I asked Josh Cole '09 to provide some feedback on his past internship with the Canadian Consulate in Seattle. Here's what he writes:
The Canadian Consulate is located in Seattle at 4th and Pike. The Seattle mission is to protect and advance Canadian interests in the Pacific Northwest (as well as Alaska). The mission is divided into three departments--the Political, Economic, and Press Relations Agency; the Trade and Commerce section and Immigration. While PERPA usually runs the internship program, I got to work with all three departments. The day-to-day work was what you would expect for a government internship: updating contact lists, making and taking phone calls and sending mail. Lots and lots and lots of mail. LOTS. Anyone with paper or ink allergies probably shouldn't take this job.
There were a lot of cool things about the internship though. PERPA runs a lot of meet and greet programs at the consulate, as well as around the region. Due to budget constraints, I wasn't able to go the Canada Days confrence in Boise, but it sounded like a lot of fun. Many of the people in the consulate were glad to explain what they were doing. Many of the security precautions at the consulate were amazing to hear about even though Seattle was considered a "relatively safe" territory. It wasn't all just mailings and key codes however. The Consulate tries to give out a large project or two to all the interns. My project was revising the booklet for the 2009-2010 Grants and Fellowships Booklet. Thanks to technical complications I literally wrote (well...transcibed) the pamphlet on Canadian grants and fellowships for Americans. One of the other interns had a slightly more interesting project; she got to set up a cultural site that keeps track of various Canadian artists that are touring through Seattle.
Couple of caveats for this positon; the communte gets to be annoying and there are sometimes when I was asked to work later hours, usually for events. There wasn't an excessive pressure to do this, but it came up a couple of times.
I'd highly recommend this internship for anyone who is interested in the inner workings of government, international relations, trade relations or immigration issues. The mission works way differently than local and state organizations and this internship is incredibly unique in what it offers interns.
--Josh Cole
