IOP names director’s interns, stipend recipients

Thirty-four undergraduate students, selected by Harvard Universitys Institute of Politics (IOP), will begin prestigious paid summer political internships this month, the institute recently announced. In addition, the IOP is providing financial assistance to more than 100 current Harvard undergraduates for help in securing public service summer jobs, to rising seniors conducting summer thesis research, and to Kennedy School of Government (KSG) students working on political campaigns.

The Director’s Internship Program, under the leadership of IOP Director Jeanne Shaheen, selects and funds summer interns through a competitive application and interview process. These students, chosen from a pool of over 200 candidates, will enjoy a unique opportunity to meet with and learn from leading academics, policymakers, and politicians at high-profile organizations to further their understanding of and interest in politics and public affairs. The IOP provides the students stipends for both domestic and international internships to help cover living expenses during the eight- to 10- week internships.

The selected students and participating organizations are as follows:

Thomas Benson ’09, The Hotline, Washington, D.C.; Austin Blackmon ’07, Office of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, Washington, D.C.; Nicole Brown ’08, William J. Clinton Foundation, New York City; Jacob Bryant ’07, Office of U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Washington, D.C.; Mathieu Desruisseaux ’07, Premier’s Office, Government of Quebec, Quebec City (cosponsored with the Quebec Delegation to Boston); Calum Docherty ’07, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Vienna, Austria; Teresa Doerre ’08, Ministry of Health, Mexico City (cosponsored with the Harvard Initiative on Global Health); Andrew Fleeter ’09, Resources for the Future, Washington, D.C.; Daniel Foong ’08, International Republican Institute, Washington, D.C.; Michael Gaffney ’08, Parliamentary internship, Labour MP for Doncaster North, Ed Miliband, London (cosponsored with the Center for European Studies); Amy Heberle ’09, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Chicago; Kyungwon Hong ’07, Parliamentary internship, Seoul, South Korea (cosponsored with Harvard’s Korea Institute); Matthew Knowles ’07, Office of Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Boston; Jinu Koola ’07, The Albright Group, Washington, D.C.; Christina Kozak ’08, Federal Chancellery, Berlin (cosponsored with Harvard’s Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures); Daniel Krauthammer ’07, New York City Economic Development Corporation, New York City; Nikhil Matthews ’08, Office of the Lord Mayor of London; Christine Mikolajuk ’07, The Heritage Foundation, Washington, D.C.; Michelle Munoz ’07, The Center for Promise and Opportunity, Washington, D.C.; Francisco Perese ’09, Ministry of Health, Mexico City (cosponsored with the Harvard Initiative on Global Health); Marisol Pineda ’08, Office of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa; Rahul Prabhakar ’09, Office of U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Washington, D.C.; Ari Ruben ’08, The Hill (newspaper), Washington, D.C.; Sopen Shah ’08, Office of New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, Albany, N.Y.; Timothy Smith ’08, Office of Boston Mayor Thomas Menino; Shawna Strayhorn ’07, MTV’s Office of Strategic Partnerships, New York City; Arjun Suri ’08, South African HIV/AIDS Programs Division, Durban, South Africa (cosponsored with the Harvard University Program on AIDS and Harvard Medical School); Mirla Urzua ’07, Office of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa; Vivek Viswanathan ’09, Missile Defense Agency, Washington, D.C.; Daniel Wenger ’09, ABC News’ Political Division, Washington, D.C.; Daniel West ’09, Office of U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel, Washington, D.C.; Joyce Zhang ’09, U.S. Department of Labor, Washington, D.C.; Jan Zilinsky ’09, Office of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sacramento, Calif.; Christine Zuzek ’07, Eurojust, The Hague, the Netherlands.

For further information on this year’s interns, visit http://www.iop.harvard.edu/students_dip_recipients.html.

The IOP also awards summer stipends, which enable undergraduates returning to Harvard in the fall to accept domestic summer jobs in local, state, or federal government with public interest groups, nongovernmental organizations, and political organizations, as well as with U.S. Department of State offices abroad. More information about IOP funding opportunities for students is available at http://www.iop.harvard.edu.

The IOP will also distribute $5,600 in funding among five rising seniors conducting thesis research in politics or government. The recipients are Loui Itoh (“Do Professions of Faith Violate Public Reason?”), Tracy Nowski (“Gender on the Campaign Trail”), Nate Picarsic (“Express Yourself, An Exploration of Expressive Motivations and Identity in the Youth Vote”), Asya Troychansky (“Mexican-American U.S. Citizens’ Views on Mexican Immigrants and Immigration Policy”), and David Zhou (“Are Latino and Asian Members of Congress More Active in Promoting Issues That Concern Latinos and Asians?”).

For the first time, the IOP is also funding three summer internship stipends to KSG students who are interning for at least eight weeks with an active political campaign, of any party, or with a third-party organization engaged in political campaign activities.