GS Student Ronny Soares
Internship at the Institute of World Politics, Washington, D.C.
Ronny Soares, bottom left, with other interns at the Institute of World Politics.
Current Global Studies student Ronny Soares is in Washington, D.C. this semester at the Institute of World Politics. The Institute of World Politics is a graduate school of national security and international affairs. Here is what Ronny had to say about the internship:
"I absolutely love my internship at IWP. Its not a typical internship or work that hold students hostage from 9-5pm. My schedule is: Tuesday and Thursday 1:30-6:30pm and Wednesday 11am-4pm. All of the interns have one phone shift and one skybox shift that they must cover every week. These two days are where we do the administrative work, mainly in the skybox where we help out with events, think tanks, lectures, or panel talks that IWP hosts. Interns are allowed to attend events and network with the speakers.
"One of the talks that captured my attention was called "Re-energizing the Geopolitical Risk Conversation," which was done by Milena Rodban. Thankfully I've done a lot of research and the classes I've taken at Bryant prepared me on this topic, so I got in touch with Milena and we met to speak about her work. This coming Monday, I will be meeting with someone who works in the field of human trafficking. I am excited to hear about the positive and negative of working in the human trafficking field.
"Another great thing about interning at IWP is that it is mandatory for interns to audit classes. I chose to audit Professor Gorkas's class on Enemy Threat Doctrine of Global Jihadism. Interns can get a credit in that class if they choose to do the work, and if some day they return to IWP it can count. Since the school is expensive that is a great option! I was a little intimidated in my first class because the students there had many years of prior experience in their field and I was just a soon to be college graduate student, But the classes are very small and everyone has to contribute to the class discussion, so I got used to it . Another great thing about auditing the classes is that all of the Professors have many years of experience working on the field that they are teaching. My Professor (Gorka) was born in the UK to parents who escaped Communism during the Hungarian Revolution. He is an internationally recognized authority on issues of national security, irregular warfare, terrorism and democratization, having worked in government and the private and NGO sectors in Europe and the United States. A couple of weeks ago, I interviewed one of the Professors at IWP who worked in the Clandestine Department in the CIA for 28 years. It gave me great insight into what it is like to be a spy for the US government.
"Another part of my internship is to conduct a professional research assignment with a member of the faculty. Three other interns and I work with Dr. Daniels, who is Chair of Law and Human Rights; Founder of the Center for Human Rights and International Affairs. I conduct research into cases of human rights violations and tie them back to popular, mainstream media. Currently I produce creative film reviews in order to raise public awareness of the rights that every individual is entitled to from birth. The research that I along side the interns do helps to advance Dr. Daniels objective of spreading awareness of rights and freedoms that are guaranteed by the Declaration of Human Rights. Human Rights Network is the YouTube channel where all of the videos that the other interns and I did. This part of the internship is done on my own time, except we all meet together for lunch once a week to see everyone's video.
"Washington DC has been great to me so far! It was not easy at first, but who would I be if I did not take the opportunity to fully discover DC, its culture, and its history?"
"I absolutely love my internship at IWP. Its not a typical internship or work that hold students hostage from 9-5pm. My schedule is: Tuesday and Thursday 1:30-6:30pm and Wednesday 11am-4pm. All of the interns have one phone shift and one skybox shift that they must cover every week. These two days are where we do the administrative work, mainly in the skybox where we help out with events, think tanks, lectures, or panel talks that IWP hosts. Interns are allowed to attend events and network with the speakers.
"One of the talks that captured my attention was called "Re-energizing the Geopolitical Risk Conversation," which was done by Milena Rodban. Thankfully I've done a lot of research and the classes I've taken at Bryant prepared me on this topic, so I got in touch with Milena and we met to speak about her work. This coming Monday, I will be meeting with someone who works in the field of human trafficking. I am excited to hear about the positive and negative of working in the human trafficking field.
"Another great thing about interning at IWP is that it is mandatory for interns to audit classes. I chose to audit Professor Gorkas's class on Enemy Threat Doctrine of Global Jihadism. Interns can get a credit in that class if they choose to do the work, and if some day they return to IWP it can count. Since the school is expensive that is a great option! I was a little intimidated in my first class because the students there had many years of prior experience in their field and I was just a soon to be college graduate student, But the classes are very small and everyone has to contribute to the class discussion, so I got used to it . Another great thing about auditing the classes is that all of the Professors have many years of experience working on the field that they are teaching. My Professor (Gorka) was born in the UK to parents who escaped Communism during the Hungarian Revolution. He is an internationally recognized authority on issues of national security, irregular warfare, terrorism and democratization, having worked in government and the private and NGO sectors in Europe and the United States. A couple of weeks ago, I interviewed one of the Professors at IWP who worked in the Clandestine Department in the CIA for 28 years. It gave me great insight into what it is like to be a spy for the US government.
"Another part of my internship is to conduct a professional research assignment with a member of the faculty. Three other interns and I work with Dr. Daniels, who is Chair of Law and Human Rights; Founder of the Center for Human Rights and International Affairs. I conduct research into cases of human rights violations and tie them back to popular, mainstream media. Currently I produce creative film reviews in order to raise public awareness of the rights that every individual is entitled to from birth. The research that I along side the interns do helps to advance Dr. Daniels objective of spreading awareness of rights and freedoms that are guaranteed by the Declaration of Human Rights. Human Rights Network is the YouTube channel where all of the videos that the other interns and I did. This part of the internship is done on my own time, except we all meet together for lunch once a week to see everyone's video.
"Washington DC has been great to me so far! It was not easy at first, but who would I be if I did not take the opportunity to fully discover DC, its culture, and its history?"