career Center, School of Communication, and Office of Alumni Relations on March 6. Participating in on-campus events and getting Meltwater’s name out to prospective employees is critical, he said. And being open-minded about your career path is similarly important, Fenner, Kessler, and Ryan said.

“People sometimes think, ‘I only want this kind of job, I only want to work at this company,’” Ryan said. “They’re very closed-minded in the kinds of jobs they’re applying for. There are tables at the career fair that are going to have lines of 20 people, and tables that don’t have very many people. But it’s very important to talk to [the latter group]—maybe an opportunity that you never would have realized will come to you.”

EMPLOYERS: see who’s hiring (more than 100 organizations and counting).

The Career Center’s Job and Internship Fair is a biannual event that attracts more than 1,200 students and alumni seeking jobs and internships. Dozens of AU alumni, including Kessler, also attend to help their organizations recruit AU Eagles.

AU’s Class of 2012 set a new school record with 88 percent of responding graduates completing one or more internships during their time at the university.

“AU has developed an extraordinary culture of learning by doing,” says Gihan Fernando, executive director of the Career Center. “Experiential education plays a critical role in students’ career development.”

AU’s capital location offers students a unique advantage when it comes to interning because they can be competitive year-round. And when it’s time to convert those internships into jobs, AU students can be particularly tenacious in turning short-term employment into long-term careers.

Google Maps: see where AU students are interning this spring.

Of course, transitioning an internship into a part-time or full-time job isn’t easy—and neither Erin Greenawald, CAS/BA '12; Amanda Zimmer, SOC/BA '12; nor Carolyn Reynolds, SIS/BA '11, pretends it was simple. But patience and hard work can pay off, they say.

Reynolds began as an outreach/programs intern with the Institute of International Education’s (IIE) Fulbright Scholar Program. When her semester-long internship ended, Reynolds hoped to take advantage of IIE’s practice of hiring past interns.

Her strategy led to a part-time job working with IIE’s Education USA network, where she actively “started taking on more projects.” Her initiative resulted in an extension of her six-month contract and then to her current full-time position as program coordinator of adviser professional development.

“Filling in as needed was useful in order to ensure that transition into full time,” says Reynolds. “You have to not only keep your eyes open in your current division, but also look at the rest of the organization and what opportunities are springing up there. … Be vocal and proactive [in] taking advantage of your time at your internship to see what your entire organization is about.”

Intern Blog: gain more insight from AU intern bloggers.

Zimmer agrees that setting yourself apart during your internship is key to making an impression. As a former intern and current production assistant with Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic, Zimmer says making yourself known to everyone in your office is imperative.

“I still do a lot of what I did as an intern in my daily routine at the office, but I’ve gone out of my way to learn to do other duties around the office,” Zimmer says. “If you ask questions, do what you are supposed to do, and build relationships with people, you are remembered.”

While Reynolds and Zimmer found places for themselves within established organizations, Greenawald took a slightly different path. Her internship-turned-job with a start-up company allowed her to contribute to the corporate culture.

Interested in building her writing and editing skills, Greenawald applied to the online magazine The Daily Muse and interned virtually while studying abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark. The Daily Muse was only online for four days when Greenawald applied, so she was jumping aboard at the very beginning of the enterprise.

“For 10 hours a week, I thought, ‘I definitely have time to do this,’” Greenawald says.

At the end of the summer, Greenawald emailed her supervisor and expressed interest in staying with the company. She was soon promoted to senior editorial intern.

“They were able to be very transparent with me along the way,” Greenawald says. “During my mid-summer performance review, they kind of said outright to me, ‘If things keep going as they’re going, you can expect a full-time offer at the end of the summer for when you graduate.’ So that was something I could start to keep in the back of my mind.”

And, sure enough, when the internship ended, The Daily Muse offered Greenawald the paid position of associate editor, which she began part time during her final semester at AU in fall 2012. The decision to graduate a semester early was due, in part, to the full-time offer, Greenawald says: “I decided I’d rather get to the point to devote myself full time to this more quickly.”

Learn more: the path to internships.

None of these graduates’ current positions were immediate—instead, their career trajectories have been defined by an interest in taking on more responsibility, keeping open lines of communication with their supervisors, and being available for new and challenging tasks. But those initiatives helped transform their internships into something more, and for others looking to do the same thing, all three graduates suggest taking risks and reaching for opportunities, even if they initially seem out of reach.

“I took a chance—I kept taking chances for a long time,” Greenawald says. “I took a chance and made an investment. If you really believe in something, get in with it from the start. It might pay off.”

Growing up in a poor, single-parent household in Atlanta, Deon Jones didn't know what he wanted to do when he grew up. But he knew “that life had something greater in store, as long as I aimed for excellence in everything I did,” something he learned from his hero Oprah Winfrey.

Now a political science major in his junior year, Jones is excelling in ways he never imagined: being elected a local public official, advocating for youth justice, interning for Congress and the Vice President's office, and receiving a prestigious public policy fellowship. Most recently, he was selected as a Truman Scholar, a highly competitive, national award.

He enrolled in AU sight unseen after a chance encounter with a university recruiter in an Atlanta hotel lobby.

“I'd never even been above the Mason-Dixon line,” Jones says. His experience at AU has far exceeded his expectations – but then again, Jones has also exceeded any expectations that could have been set for him.

Elected to office

One such surprise victory was winning a contested seat on the DC Advisory Neighborhood Commission, to serve as the student voice for the neighborhood surrounding the AU campus. Jones, then a freshman, got a crash course in campaigning, having to file a petition, knock on doors, and station himself at the polls from morning to night on election day. 

“The first person I ever voted for was myself,” jokes the 19-year-old.

Jones gained the trust of his considerably older colleagues on the commission, who eventually elected him treasurer. While he left his post to do a study-abroad program in London, two students got elected to the council after Jones, “continuing the legacy of our youth bringing community members and students together,” he says.

Leadership Program's influence

Jones also credits the SPA Leadership Program as one of the most influential elements of his academic journey, giving him “an opportunity to study different social movements and an understanding of why public policy is so important,” says Jones. “The program has catapulted me into a life of public service.”

This summer, the Mississippi-born student will get a chance to further expand his knowledge and contacts in the field, as a Public Policy and International Affairs fellow at UC Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy. Jones will attend classes, take professional development workshops, and go on field trips to see public policy in action.

It's just another stop for a young leader on the go. This spring, Jones is studying political philosophy and business during a semester abroad at King's College, London. While he intended to keep a low profile on campus and enjoy a break from his busy DC life, he has already been inducted into the Meritorious Society for Study Abroad Students at King’s College.

Executive Encounter

And then there was his run-in with Vice President Joe Biden.

Jones only saw the vice president a handful of times while interning, but did his best to work hard, be a team player and treat people with respect. The vice president happened to be in London recently, and Jones was invited to his meet-and-greet at the U.S. embassy. Working his way through the room, Biden came over to the former White House intern.

“When he got to me, he said, 'Hey kiddo! What are you doing here? You jumped the career ladder that fast?'” said Jones. “To be in a foreign country, and have the vice president remember me because of my attitude put a whole new spin on my perspective on excellence.”

Meanwhile, those once-undefined dreams of greatness are starting to take shape.  

“I definitely want to go to law school, and work to change the juvenile justice system in our country,” says Jones, who is a national spokesperson for Campaign for Youth Justice, which works to end the incarceration of youth in adult jails and prisons.

Duilio Correa, SPA/MPA '13, came to American University by chance, but stayed by design – for two degrees and counting.

The Peruvian-born student first came to AU in 2005 for a certificate in Spanish translation, but his advisor, the late Jack Child, encouraged him to stay on and pursue a master's degree in Spanish and Latin American studies.

“At first I was doubtful. I was already working as an information specialist for a government clearinghouse, and legally blind from birth – I didn't really know if I could pull it off,” said Correa.

After finishing his MA in 2008, Correa landed a job developing Spanish-language materials at the National Institutes of Health. Yet, he felt he needed a better foundation in management, and found himself again perusing AU's course offerings. SPA’s MPA program seemed like a good fit, but Correa had to think twice about saddling himself with a full load of night classes given his demanding job.

He took the bet, and it's paid off. Graduation is in sight, and Correa has landed a plum position as a management and program analyst at Health and Human Services, a job he says he wouldn't have gotten without his AU education. In his new position, Correa will be working with the human resources team at HHS to recruit people with disabilities and develop programs catering to disabled employees.

“Struggle is necessary for success,” says Correa, who came to the U.S. as a teen with his mother – his driving force and inspiration. “If the opportunity you're looking for doesn't arise, sometimes you have to create it.”

While Correa doesn't feel his disability – a congenital eye condition that limits his central vision – has impeded him personally or professionally, it has required him to be resourceful. The student relies on dictation programs to type documents, an iPad to zoom in on text and software to read passages aloud to him

The classroom has been fertile ground to learn and grow, according to Correa. “The AU community is very supportive. Professors encourage independent thought, and give you a lot of room to explore academically and express yourself freely.” He feels more poised in the workplace and better equipped to handle difficult situations as a result of his coursework in management.

Ever ambitious, Correa is already thinking about returning for his PhD someday, and eventually becoming a professional coach for disabled individuals. It's hard to imagine a better career for someone so passionate about helping others thrive in the face of adversity.

“You can't focus on your physical challenges or concentrate on your flaws; you have to look at what you do well and how you can improve,” says Correa. “If you fail, there is always another day. The key is never to give up.”

If the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment were accepting gifts, it would demand platinum. After celebrating its 70th anniversary last year, the self-assessment test is still going strong—and helping people across the world, including visitors to the AU Career Center, better understand their personalities, strengths and weaknesses, and ideal working environments.

“The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is really taking a look at a person’s preferences and their personality and the way they like to get energized, take in information, make their decisions, and structure their life,” says Susan Gordon, director of career development with the Career Center. “And through those preferences … understand what might be some career fields that fit.”

For decades, the MBTI has assigned individuals four letters reflecting their personal preferences in viewing and experiencing the world: extraversion (E) or introversion (I), sensing (S) or intuition (N), thinking (T) or feeling (F), and judging (J) or perception (P).

“Knowing whether you’re more introverted or extroverted, or if you want structure or are flexible and can roll with the punches—knowing those things about who you are can help you assess whether a job or an internship can be a good fit for you,” says Julia Beyer, career advisor for the School of Communication and a certified MBTI administer.

The MBTI isn’t the only self-assessment resource available for AU students interested in exploring their major or career interests. Other assessments offered by the Career Center include the Self-Directed Search, which suggests occupations based on one’s daydreams and abilities, and the Career Values Test, which helps the test-taker determine what he or she really wants from a career, from personal satisfaction to salary ranges.

But along with the MBTI, career advisors most commonly recommend that students take the Strong Interest Inventory (SII), which was updated in 2012 and links the assessment-taker’s likes with what others, who are happy in their professions, also like.

The theory of the SII, Gordon says, “is if you like what somebody in an occupation likes, and they like their occupation, you’ll probably like their occupation.” She notes, however, that the 10 career options the SII provides based on the assessment-taker’s responses are not the only jobs in which he or she will be happy. Instead, the SII is more of a guiding force.

“What the Strong does really well is it helps take ideas that have been swirling around in somebody’s mind and puts them on paper,” Gordon says. “They knew they were kind of interested in this or that, and it shows that and relative levels of interest. It’s a concrete thing that helps you sort out what you’re thinking.”

That boost in sorting and organizing professional interests was experienced by Peer Advisor Quinn Smeaton, SIS/BA '13, who has worked with the Career Center since fall 2012. During her training in August, Smeaton took both the MBTI and the SII.

“It’s interesting seeing yourself on paper, and who you are in comparison with other results,” she said. “It made me think about things that are sometimes hard to think about yourself or describe to yourself, but play a part in your work preferences.”

Fellow Peer Advisor Eric Fleddermann, SIS/Kogod/BA '13, who has worked with the Career Center for the past two years, saw his extracurricular interests reflected in his SII results but was surprised at his MBTI, which pointed out an aspect of his personality he hadn’t considered, he says.

“The Strong indicated that one of my top career matches would be an attorney—a result that made sense given my mock trial experience,” Fleddermann said. “The results of the MBTI surprised me in the sense that they made me consciously aware of several attributes of my personality, such as my big-picture thinking and my non-judgmental view of the world.”

That insight can help point students in different directions. If it affirms what they already thought about themselves, it can provide greater confidence in their internship or job search, or while networking. But if assessment results are in opposition to how a student perceives their personality or behavior, it gives them time to explore different academic courses or activities on campus to see what truly interests them.

If students are intimidated to take the assessments alone, they should attend the Career Center’s Whose Life is it Anyway? series of workshops, which allow freshmen and sophomores to take the tests for free and in a group environment, Beyer says. Participation in all four workshops, which are held throughout the semester, each semester, is required, but allows students to explore options in a collaborative atmosphere, Beyer notes. And self-assessment isn’t the only option for students. “There are multiple ways to figure out what you want to do—paying attention to the stuff you do in class, getting involved in campus organizations, internships. All of that can help you in putting the puzzle together,” says Beyer.

On their own, a student can consider “success stories,” or academic or personal accomplishments, and think of how to adapt those things in a professional setting, Gordon adds.

Smeaton, who spent her first few years at AU bouncing between various organizations and clubs to narrow down her interest in international development, agrees with both Beyer and Gordon.

“Go outside your comfort zone,” Smeaton says. “Being in D.C., there’s so much out there—take advantage of it … even if the opportunity is totally outside of your area of interest, because you never know what you might learn.”

Both the MBTI and SII self-assessments are administered online and last about a half-hour each, cost $10, and require a follow-up meeting with the assessment-taker’s Career Center advisor. For more information on those resources and others offered by the Career Center, visit http://www.american.edu/careercenter/Self-Assessment-and-Exploration.cfm. 

The Career Center’s Whose Life is it Anyway? series of workshops will be held on Feb. 11, 13, 18, and 20. Registration for the workshops is required, and should be done online by Friday, Feb. 8.

Four thousand. That’s the number of trees Racey Bingham, SIS ’00, planted in the West African nation of Mauritania during her service as a Peace Corps agroforestry volunteer.

By the time she left in 2003, only one tree remained. It stood in a compound in the village of Vountilly, surrounded by a makeshift fortress locals had made to protect it and keep it alive. Just 10 leaves clung to its branches.

Bingham’s relative lack of success with the project could be viewed as a failure, but that’s not accurate, she says. It was all part of the learning process that is central to Peace Corps service.

“In retrospect, it’s easy to say I was just doing the wrong job. But I only had a certain number of resources — my brain and no money,” she said.

When she realized that the tree planting wasn’t working, she moved on to other areas where she could help. She worked at the local health post, taught environmental education in schools, and promoted hygiene programs. She learned the importance of flexibility and ingenuity.

Bingham is one of scores of AU alumni who joined the Peace Corps after graduation. The Peace Corps ranked AU second today among medium-sized universities for service among graduates. AU has consistently been one of the top five Peace Corps volunteer-producing schools for years.

Last year, 63 AU alums entered the Peace Corps. The number grows every year. That’s not surprising because of AU’s commitment to public service, said Gihan Fernando, executive director of the Career Center, which works closely with students who want to enter the Peace Corps.

“AU attracts students who want to be actively engaged in their communities. They want to be involved in issues in the broader world,” he said.

A Desire for Public Service

The university has long enjoyed a rich relationship with the Peace Corps. More than 800 AU alums have served since President John F. Kennedy signed an executive order on March 1, 1961 to create the volunteer organization.

AU currently partners with the Peace Corps to offer three Master’s International graduate programs in TESOL and public anthropology, as well as an integrated School of International Service offering. MI students combine Peace Corps service with graduate studies at AU. SIS also hosts the Peace Corps Fellows Program for Returned Peace Corps Volunteers.

AU's Alumni Association, SIS, and the Library will host an event in March to celebrate the launch of AU's Peace Corps Community Archive, which will feature archive pieces AU has collected.

“AU has been a high producer of Peace Corps volunteers for years,” said Kelly McCormack, Peace Corps spokesperson. “Students have a wealth of volunteer service and a desire for public service as well as a motivation to serve. Not all universities have that.”

Christine Hooyman, SPA ’10, is one of those AU students motivated to serve.

Christine Hooyman, SPA '10, with participants in Camp Boys Excelling, one of the programs she oversees in Rwanda.

Hooyman, who is currently working as a community health/HIV volunteer in the Nyamagabe District of Rwanda, knew she wanted to travel to new places and experience different cultures since she was a child. Studying at AU helped deepen her curiosity, she said.  

“AU really fosters an environment that encourages us to examine our greater community and take an active role in creating change,” Hooyman said.

Like many AU Peace Corps volunteers, Hooyman’s first experience living overseas was during a semester abroad. While studying in Kenya through AU Abroad, Hooyman experienced development work up close.

“So many Kenyans I encountered were so passionate and committed to the development of their country,” she said. “It reinforced my desire to be a part of the development process. The Peace Corps seemed like the next logical step.”

Hands-on Job Training

Like Hooyman, Bingham also spent a semester abroad and knew she wanted to live overseas again. She didn’t know anything about the Peace Corps until she went to a talk on campus given by the organization’s then-director.

“It was so inspiring and I thought it sounded great,” she said. “After I applied and got my placement, I had to look on a world map to figure out where Mauritania was.”

After three years in Mauritania, Bingham returned to the U.S. to pursue graduate studies. She moved back to Africa after graduate school — this time to Mali — as a fellow with the Congressional Hunger Center.

That hands-on work in rural agriculture in Africa led her in the direction of her primary occupation as a farmer in upstate New York. She also consults on agricultural issues for the World Bank.

“My love of farming actually came from the Peace Corps,” Bingham said. “I learned how important agriculture is for marginal populations. That set me on the agricultural path professionally.”

In that way, the Peace Corps is some of the best job training around, Fernando said. Not only does it teach substantive skills like language expertise, teaching strategies, and healthcare practices, but volunteers also learn less quantifiable skills like independence, adaptability, and cross-cultural understanding.

For AU students wanting to work internationally, the Peace Corps offers something that’s hard to find as a new college graduate — work experience abroad. The Peace Corps helps make alums more competitive in that marketplace, Fernando said.

Hooyman is hoping that’s the case. She would eventually like to work in international development focusing on Africa.

“Peace Corps has allowed me the opportunity to integrate with a community to a degree that no future job in development ever will,” she said. “I want to take the lessons learned from community-based development and apply it to wherever I end up.”

When Mayra Rivera, CAS/BS ’13, was a senior at Bell Multicultural High School in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, D.C., she was No. 2 in her class of 173 students. But as the daughter of El Salvadorian immigrants and with her mother a small business owner, Rivera wasn’t sure if she was going to apply to college.  

“I never heard of American University, even though I live here in Washington, D.C.,” Rivera says. “But during my junior and senior year, we had a representative from AU come over and give us a presentation, and I started thinking about it.”

Rivera applied to AU, and, thanks to a competitive financial package, she accepted. Four years later, with multiple federal work study (FWS) positions under her belt and a passion for working with children, Rivera is taking advantage of an assortment of student employment and volunteer opportunities both on and off the campus. As a first-generation student, Rivera is changing her family’s expectations about a college education and blazing a trail for her younger relatives while still finding ways to give back to her community.

Rivera has plans to use her degree in health promotion to educate children about the power they have over their bodies and choices. The adaptability and individuality of the subject appealed to Rivera.

“You have the power to change your health—to eat healthier, to exercise—and I feel like the reason why a lot of people don’t stick to diets or don’t go and work out is because they don’t know, they lack the education,” Rivera said. “So with health promotion, I’m learning how to implement programs and ways to approach how to make changes today.”

Sharing those lessons with children has been the main thrust of Rivera’s FWS positions with DC Reads and Kid Power. Introduced to the organizations through the Career Center’s Student Employment Coordinator, Tasha Daniels, Rivera worked with DC Reads for a year and then transitioned to Kid Power, where she has been for the last two years.

Students looking for FWS positions or part-time jobs on campus should regularly check the AU Student Jobs website, www.american.edu/studentjobs, keep an eye on list-serv or department emails that may advertise positions, and should be persistent, Daniels says. Look often, both before and during the semester, to see what kind of opportunities are out there, she suggests.

“Finding any job is a process,” Daniels says. “Keep applying until [you] land a position. … Submit professional application materials—resume and tailored cover letter—to increase [the] likelihood of landing a position.”

With both of her FWS opportunities, Rivera has been able to stay local and focused on her educational goals. During her time at DC Reads, Rivera worked with students one-on-one at CentroNía, a bilingual charter school in Columbia Heights—a five-minute walk from her home. At Kid Power, where Rivera both works as a FWS employee and is conducting an internship, Rivera is applying her knowledge about physical health and nutrition while leading whole classes.

“I was able to give back to my community,” Rivera says, and her impact is still felt years later. “The mom of the girl who I tutored at DC Reads works at Target and I also work at Target, and we always talk, and I always ask her questions about her daughter—I just saw them, and she’s grown up. And it’s nice to see they remember me.”

Rivera ensures the students remember her lessons about health, too. Thanks to encouragement from her Kid Power supervisor Shaden Dowiatt, Rivera is involved in the program Veggie Time, teaching students about gardening and nutrition.

“She’s fantastic; the kids really, really love her,” says Dowiatt, SIS/MA ’10, LAMB Site Director for Kid Power. “I think she relates really well to the students; she’s always very positive, smiles a lot, is pretty easygoing. Her passion and her focus is obviously on health education. This year she’s been doing an internship with me—she’s helped develop some of the lessons about nutrition and I’ve encouraged her to share those lessons with the students.”

And Rivera isn’t the only AU student at Kid Power. The organization employed both university alumni and 44 FWS students in fall 2012—about five to six AU volunteers are located at each of Kid Power’s 10 sites, Dowaitt says—and that atmosphere creates an undeniable sense of camaraderie.

“This past summer, we had this close connection,” Rivera says of her AU peers who also worked with Kid Power at their summer camp. “We all hung out at night, we had dinner and stuff together—we created this little AU family.”

And as for Rivera’s own family, they’ve been affected by her college choice, too. Although her mother was initially skeptical of her decision to apply to AU and hoped Rivera would help her with her small business, she’s grown to appreciate that Rivera “wants to do more”—“she’s always encouraging me, and now she brags about me going to college,” Rivera says. And Rivera’s younger sister has followed in her footsteps, and is currently a student at Georgetown University.

With graduation coming up in May, Rivera hopes to volunteer with other health- or children-focused nonprofit organizations and eventually gain employment at one; graduate school isn’t out of the question, either. But for now, she’s staying with Kid Power, hoping to introduce students to healthy recipes and eating habits. Without these FWS opportunities, Rivera says she’s not sure how she would have been able to so effectively prepare for her career.

“I never heard of Kid Power or DC Reads before federal work study, but it’s my interest to work with kids and to help them,” Rivera says. “If it weren’t for [FWS], I don’t know how I would get this experience.”

Eric Fleddermann SIS/BA ’13 is proof positive you can have it all as an AU student. On any given day, you might find the senior preparing a mock trial case, helping a peer write a résumé in the AU Career Center, or laying down a drum beat for the Screamin’ Eagles Pep Band at a basketball game. It’s all part of the rich tapestry that has made up Fleddermann’s “American experience.”

“Being a student in D.C., I can attend court hearings, participate in political rallies, and take advantage of so many other opportunities on a daily basis,” said Fleddermann, a Missouri native pursuing a double major in international studies and business administration, and a minor in Arabic language.

A highlight of Fleddermann’s AU experience has been serving as president of the American University Mock Trial (AUMT) team, coached by School of Public Affairs professor Jessica Waters. The self-proclaimed underdog team made a splash this past semester, beating out national champions at a Columbia University invitational, considered one of the East Coast’s most prestigious tournaments. Fleddermann also took home a top attorney award at the tournament.

“Seeing our team blossom into such a success has been so rewarding,” he said.

His favorite class, Justice, Morality, and the Law, taught by Professor Waters honed his courtroom talent. “We debated controversial legal issues like terrorism, birth control, hate speech, and religious exemption,” said Fleddermann.

“The class taught me to consider all sides of an issue before presenting an argument.”

AU has also offered Fleddermann a gateway to the world. In 2011, he spent six months studying Arabic and business at the American University in Cairo, Egypt, arriving in the heat of the Arab Spring movement.

“I was a child of 9-11 and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, events that affected me deeply and made me want to better understand that part of the world,” said Fleddermann.

Real-world work experience has also been a part of Fleddermann’s life in D.C. He interned at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission among other workplaces, but he found job satisfaction working in AU’s Career Center. There, Fleddermann, a peer advisor since sophomore year, undertook data crunching, résumé writing, as well as marketing and outreach tasks.

“It’s been so rewarding to help other students reach their career goals. I also get to use my oral presentation skills I’ve developed through the mock trial team to speak to classes.”

Fleddermann now faces the exciting challenge of deciding where to apply the “arsenal of skills and knowledge” he has acquired at AU. The senior is contemplating government, law and national security among career paths – all great options for a new grad in the nation’s capital.

“My time at American has helped ground my ideals in reality,” said Fleddermann. “We can create change in the world, but it takes time, it’s hard work, and at end of the day, you may not make a grand change but at least you can change individual lives, and that’s what I hope to do.”

If you’ve seen the Boren Scholarship brochure, you’ve seen Wyatt Gordon, SIS/BA '12, pictured on the cover. As a recipient of multiple scholarships, including the Boren, Critical Language, and International Parliamentary Scholarship (IPS), Gordon has spent just five semesters on AU’s campus and the rest of his undergraduate years around the world.

“To speak a different language, to be able to see the world differently—I think it really enriches life,” says Gordon, who is fluent in German and Indonesian; proficient in Spanish; and can speak basic French.

Gordon’s international interest began as a high school student in Richmond, Va., where he was inspired to spend a year after graduation in Germany to better understand his familial roots. His father, who passed away when he was a child, was German, and Gordon’s cultural exchange was a way to connect with his heritage.

“It was a way to explore my past but also discover my future,” Gordon says. “I wanted to really see what my heritage was like, to figure out where I was coming from, to figure out where I really wanted to go. … After that, I really started thinking more internationally.”

Upon returning to the United States and beginning his undergraduate education at AU, Gordon’s next adventure was inspired in part by his SIS Cross-Cultural Communications class. While studying Indonesia, Gordon became enthralled with learning more about the country.

 “The more I read about it, the less I seemed to understand … I could not fit it with any of the frameworks the U.S. or Germany had given me to understand the world,” he says.

 Determined to master Indonesian, Gordon began attending free language courses at the Indonesian Embassy and teaching himself the language through books and podcasts. His extra efforts were rewarded with a Critical Language Scholarship to study in Malang, East Java, for two months in summer 2010, where he achieved upper-level intermediate proficiency in the language.

“I just fell in love,” Gordon says. “It’s a beautiful and completely crazy country at the same time. … [Java has] 140 million people, so you can’t go anywhere without anyone.”

Gordon’s Critical Language Scholarship experience propelled him to apply for a Boren Scholarship to return to Indonesia. After six months of preparation, essay writing, collaboration with professor mentors, and help from the Office of Merit Awards, Gordon sent in his application—and received the award, which allowed him to spend his junior year abroad.

“It was just really, really valuable, because I experienced so much more and I talked to so many people, that I now really understand the region; I really understand Indonesia,” Gordon says.  

Upon returning for his final semester at AU, Gordon decided on a trip that would take him full-circle—an International Parliamentary Scholarship (IPS) would take him back to Germany.  

IPS recipients spend three months working in the Bundestag, the country’s legislative body, and two months studying at Humboldt University of Berlin. Going back to his interest in Germany, Gordon says, just felt right. After turning in his application in late July, Gordon decided to pursue an independent study to learn more about the Bundestag and the country’s social and economic issues. Overseen by associate professor Olga Rojer in AU’s World Languages and Cultures department, Gordon drafted a memo each week of discussions happening in the Bundestag and what those conversations meant for the future of the country—a topic that came up during Gordon’s IPS interview. His knowledge of those politics, Gordon believes, is the main reason he won the scholarship.

“He is a wonderful student. He is truly passionate about language,” says Rojer, who taught Gordon in her Studies in German Film class this fall. “Economics, politics, social issues … German identity, German cultural issues … he just soaks it up.”

Gordon’s strong relationship with Rojer and other faculty members, including those in the ASEAN Studies Center, have certainly contributed to his scholarship success, says Joan D. Echols, Associate Director of the Office of Merit Awards. By being proactive about these opportunities and forming meaningful bonds with his instructors, Gordon set himself apart—and other students can, too, Echols adds.

“When you have success at one scholarship, it gives you a sense of, ‘Oh, I can apply for this, I can apply for something else,’” Echols says of how students can become active participants in the application process. “Wyatt is unusual because he’s really tuned into the scholarship world, and he has developed faculty mentors who share his intellectual interests. Go after class, go to office hours—students need to develop and cultivate faculty mentors because you can’t do any of this without them.”

After graduating in December, Gordon will have a few months off before reporting to Germany in March. For now, he can take a breather from scholarship applications, essays, and interviews, but he is already thinking about what he’ll do when he returns to the United States. He has applied to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Junior Fellows program, and is considering pursuing positions at various think tanks across the country.

In the long run, however, Gordon knows that Indonesia is calling.

“Indonesia is such an important place … by 2030, it will be the seventh-largest economy in the world, and it’s the biggest player in southeast Asia, a huge player in Asia,” Gordon says. “I just feel like Indonesia is so underappreciated, that’s where I need to be.”

Looking back just a few months, it’s clear that 2011 was a dynamic year filled with several historical and world-changing events. The death of North Korea’s longtime dictator, Kim Jong-il, left people everywhere questioning that country’s future. The European Union struggled to resolve severe economic issues with global ramifications. And the democratic protests across North Africa and the Middle East toppled governments and affected millions. But while the majority of us bore witness to these momentous events through the media, many AU students became active participants through their internships, volunteer positions, and study abroad programs.

As an intern with the Washington, D.C.,-based Committee on Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK), Rosa Park, SIS/BA '12, continued working through the 2011 winter break--even on Christmas day--as her organization responded to the global shock wave caused by Kim Jong-il’s death. Now in her second semester at HRNK, Park helps manage the organization’s social media outreach, while also conducting research and submitting daily press summaries.

“Kim Jong-il's death was definitely a huge milestone,” says Park. “There is a lot of speculation right now because so little is known about Kim Jong-un, the successor. We have to analyze the information and infer what exactly is happening in a society where there are so few who know what is actually going on.”

Advocacy groups and Western governments have long regarded North Korea’s regime as one of the world’s worst violators of human rights. Although many are skeptical that this power shift will lead to any major improvements within the impoverished country, groups like HRNK are putting on external pressure for reform.  Working with such an organization at a time of major change and excitement has reinforced Park’s goal of pursuing a career in human rights.

“Taking on this internship is one of the best decisions I’ve made,” says Park. “Since I’m Korean-American, I have a personal connection to the issues that are happening, as well as a deep interest in human rights.”

While interning with the Atlantic Treaty Association (ATA) in Brussels, Belgium, during the summer of 2011, Greg Wells, SIS/MA '12, worked on a variety of issues grabbing headlines that year. Wells attended conferences regarding European Union (EU) security, the future of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and concerns pertaining to the Arab Spring as the conflict in Libya raged just across the Mediterranean Sea and NATO led airstrike campaigns there.

In one assignment, Wells helped develop ATA’s Wikistrat Global Grand Strategy Competition. This month-long competition brought together graduate students representing top-ranked universities and think tanks worldwide to simulate how 13 countries might respond to five key security issues: global energy security, global economic rebalancing, international terrorism, the Chinese-American relationship, and nuclear proliferation in the Middle East. The goal of this competition was to receive fresh perspectives on topical issues and foreseeable global challenges. Through this internship, Wells gained new insight into the media’s portrayal of world events.

“Often times the media latches on to smaller aspects of larger issues,” says Wells. “Sometimes we don’t know the big picture on what the rest of the world is doing… The U.S. seems to portray the Arab Spring as a new phenomenon, but in reality the situation has been fermenting for some time.”

Wells’ experience in Belgium influenced his own research completed for an independent study, titled "NATO's Evolution and the Curse of Collective Action." Wells is continuing his research to focus on the future role of NATO in U.S. foreign policy.

Last spring, David Burkhart, SIS/BA '12, was three months into a semester studying abroad at The University of Aleppo in Syria when the protests there suddenly forced him to evacuate.

Burkhart had heard stories about protests while at Aleppo, but it seemed like a distant event. “Then a protest occurred within my university,” says Burkhart. “I witnessed it. [Foreign students] had to leave the protest area that evening and were given 36 hours to get on an airplane to Frankfurt, [Germany].”

Earlier this month, approximately one year after the violence against protestors erupted in Syria, the government and resistance forces agreed to a ceasefire.
 
Burkhart returned to the U.S. to finish his classes online. But he soon grew restless, wanting to be a part of the history unfolding in the Middle East. He went to Beirut, Lebanon, to study Arabic at a private institution and signed up to volunteer as an English teacher in Hezbollah-controlled suburbs.

“The place I taught was very close to a Palestinian refugee camp, which housed 20,000 people in one square kilometer,” says Burkhart, who is now back at AU to complete his final semester. “To hear their views on society and life and to see how international development took place are experiences I couldn’t get at home.”

Burkhart’s Arabic courses have helped him to connect with people and events in the region. He describes “language as the path to understanding the people,” and his growing fluency contributed to his decision to move to the Middle East after graduation this May.

The students’ internships and volunteer experiences not only lead to career opportunities. The resources made available by American University and Washington, D.C., often allow students to partake in momentous experiences and become active participants in history.

The theme of Women’s History Month 2012 is “Women’s Education - Women’s Empowerment.” The National Women’s History Project (NWHP) maintains that when students help to educate others, they can help empower women worldwide.

Rebecca Hollingsworth, director of youth outreach and education for NWHP, works to inform people about women’s contributions to society and to inspire future accomplishments.

“There are people who don’t think we need these months [honoring special groups]” says Hollingsworth. “But we can spend our lives so busy, going from one thing to another without ever stopping to ask, ‘who am I?’ Women’s History Month allows us to highlight aspects of ourselves and each other as a means of both self and group empowerment.”

Many AU students are paying tribute to women’s history and advocating for women’s issues year round, at home and abroad, through inspiring jobs and internships. 

Quinn Smeaton, SIS/BA ‘13, pursued an internship with the Moraa New Hope Foundation while studying abroad in Nairobi, Kenya, in the fall of 2011. A key focus area for this organization involves helping young women prepare to achieve successful futures.

During her four months in Kenya, Smeaton worked on two projects. The first, “Go-Girl Financial Literacy Project,” aimed to teach girls about the importance of fiscal savings. Smeaton also helped the foundation organize events to celebrate the girls’ progress in the program with music, dancing, and food. These so-called “Fun Days” were designed to create an additional, more light-hearted incentive for the young girls to continue on with their work, says Smeaton. This mix of training in applicable skills with jovial community-building events seemed to work, as 791 girls signed up for the program during Smeaton’s internship.

Through the second project, “A New Beginning, A Brighter Future,” Smeaton reached out to women involved in commercial sex work in the Kenyan towns of Majeago and Lunga Lunga. Many of these young women are forced into this kind of work due to extreme poverty and lack of opportunities. This project provides such women with start-up funds, personal financing, and workshops that allow them to become entrepreneurs and pursue a new path in life.

“We helped give them skills they can use for the rest of their lives,” says Smeaton. “Many women abroad don’t have the same opportunities we have here. We were able to give girls opportunities to change and realize they are capable of doing more.”

Like Smeaton, Tory Cwyk, SIS/MA ‘13, used education to inform and empower women.

She completed two consecutive internships with the Women’s Foreign Policy Group (WFPG), which highlights the contributions and voices of women leaders - past, present, and future - in international affairs. There, Cwyk was able to combine two of her principal interests: foreign policy and women’s issues.

Cwyk met many prominent individuals in international affairs as she organized events with influential female ambassadors, authors, and legislators, like Senator Dianne Feinstein.

“Since WFPG is a small organization with only two paid staffers, interns are able to really get involved,” says Cwyk. “We are given a lot of responsibility, which enables us to learn more than at many other internships.”

She also helped compile and research the women who made it into the foundation’s annual “Guide to Women Leaders in International Affairs.” This 53-page publication, available through the organization’s website, showcases prominent women in international affairs.

“It’s very empowering to give women a voice, making sure they are represented,” says Cwyk. “This organization creates a great environment to speak out and be heard.”

Smeaton and Cwyk’s internships are directly related to the theme of this month, “Women’s Education – Women’s Empowerment.”

“If you want any say in the world, you need education,” says Hollingsworth. “Knowledge is empowering and leads to self-determination, which allows for options in the future. Internships are a form of empowerment.”

These students are not only empowering themselves, but also those they are helping and educating through their efforts. Additionally, they're building upon the rich history of women’s past accomplishments.

Studying abroad can bring a lot of benefits: immersion in a new, exciting culture; the opportunity to master a foreign language; and an enriching academic experience with career benefits. But it can also bring some hefty financial costs. So, how can students lighten their debt load while still enjoying dim sum and lo mein after class in Beijing?
 
The Gilman International Scholarship Program provides students who might not otherwise be able to afford studying abroad the ability to take part in such a life changing opportunity. The goal of the Gilman Scholarship Program is to assist undergraduates pursuing their education in non-traditional countries (i.e., not Western Europe or Australia). Students from all fields of study are encouraged to apply.

This semester, six AU students are abroad on Gilman Scholarships. Abigail Ewart, SIS/BA ’13, Sophia Higgins, SIS/CAS/BA '12, Shelby Jamerson, SIS/BA ’13, and Marti Lankford, SOC/CAS/BA ’12, are studying in Egypt, Chile, Kuwait, and Taiwan, respectively. E.J. Thomas, SPA/BA ’14, and David Rubin, SIS/BA ’13, are in China.

Thomas chose to study in Beijing in order to prepare for a career as an international corporate lawyer focused on China.

“I’ve found class time and my legal internship here to be the most valuable experiences since going abroad,” says Thomas. “I’m learning so much about where I want to go with my career and, more importantly, about doing business in China.”

To apply for a Gilman Scholarship, students must prepare an essay, a service proposal, the official application form, and provide their school transcripts. For Thomas, the Office of Merit Awards (OMA) greatly aided in the development of his application.

Thomas says that Liz Romig, merit awards coordinator for OMA, “was a huge help in looking over my essay and suggesting a service proposal.”

David Rubin also chose to study in Beijing. He was awarded a Critical Language Supplement in addition to the Gilman Scholarship. This financial grant was only awarded to 50 students engaged in learning what the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs identifies as a critical language to the future of U.S. foreign policy.

After taking several courses in Mandarin language and Chinese culture, Rubin decided to study abroad to augment his studies with first-hand experience in China.

“I realized that as an outside observer, I would have a difficult time truly grasping my academic interests if I had never visited China,” he says.

Rubin agrees that the Office of Merit Awards is extremely helpful during the application process. He too refers to Liz Romig as a supportive guide throughout the application process.

“[She] not only helped me revise the application essays numerous times, but also served as an on-campus resource and contact for many of the administrative aspects of the process,” says Rubin.

Rubin already feels that his Mandarin language skills have improved since his immersion in Beijing just a few weeks ago. Likewise, he is thrilled with the academics at Peking University. Two courses in particular, “Rural Economics” and “Doing Business in China,” are proving invaluable.

Rubin is also enjoying being immersed in modern Chinese culture.

“It is especially interesting to me to observe how many elements of Chinese culture are currently in a state of transition,” he says. “Especially as many Chinese join the middle class and develop a cosmopolitan, though still distinctly Chinese, identity.”

As a supplement to the Gilman Scholarship, students are required to do a service project upon their return to America. Thomas’ project will involve coordinating an information session about the Gilman Scholarship with the Office of Merit Awards so that more students are aware of the financial assistance available for studying abroad. Rubin will also represent Gilman as an alumnus and student representative at the fall 2012 AU Study Abroad Fair.

Current undergraduates interested in applying for a Gilman Scholarship are encouraged to call OMA at 202-885-1854 to schedule an advising appointment. March 1 is the application deadline for summer 2012, fall 2012, and academic year 2012-2013 programs.

Whether studying public policy, international studies, or science, many American University (AU) students are finding the field of communications to be wide and inviting.

“Employers increasingly need people who know how to connect with their target audiences,” says Bridget O’Connell, director of outreach and marketing for AU’s Career Center. "Opportunities exist for students from a variety of academic disciplines who demonstrate subject matter expertise and strong communication skills."

While searching through AU CareerWeb, Lauren Powell, SIS/BA ‘13, found a communications-oriented internship with the Embassy of the United Kingdom to the U.S. As an international studies major with British ancestry and a desire to gain professional experience in communications, Powell says the role could not have fit her better.

Through her internship in media outreach and management, Powell writes summaries of official briefings from the White House and U.S. Department of State, sends event invitations to leaders of major think tanks, and helps maintain the Embassy’s database. The position also allows her to network with foreign policy experts and ambassadors at the high-profile events that she helps plan and promote.

One such event was a reception for British and American soldiers receiving treatment at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Powell secured donations for the soldiers from a range of companies and was responsible for communicating with media sources about the event.

Working at the British Embassy “has been the best internship I’ve had so far,” says Powell. She now plans to pursue a career in media relations with a government agency.

Meanwhile, Ana Santos, SIS/BA ‘14, is gaining communications experience by serving in a highly-competitive internship with National Geographic’s Image Collection Department, where she edits, manages, and catalogs images for upcoming exhibitions and books. A past position as photo editor for The Eagle helped her get a foot in the door with NatGeo.

In addition to her longtime interest in photography, Santos believes that her background in international studies provides her with a more nuanced understanding and deeper historical appreciation for the photos she manages that cover events, cultures, and locations from all over the world. They provide her with what she calls “an insider’s view to history.”

This spring, Santos will continue to apply her degree within the field of communications by serving as a photography intern with National Geographic’s Traveler Magazine.

Michala (Kayla) Phillips, CAS/BA/MS ‘13, an environmental science major, also gained communications experience by working for an on-campus publication. As a writer for Catalyst, American University’s science magazine, she drew from her deep knowledge of science to communicate complex issues to a broader audience.

She says that interviewing professors and students working across a variety of scientific disciplines and reporting on their research expanded her scope of interest beyond her own major, while reinforcing her decision to pursue a career in communications.

Indeed, Phillips found writing for Catalyst to be such a fulfilling experience that she is now considering becoming a science reporter.

“I would love to write for a science magazine eventually, to get this information out to masses of people instead of just the science community,” says Phillips.

These three students have leveraged their passions and area-specific knowledge to help their employers connect with their audiences. In the process, each has increased their own marketability by gaining valuable communication skills.

Many students at American University (AU) will face a tough decision of whether to gain international experience by studying abroad or to stay in Washington, D.C., to hold a prestigious internship.  But one increasingly popular U.S. Department of State program allows students to have it both ways.

Internet-based internships, otherwise known as eInternships, have grown significantly at the U.S. Department of State since the program was piloted in 2009 with approximately 50 summer interns. Today, the Virtual Student Foreign Service (VSFS) fills 209 eIntern positions at 61 overseas posts, 29 domestic offices, and 11 UNESCO commissions.

“Even though the student does not physically come into the office, the State Department can still benefit from the energy, fresh ideas, unique perspectives, and specific skills U.S. college students can offer,” says Bridget Roddy, program manager. “An eInternship allows flexibility for students to determine when and where they want to work. Not all students have the time… for an in-house internship.”

Allena Martin, SIS/BA ‘13, and Maura Farrell, SIS/BA ‘13, are two AU students on the forefront of this emerging trend.

While studying abroad in Rome to learn Italian, Allena Martin is putting her Spanish minor to good use through her VSFS eInternship. Building upon the State Department’s targeted outreach campaigns, Martin is making short Spanish-language videos that explain concepts in U.S. government, history, and culture during her nine-month-long position.

“I think this eInternship will give me a very different kind of experience that not a lot of students can have,” says Martin. “If I make a successful video, it may be shared with Spanish-speaking youth around the world. That would be both an amazing personal and professional experience.”

Studying abroad in London, Maura Farrell is also using her eInternship to further develop an academic interest. Farrell’s previous experience in India informed her decision to apply for a research-based internship regarding the Indian Diaspora to the U.S. More specifically, she is examining networks of community support used among Bengalis during the immigration process.

“Part of the research I am doing will include interviewing prominent Bengali-Americans like Jhumpa Lahiri and Amartya Sen, among others,” says Farrell. “These two in particular are people whom I really look up to, so I am totally psyched at the idea of being able to talk to them.”

Farrell believes that the contacts she is making through her current position may also aid her in her future academic and professional pursuits.

Martin credits Career Center advisor David Fletcher for helping her figure out how to handle the rigors of an internship while studying abroad. This was crucial, she says, since eInternships are incredibly independent and students must rely on their own abilities to complete the task assigned. That said, eInterns routinely check in with supervisors, who provide feedback and direction on their projects.

Farrell agrees. “I really like what I'm researching, so it feels like I'm building my resume while just doing a hobby,” she  says.

Martin and Farrell believe that VSFS provides an invaluable option to gain professional experience with an esteemed U.S. agency while also pursuing the personal and academic benefits of studying abroad. Both encourage students to apply for the opportunity to engage in this growing phenomenon.

Francine Blume, director of experiential education at AU’s Career Center, also believes that virtual internships will play an increasingly prominent role in career development.

“With the level of digital interconnectivity we now have at our fingertips, it is inevitable that more and more employers will offer these types of opportunities,” says Blume. “The key is to find a position that develops your skills and provides mentorship so that you’re not simply working alone.”

Angie Lewis’s passion for both writing and sports led her to try her hand at sports journalism at an early age. But it was not until her bold foray into self-publishing through blogs and social media sites that her writing was noticed and her successful career launched.

At age 11, Lewis, SOC/BA ‘12, began writing brief recaps and analysis about Washington Capitals games. She sent in a few samples to the franchise's owner, Ted Leonsis, who encouraged her to continue writing. She did, and the articles continued to improve as her writing developed a confident voice.

In August of 2009, Lewis made her social media debut with a no holds barred sports blog, which quickly began generating hundreds of hits per day. She originally covered a variety of sports, but now focuses on hockey. Through this outlet, Lewis built an impressive portfolio of writing samples that readers and employers alike could easily access via the Web.

However, Lewis wanted to take her humble blog to the next level.  She needed more readers, more exposure. She decided to grow her fan base by tapping into other social media outlets to distribute her stories.

“Twitter is the reason I am a full-time writer,” says Lewis, who has nearly 1,800 followers tracking her Tweets in search of hockey news and insights with attitude.

As a result, Lewis has appeared on radio programs to discuss hockey and has been invited to serve as a guest writer on other hockey Websites. Indeed, her growing presence on Twitter ultimately landed her a position covering the National Hockey League for The Hockey Writers, an online publication with a team of 60 writers focusing on all things hockey.

Social networking sites, says Lewis, are just as important nowadays to career advancement as in-person networking. By using Twitter to meet and interact with a diverse cast of readers, writers, and hockey aficionados, Lewis’s networking circle has seen exponential growth – and new opportunities as a result.

“Sometimes, just the right person will happen across your posts or hear a positive review about your work,” says Lewis. “The next thing you know, you have a new reference, or someone offers you a chance to feature as a guest writer on their site.”

In addition to The Hockey Writers, Lewis currently reports for Canada’s The Sports Forecaster magazine and covers high school sports at The Washington Post.

Shefali Vyas, MA ‘10, had four job offers when she graduated—in a recession. What was her secret?

“The fact that I had success after graduation was connected to AU in pretty much every aspect,” Vyas said.  

Whether it was her coursework, internships, or the connections she made with professors and students, Vyas, a Digital Strategist and Interactive Producer for Ogilvy PR Worldwide, said that she was thoroughly prepared. 

She said of her classes and experience in the Public Communication program at AU, “I did real-life work, my professors taught me what I should expect in the field, how I should present myself in interviews and at the job, and trained me to be successful.”

Vyas chose to do an internship for credit while at SOC, and met with an Ogilvy representative at an AU event. Upon graduating, Vyas had two offers from the public relations giant, as well as from two other agencies. 

The Public Communication MA program is the most flexible offered by SOC. Students can earn the degree full-time, part-time or on weekends.

Pallavi Kumar, a professor and herself an AU alum, said that Vyas’ dedication was one of the things that set her apart. 

“Shefali did three things really well, that I think helped her land a job someplace she wanted to be,” Kumar said. “She found an internship where she knew she wanted to work, she was extremely driven and organized, and she really made herself part of the culture and got involved in where she was working—she made herself indispensible.”

Based on her experience, Vyas has some advice to prepare students for the fight to find jobs in a slow economy. 

“While you’re in school, find an internship and get some work experience. You never know how that will turn out,” she said. “And once you’ve started applying for jobs, just keep applying—I got four offers, but I applied to 40.” 

Kumar said that SOC’s Public Communication program gives students a leg-up in the job-hunting process. 

“AU students are coming to the table with a PR degree—they can say, ‘not only do I know what PR is, I know how it all works, how to write a campaign strategy, you don’t have to teach me,’” she said. “That’s huge compared to other students applying for these same jobs.”