The AGS Lehrman Summer Fellows Program provides summer stipends to undergraduate students pursuing traditional and non-traditional internship and research opportunities. The program is designed to encourage undergraduate students who have demonstrated leadership and academic achievement to pursue a creative summer work plan related to the mission of AGS. Fellows are funded with a stipend to support internships and distinctive research experiences and blog about their experiences.
See below for reflections from the 2024 fellows describing their experiences.
Caroline Cornett
This past summer, I interned at Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy headquartered in New York City that specializes in helping investors understand the impacts of geopolitics on the market. Every member of the staff is an expert in their field, and the day-to-day conversations on everything from upheaval in US politics to elections in Europe were absolutely fascinating. Throughout the summer, I saw time and time again how important the lessons AGS teaches are to future work in international relations, from analyzing the immediate impacts of an event to considering how it might impact long term global trends. Through this internship, I learned more about geopolitics, the greatest risks in the world today, and the many possible paths in this field, and I am grateful to the Lehrman Fellows for making my experience possible.
Laurel Holley
I interned with Partner Forces, a woman-owned and led management consulting firm based in Arlington, VA. During my time there, I worked with the FEMA risk assessment team and internal data analytics director. It was a wonderful summer of upskilling – sharpening my hard skills, as well as learning the ins and outs of consulting/government contracting. I’m so grateful to all the Partner Forces employees who invested such tireless energy in me and helped me demystify the consulting world!
Aamer Husain
I interned this summer at the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation within the Office of Small Business and Financial Services. My team provided loans and guarantees to commercial banks around the developing world, and as an intern, I drafted investment memos and tracked claims on guarantees our team made. The highlight of my summer was successfully presenting and defending my investment memo to DFC’s screening committee after weeks of diligence, client meetings, and drafting. Looking back, this experience perfectly intersected my interests in national security and development finance, and I hope to build off this experience in the future.
Zachary Patterson
Ana Ramirez
I interned at the Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy (CCLA) where I assisted in attorneys’ public benefits and immigration cases. My favorite part was definitely working directly with clients and hearing their stories. Working at CCLA put all the theory I’ve learned in Political Science to practice: representation, leadership, and justice. This summer was a milestone in my college career and solidified my aspirations of becoming an attorney.
Lauren Read
Ishita Vaid
To further my interests in cybersecurity policy and the intersections between AI, emerging technology and International relations, I spent my summer understanding and learning machine learning tools and applications through an internship and coursework at the Indian Institute of Technology. While I am familiar with foreign policy and technology policy through my coursework at Duke, this experience allowed me to delve into the intricacies of technology and its applications. I learned how to code in python and apply it to small-scale machine learning applications while researching the impact of emerging technologies in two defining foreign policy related events of the past few years: the Russia-Ukraine War and the war in Gaza. This experience would not have been possible without the generous support of the Lehrman Fellows Program, and I hope to apply what I learned to a senior thesis!
Julia Young
This summer, I had the opportunity to work as a legal immigration assistant in Miami, Florida, where I assisted in several active deportation cases. In one case, I was involved from inception to culmination: I interviewed the client, drafted multiple motions and reports for the trial, and attended the individual hearing where the client was granted withholding of removal. Thanks to the Lehrman Summer Fellows program, I was able to explore the non-profit side of law while deepening my understanding of immigration issues and Latin American and Caribbean history—knowledge I have begun applying to my ongoing research on US alliances and human rights violations. I especially enjoyed connecting with clients and fellow legal assistants while helping provide much-needed legal aid to an underserved community.