Sarah Thias, Marvelous Ways International

I began remote work with Marvelous Ways International in June 2021. MWI is a nonprofit start up that focuses on innovation. The project I’ve been hired on for is based in Anonos, Costa Rica. MWI has created a program to try and give young people education and opportunities to pursue a life outside the narcotics business. They do this by forming mentorships and classes with college students and other adults from Anonos who were able to succeed in other industries. These adults then give the kids positive representation and help them to develop their own, personal life goals.

Sarah Thias
Sarah Thias

In late June, I was sent to a grant writing workshop in order to beef up my knowledge of grants and how to apply for them. I’ve now been tasked with taking all the amazing planning work, data, and project designs they already have worked up and transform it into a grant proposal. So far, I love the work and think the Anonos project is an amazing opportunity for young people and will make a huge difference in their community.

I’ve been working closely with MWI’s founder and director, Mark Haywood. We have weekly meetings over zoom where he’s talked me through their design process and future projections for both the Anonos program and future projects. We plan to keep me on until December 2021 after the Anonos pilot has been kicked off. I’ll continue my grant writing work for other possible funding for Anonos as well as restarting the process for their future projects, such as those planned to begin in Honduras.

I can’t wait to see where this organization goes and how much it will be able to grow. I’m so happy to be a part of the process and have an impact on these communities.

Sarah Thias is an Atlantis Student pursuing an MA International Relations from the Maxwell School in Syracuse and a Master of Public Policy from the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin.

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Katherine Caby Styers, Maxwell in D.C. Program

This Fall semester, I was able to live, work, and study in Washington D.C. through the Maxwell school. This experience was been amazing and I met many new people and found interesting opportunities while living here. I took two academic courses taught by practitioners who are well-known in their fields. One of the best things about these classes however are the guest speakers which have come to class and brought their own expertise to us. This has provided me with networking opportunities as well as a chance to learn about different career paths. 

In addition to these two classes, I was able to get academic credit through a research internship. With the help of my mentor Mark Jacobson, I researched Chinese narratives used in Australia to help further foreign policy goals. I also assisted with a book chapter focusing on narratives of spy-warfare and accusations of biowarfare in the Korean War. This internship allowed me to explore many different avenues of interest including East Asia, foreign policy, and public diplomacy. 

Being in D.C. also allowed me to experience Congressional hearings, explore the many museums, meet new people, attend think tank events, and visit gardens and parks. I never thought that I would be able to live in such a huge, diverse city, but Syracuse has helped achieve this accomplishment. I look forward to seeing how my education at Syracuse will help me succeed in D.C. and help me contribute to making the US a better place.

Caby Styers is an MAIR student who will graduate in December. She previously interned at Vrije Universiteit Brussel under the Korea Chair as part of the European and Global Internship Program in Brussels.

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Varsha Srinivasan, Policy & Advocacy Summer Fellow at the DC Charter School Alliance

My name is Varsha, and I am a dual-degree MPA/IR student at the Maxwell School. I received an Experiential Learning Award to work as a Policy & Advocacy Summer Fellow at the DC Charter School Alliance through Leadership for Educational Equity (LEE). I worked directly with the Senior Director of Government Affairs as a liaison for the organization, providing summaries and recaps of key bills and legislative decisions at Committee of the Whole Meetings. Additionally, I conducted research on DC Council members to prepare informational background on members for future stakeholders to review and gain a stronger understanding of the political context surrounding education policy, specifically with respect to charter schools. I also took an active role in helping to develop the National School Choice Week plan and conduct research on relationship mapping tools to find the most effective platform to visualize and understand the impact of different connections on policy decisions.

Through my time as a Summer Fellow, Leadership for Educational Equity made available a series of networking events, supplemental trainings, and professional development opportunities in the area of education policy. I gained a stronger contextual understanding of policy impacts on charter schools, especially during the COVID pandemic, by attending Committee of the Whole meetings and legislative sessions to hear from the key stakeholders and strategic partners from each of the 8 DC Wards. Given the disproportionate charter school presence in Wards 7 and 8, which have been historically marginalized, under-resourced, and misrepresented, I learned the importance of community-specific reforms to create a more equitable policy landscape for the diverse residents of the DC metro area.

As a woman of color, a former teacher of color at a low-income school in North Las Vegas, and a former Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Colombia, I am committed to pursuing roles focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, specifically as they relate to closing the lifestyle gap for historically marginalized communities. Given the challenges of the current pandemic and resulting sociopolitical climate, I sought to use this Award to gain a deeper understanding of how multiculturalism and sociocultural awareness can contribute to implementing more effective and relevant policies by establishing meaningful relationships with residents of each Ward, specifically through the work of each Council member. I was able to cultivate my management and teamwork skills by observing the direct impact of research and legislative processes on constituents, which allowed me to develop more meaningful outreach strategies. This unique opportunity has taught me to continue developing my professional skills and establish meaningful relationships to create more inclusive and equitable policy reform in my current internship with the Partnership for Public Service as a Leadership Development Intern.

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Emily DiMatteo, Internship with Human Rights Watch’s Disability Rights Division and The Arc of the United States

During the fall 2021 term, I completed two remote internships with Human Rights Watch’s Disability Rights Division and The Arc of the United States. Human Rights Watch is a nonprofit NGO human rights organization that investigates and exposes human rights violations around the world. The Arc of the United States is a nonprofit that works to advance public policy for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. My internships with these organizations allowed me to further my interest in the intersection of public policy, disability rights, and international relations.

Visual Description: A blue square with white text that reads “Human Rights Watch”

Although I couldn’t complete the internships in person due to pandemic restrictions, I was able to gain valuable experience in different projects. With Human Rights Watch, I contributed to U.S. advocacy efforts related to the Congressional reconciliation bill. Specifically, we conducted advocacy for the funding of home and community-based services for older people and people with disabilities. I conducted background research, attended external meetings with Congressional offices, and published a dispatch for Human Rights Watch. My other projects included research on long-term care for older people and people with disabilities in South Africa and China, the impact of inaccessible emergency preparedness plans, and the impact of COVID-19 on people with disabilities. I was also able to attend trainings and virtual events.

Fiona Eichinger, Study Abroad in Paris & M&E Internship

This past semester, I studied abroad at the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) in France. Through this experience, I had the opportunity to take specialized courses such as Migration and Justice in the EU and Refugee Governance and Policy in the Middle East. These classes further equipped me for a future career in humanitarian action in the field of forced migration. I also have combined my studies with practical experience by volunteering with “Sciences Po Refugee Help” to organize activities and excursions for residents of a migrant reception center in Paris. This experience equipped me with a new perspective to understand global and local contexts of migration.

Additionally, I continued my internship as a Junior Officer for Trust Consultancy & Development, a third-party monitoring and evaluation (M&E) organization based in Turkey. Over a few months, I had been given new responsibilities, such as leading a team on preparing and submitting proposals, as well as assisting the Third-Party Monitoring department in cleaning and analyzing quantitative data. I also wrote a blog for the company’s external communications on the opportunities and challenges of integrating information and communications technology in monitoring and evaluation.

Having worked for over five years in program design, management and implementation in the humanitarian sector alongside my bachelor and master studies, I was excited to engage with these types of projects from an independent observer and evaluator perspective. This viewpoint has deepened my understanding of M&E research design and techniques (such as Key Informant Interviews, Focus Group Discussions and Household Surveys), evaluation criteria, and the application of relevant indicators.

Trust’s internship program was very hands-on, with Junior Officers receiving meaningful tasks and responsibilities from the first day. I worked in the proposal writing department, which prepares competitive proposals based on the competencies, deliverables and budget requested in an organization’s Terms of Reference (ToR). This involves effectively reflecting Trust’s capacity to provide the service, developing appropriate methods and a work plan, assigning experienced staff to the project, and developing a competitive financial proposal. Branching out into the proposal writing and business development departments was a new experience that taught me more about the behind-the-scenes functioning of organizations.

I am very grateful for this experience to study in Paris and gain further academic and practical insight into my chosen career path in migration.

Fiona Eichinger is an MAIR student who will graduate in December.

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Kyle Downey, District Office of Sean Patrick Maloney, House of Representatives

For my off campus experience, I was working for the District Office of Sean Patrick Maloney in the House of Representatives.  Day-to-day the people were friendly and the work was interesting.  The mission of the district office is twofold.  The first and primary mission is to provide services to local constituents, such as helping them navigate federal bureaucracies or recording their opinions and current bills.  The second mission is to facilitate the Congressman’s interactions with local people and interest groups by setting up town hall meetings and keeping in regular correspondence with members of the community.  I worked for the Director of Grants and Outreach, so our job sometimes involved us meeting with new businesses that might move to our district, which combines elements of both the previous two missions.

Many of the constituents, especially these new businesses we met with, were looking for funding for their projects.  As such they were often interested in learning about federal grants that might apply to their specific businesses and projects.  To make the process easier for them, I spearheaded an ambitious new project.  I collected information on all 2000 federal grants and then compiled that information onto a website page I built from scratch.  The website page provides an interactive dashboard which users can interact with in real time.  All the different grants are on one page with a scroll down bar.  Users can hold their mouse over any one grant to see an expanded format which display detailed paragraphs about eligibility.  Users can also filter which federal agency they are looking through via a dropdown menu.

Kyle Downey

Kyle Downey is an dual MPA/MAIR student at the Maxwell School.

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Jill Watkins, UNICEF in Geneva

For the past three months, I have been interning with the Global Child Protection Area of Responsibility (CP AoR) led by UNICEF in Geneva, Switzerland. I began my work remotely while I was in the U.S. finishing up my spring semester at Syracuse and had the opportunity to join the team full-time in Geneva at the start of May.

First day working at the UNICEF Office in Geneva

Although I have only been here a few weeks now, I have been able to meet with my colleagues, spend a few days in working in the office and have been tasked with substantially more responsibility. I am working on two main projects right now beyond my day-today duties.

The first is helping to create a Field Cooperation Framework to increase collaboration between Child Protection field coordinators across different regions of the world. To better understand the work that needs to be done to increase collaboration across regional contexts, I have helped organize and manage online consultations with staff around the word. The Framework is expected to be completed by the end of September.

The second main opportunity I have been able to help with is creating and disseminating a survey to measure youth perceptions of climate-related disasters in South East Asia. This has been my favorite task so far, as it directly relates with my personal interests and passions. The survey was translated into 12 different languages, which I was able to act as the lead organizer for, and just went live last week. I am looking forward to help analyze the results of the survey in June.

Overall, I am elated to be in Geneva working for an organization I am so invested in. I have high hopes that the remainder of the internship will go as well as the first half has, and I am grateful to Syracuse for assisting me in this opportunity. I highly recommend this internship to anyone interested in emergency humanitarian assistance specifically focused on child protection.

Jill Watkins is an MAIR student who will graduate in December. She is currently interning at the Partnership for Public Service in Washington, DC.

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Emily DiMatteo, Roma and Travellers Division Remote Internship at the Council of Europe

During the summer 2021 term, I completed a remote internship at the Council of Europe in the Roma and Travellers Division. The Council of Europe is an international human rights organization based in Strasbourg, France with 47 member states (27 of which are EU member states). Its work encompasses various policy areas including gender equality, education, and minority rights. My internship allowed me to explore these topics, among others.

This internship allowed me to gain firsthand experience within an organization I previously studied in my International Human Rights and Comparative Disability Law (LAW 889) class. In that course, I completed a research paper utilizing Council of Europe primary documents about Roma education in the Czech Republic. So, the opportunity to intern with the Roma and Travellers team aligned perfectly with my interests and prior coursework.  

Although I couldn’t complete the internship in person due to pandemic restrictions, I was able to gain valuable experience in different projects. I researched national drug legislation and drug policy for several member states and drafted a background analysis for each. I also researched member states’ Roma inclusion strategies relating to drug policy and healthcare. My other projects gave me exposure to topics including gender equality and women’s rights, as I contributed to the formatting, proofing, and editing of formal research studies on these topics. I was also able to attend organizational meetings for future Council of Europe conferences and gained insight into the planning and coordination with different actors including national governments, NGOs, and other international organizations. I was also able to attend Council of Europe conferences including the Steering Committee on Anti-Discrimination, Diversity and Inclusion (CDADI).

In sum, I gained valuable exposure to and understanding of a prominent international human rights organization. This supports my academic and future career interests as I continue pursuing my MAIR degree on the governance, diplomacy, and international organizations track with a Certificate of Advanced Study in the EU region. I hope to one day visit the Council of Europe and my colleagues in person—until then, I will appreciate this unique summer experience.

Emily DiMatteo

Emily DiMatteo is currently continuing rights based work by interning at Human Rights Watch and as a Fellow at the Arc of the United States. She is an MAIR student expected to graduate in December.

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Magaribi Lehani Hervé, Al & Legacy in DRC

Al & Legacy is a consulting firm founded by a Congolese economics expert M. Al Kitenge to contribute to the improvement of the “DRC doing business environment “and to enhance the relevance of public-private partnerships in boosting economic growth and inclusion of start-ups and small and medium sized enterprises. Al & Legacy is a well-regarded consulting think tank in analyzing the impact of public policies on the financial and economic growth of the Democratic Republic of Congo and mechanisms to address the challenges of governance. 

Al & Legacy launched the Gouvernix Project to mobilize citizens through a positive participation to open their eyes and ears on how public policies are designed, resources are allocated and managed and why it is worthy to participate and make one’s voice be heard.  

As a graduate student in public diplomacy and as part of my experiential learning last spring semester 2021, I was very interested in this internship at Al & Legacy as an opportunity to share my modest contribution to the mobilization of citizens on issues that matter to the image of the entire Nation: governance. The Nation’s image is something none should joke about. We need to be very sensitive on how the governance issue undermines the reputation of the country and pulls down efforts of economic growth and development.  

My role was to do research on selected topics, collect data, as well as write and share publications to be posted in the project website, where citizens can access them. This exercise enabled me to improve my communication and enhance my analytical skills.  

In the case of the Democratic Republic of Congo, governance has been for many years a huge challenge for both public and private sectors.  Every year, the DRC loses millions of dollars due to corruption, mismanagement of resources and lack of transparency in doing business, governing the public sector, and mostly in limiting the citizen’s participation in the control of public managers. 

Both the Maxwell school and Newhouse school are equipping me with the skills, techniques and tools necessary to bring an appreciated added value to this project.   

I feel connected to my country and honored to share my small stone to its building, though I am miles away from it.

Magaribi Lehani Herve is currently finishing his PDGC degree in Washington, DC, while interning at the Center for Civilians in Conflict and Catholic Universities of America’s Office of Military and Veterans Student Services.

Public Diplomacy and Global Communications Program

Haley Hardie, SocialCauses in Cape Town, South Africa

Picos de Europa, Spain

I spent the spring semester interning with SocialCauses, a startup nonprofit based in Cape Town, South Africa. SocialCauses believes in leveraging technology for social good; to that end they are developing a vetting and capability assessment system (NPGO) for nonprofits in the region.

My role this semester was to interview a variety of local nonprofit organizations (NPOs) to learn about how they conduct impact reporting and whether that data is used to measure the country’s progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). I found that most NPOs have not engaged with the SDGs and lack the resources to conduct robust monitoring and evaluation.

The data I collected will be used to inform capacity-building efforts in the sector to strengthen monitoring and evaluation systems. Additionally, the data will inform the design of NPGO, including using the platform to help NPOs identify how their work aligns with the SDGs to enhance NPOs’ competitive advantage when applying for funding.


Zoom meeting with one of my supervisors wearing the iKapa Impact sweatshirt they sent me from South Africa.

Although my internship was completed remotely, I feel like I have had a unique experience getting to work closely with dozens of organizations to see how nonprofits do their work. This internship has helped me to develop skills in research design, survey creation, and data collection, synthesis, and analysis. More broadly, I have learned about nonprofit management systems and governance and monitoring and evaluation. As I prepare to enter the development sector, I believe this internship has added significant value to my degree at Maxwell.

Haley Hardie is an MAIR student who will graduate in December. She also interned at the Asian Development Bank and South Dakota Voices for Peace as part of her MAIR degree.

MAIR Program at the Maxwell School