Paid internship--DC--this fall or spring!

Questions about it? Just contact Catherine Fish at the email address below--she just happens to be a PG alum...!

The Office of Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA-09) is seeking to hire a paid full time intern for Fall 2009 in the Washington, D.C. office. Candidates should have an interest in the legislative process, possess excellent writing and communication skills, and have an understanding of the American political system. Pacific Northwest ties a plus!

Legislative interns will be responsible for projects such as writing constituent correspondence, providing support for daily legislative tasks, fielding constituent phone calls and other requests. Other duties include leading Capitol building tours and providing staff with general office support. During their term, interns will also have the opportunity to attend briefings and committee hearings of personal interest and complete individual and team goals.

The Fall 2009 Internship begins in September 2009. Start date is flexible. We also welcome applications for the Winter 2010 internship, starting in January. If you would like to be considered for an internship, please send your resume and cover letter to Catherine.fish@mail.house.gov

Jerry Weinberger in Kurdistan, on Al Jazeera

As you might recall, Professor Weinberger's father has been in Kurdistan, Iraq, teaching. As there were just elections there, Weinberger Sr. was asked by Al Jazeera to talk about their significance. Pretty cool. Vid below. Read also his piece in the Weekly Standard.



Part two:

Intern with in T-town today--

This in from student Nic Van Putten:

Professor O'Neil,

I hope your summer is going well. I wanted to let you know about some local opportunities for students. I'm working this summer as a campaign manager for Don Meyer for Port of Tacoma Commission Position 4. If any students have expressed interest in getting involved in a local race, either volunteer or unpaid internships, I would be interested in talking to them.

Thanks,
~Nic Van Putten
nvanputten@pugetsound.edu

Puget $ound--how much you gonna earn?

From Payscale.com, a list of starting and mid-career median salary by schools. A few for comparison (hat tip: Shirley Skeel, Media Relations):

Dartmouth College $58,200 $129,000
Swarthmore College $55,900 $110,000
Puget Sound $44,400 $84,900
Whitman College $41,900 $77,800
Reed College $39,800 $79,900
Willamette $39,800 $74,000

Read the whole thing here:
http://www.payscale.com/best-colleges/top-us-colleges-graduate-salary-statistics.asp

E-IR: Colin Cronin '09 on Cambodia

Recent alum Colin Cronin has a piece in E-IR on Cambodia's development. Excerpt:

Small developing countries that have been historically caught up in great power politics often seem to be exotic destinations for academic and travel books rather than real and concrete places. Cambodia is one such example. As an insignificant part of the international system, it is difficult to appreciate what is happening there without seeing it for yourself. But Cambodia is a microcosm of development, and the changes that are happening there by no means trivial...

Read the whole thing at http://www.e-ir.info/?p=1886

Alex Carracino burns the Midnight Oil down under

From Alex by way of Professor Share. As I was posting this, it took me awhile before I realized that Alex is standing with Peter Garrett of Midnight Oil; folks of my age will remember their music and political activism back in the 1980s. I recall seeing them in concert in the late 1980--they rocked, as you must see here. Anyway, enough of my misty nostalgia, let's hear from Alex:



I started my internship today and I'm working at the office of Kelvin Thomson, who is the Federal Member of Parliament for Wills. I'm learning a lot about the Australian political system and what it takes to prepare even one member of parliament for every day life in his position. So far I'm summarizing articles and doing research, but it's a really good experience.


I got a photo with the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts--Peter Garrett--when I went to the opening of a new environmental place, but I thought you might want to see it! And then the second picture is with the Mayor of Moreland on far left and Christine Campbell, the State member for Pascoe Vale right next to me. Just some photos from my internship! I hope your summer's going well!

-Alex

Koch Internship: August deadline

Dear Professor,

With the academic year quickly approaching, I want to inform you of an opportunity for your students to apply for the 2009 fall Koch Internship Program in Washington, D.C. Please take a minute to pass this information along to anyone who may be interested in the program. Applications are due by August 21st.

The Koch Internship Program:

* Runs from September 14th to December 4th.
* Is part-time, flexible, and paid. Interns receive an hourly rate of $12.00.
* Places Interns in various fields ranging from policy research to communications.
* Teaches Market-Based Management®, a management philosophy that emphasizes long-term success.
* Prepares Interns for careers with market-oriented think tanks, policy institutes, and other organizations that work to advance free-market principles and economic freedom.

Applicants should:

* Have an interest in the non-profit sector.
* Have a commitment to free-market principles and economic freedom.
* Demonstrate an entrepreneurial spirit and self-starter attitude.

For more information on the program, please visit our website at www.cgkfoundation.org/internship-program. If you have additional questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

Thomas Russell
Associate, Marketing and Recruiting
Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation
www.cgkfoundation.org

Garrett Heilman '08: First Job, DC

An update from one of our new alums:

I am currently working under a Gates Foundation grant for the Paul G. Rogers society as a global health researcher in D.C. Research!America is the nation's largest not-for-profit public education and advocacy alliance with a membership of 500 member organizations representing the voices of more than 125 million Americans. With support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Research!America established the Paul G. Rogers Society for Global Health Research, for whom I work. The Paul G. Rogers Society engages seventy-five of the United States’ leading global health scientists as advocates to increase public awareness of the economic, national security, and diplomatic benefits of increased funding in global health research. These researchers meet with policymakers and the media to make their case for the value and importance of a greater US investment in this research.

Any other news updates from alums? Drop me a line--

Think Tank Jobs

Thanks to alum Ned Culhane '06 for this link:

http://publicaffairsjobs.blogspot.com/2009/07/think-tank-special-iii.html

A whole slew of internships and/or job openings in DC; a great list of places to think about for the future.

Eric Williams: From Gitmo to a town near you?

Some students will remember that Professor Williams was visiting faculty member in 2007-08, filling in for Professor Haltom when he was on sabbatical. Since then he's gone on to teaching at Sonoma State, and has continued to work on prisons in small town America. And this resulted in a recent editorial he penned for the LA Times. Excerpt:

The public's surprise that small towns are vying for Guantanamo inmates just demonstrates how little urban and suburban Americans understand about rural America. For the rural communities, prisons and prisoners are about the promise of more jobs and more money.

For more than 25 years, rural towns have been lobbying, cajoling and nearly bribing governmental institutions to give them prisons. I lived in and studied two such towns for more than a year. One was Florence, Colo., where some of the current controversy is focused. It is the home to ADX Florence, the so-called Alcatraz of the Rockies, where the federal government houses its most disruptive inmates under supermax conditions. It is home to "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski, would-be shoe-bomber Richard Reid and 9/11 co-conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, among others. And the town of Florence actually raised money to pay the federal government for the privilege of housing these inmates.

Stories like this have become commonplace in rural America. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation used to refer to the process of selecting a community to house a new prison as DAD (decide, announce and defend). Today's process would better be described as LLC: lobby, lobby and celebrate.

In the past, the government bore the burden of convincing towns of the benefits of having a prison. Today, communities must show the government why they are the best location for a prison.

Read the whole thing here:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-williams29-2009jun29,0,4331225.story

Professor Ferrari's project in Africa

Professor Ferrari has been active in helping support educational opportunities in Tanzania, and now has a full-fledged non-profit devoted to the cause. Here's more information if you are interested and would like to help--

Many of you have heard me talking over the last few years about a project that's close to my heart: helping especially poor kids in the developing world to get at least a high school education. Even with public education, a high school diploma is out of reach for many students, often for economic reasons.

After two trips to Tanzania in the past two years, and months of seeing how hard the kids are willing to work against the odds, I knew I had to help. I've started a nonprofit organization to support a group of students and teachers in Zanzibar who are doing great work. We're called the International CATALYST Fund, and we're
registered as a 501(c)3 public charity with the IRS.

I would really appreciate it if you'd visit our website (http://www.incafund.org) to learn more about the students we're supporting. It's daunting to think about changing the world, but it's surprisingly easy to have a huge impact on one other person's life. I know these are hard times, and we have economic concerns of our own. But even small amounts of U.S. dollars go very far in the developing world. I'll be traveling back to Tanzania in September, so will personally make sure that all donations are benefiting the students.

Please learn a little more about us, join us if you can, and feel free to spread the word!

E-IR? International Relations (and alum) online

Interesting site--especially because one of our alums, Jordan Barber '09 has a piece there comparing Al Qaeda and Hamas, and even more so because he wrote it for one of my classes.

Terrorism Near and Far, Strategic and Symbolic:
The Origins, Intentions and Future Threats of al Qaeda and Hezbollah
http://www.e-ir.info/?p=1795

Here's the blurb on the site:

Created in November 2007 by students from the UK universities of Oxford, Leicester and Aberystwyth, e-International Relations (e-IR) is a hub of information and analysis on some of the key issues in international politics.

As well as editorials contributed by students, leading academics and policy-makers, you’ll find essays, diverse perspectives on global news, lecture podcasts and the very latest jobs from academia, politics and international development.

Pieces written for e-IR have been referenced and republished by organisations including the Wall Street Journal, World Politics Review, openDemocracy.net, Human Security Gateway and the Global Policy Forum. In addition, essays and editorials have been identified by publishers to be reprinted in edited volumes.

e-IR is recommended by universities on almost every continent (we haven’t reached Antarctica yet!) and received more than two and a half million hits in its first year. It is the world’s leading student-run website on international relations.

If you would like to contribute to e-IR please send us an email or look at the ‘Get involved’ page for more information.

Alex in Australia

Forwarded by Professor Share, from PG major Alex Carracino:

I started my internship today and I'm working at the office of Kelvin
Thomson, who is the Federal Member of Parliament for Wills. I'm
learning a lot about the Australian political system and what it takes
to prepare even one member of parliament for every day life in his
position. So far I'm summarizing articles and doing research, but it's a
really good experience. I just wanted to fill you in on what my
internship is and what I'm doing there so far. I hope your summer's
going well!

-Alex

Update: Ellyn Henriksen writes from Bejing

You might recall that Ellyn was off to China this summer to work for one of our alums--here's the update:

你好 Professor Fields!

I am so sorry that I haven’t written you until now! I have been very
very busy for the last month and had finally adjusted to life here. It
has been a crazy experience. I am so glad that I took advantage of
this opportunity. The hot dog stand has given me a chance to see
Beijing from a very unique perspective. Sadly there is a large expat
community in the area that I’m living so my Mandarin skills haven’t
improved very much but I have met some amazing people. I essentially
manage the hot dog stand with some guidance from Paul and the help of
his business parter Suntao. We’re basically overhauling it and making
it a bigger operation. It’s all very exciting.

I haven’t seen much of the touristy part of the city but I have a
friend who is coming to visit and we’ll see all the typical sights
together. It’s an amazing time to be here. I would send you a link to
see my pictures but they’ve blocked Facebook (as well as Flickr,
Twitter and most blog platforms) and that’s where all of my photos
are. The internet essentially ground to a halt today due to the unrest
in Xinjiang. It’s amazing how little people seem to know or care
about the situation. It’s difficult to be a politics student in a
place where talking about politics isn’t a popular activity. I have
met a few locals who speak enough English to talk about it but most of
them won’t. Professor O’Neil sent me the chapter about China from
the Essentials of Comparative Politics and I’m giving it to two of my
friends to read and reflect on. It should be an interesting experiment.

Well, I’d love to tell of my stories now but I’ve got to sell some
more hot dogs! I’ll try to keep in touch a bit more from now on. Hope
all is well back in the states.

-Elly Henriksen

Immediate internship opportunity in Tacoma

From Professor Sousa:

Patricia Mannie from the Merritt for Mayor campaign is looking for interns for general office work and doorbelling. She promises that this will be a good opportunity to learn about practical politics and to meet many Tacoma community leaders.

She can be reached at pmannie@comcast.net

UPS alum, Baseball and Japan

This is random, in no way related to our department, but still cool--from the Japan Times--


Brit muscles way to BayStar success

...Since 1998, Turney, 37, has been the Yokohama BayStars' strength and conditioning coach. The seeds to his success were planted in England. Turney's father, Alan, naturally had his own dreams as a boy. Studying judo in London, where he grew up, Alan became fascinated with all things Japanese. His love of the language, literature and budo would eventually take him as an adult to Tokyo.

...

Turney studied karate for 10 years in the Japanese community near his home. He also played tennis, but his mother's favorite sport was baseball. "As a kid, we always watched baseball on TV and went to games at the stadium in Yokohama," Turney says.

While in high school helping his tennis coach at a children's summer camp in England, he began to consider a career in coaching. "I thought, maybe I can find something like this in baseball, not skill-related, but more conditioning-related."

His choice of baseball took him to yet another country, as Turney realized the U.S. could offer more specialized training in baseball.

Although he started his undergraduate program on the U.S. East Coast, he transferred after one year to the University of Puget Sound in Washington state and stayed on the West Coast to complete his masters in exercise science.

"Every year, I wanted to come back to Japan, during Christmas break and summer." The West Coast was a little closer to home.

Turney's experience with a number of cultures, as a student at an international school, as a foreigner in the traditional Japanese community of karate, in America with a bicultural perspective, all helped when he faced his biggest challenge — entering the world of Japanese baseball as an outsider.

Read the whole thing here.