Mapping the Quality of Summer Internships in Washington, D.C.

This study was intended to gain better understanding of the range and quality of internship experiences in Washington, D.C., more clearly define what should be characterized as an “internship” and identify ways that internships can be improved.

Upcoming TWC Research

Washington Internships: Plan Ahead for the Best Experience

By Eugene J. Alpert, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President
The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars

How to Capitalize on Your Internship Program

The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars

February 11, 2009

Getting the Most Out of Internship Programs: A Practical Guide for Government Agencies

by Jennifer Clinton, Ph.D.
Vice President Federal Relations & COO

The Role of Internships in Attracting Quality Talent

By Jennifer Clinton, Ph.D.
Vice President Federal Relations & COO

Michael B. Smith, M.Ed.

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President

Michael Smith was named president of The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars in December 2004. The Washington Center provides an integrated academic and work experience – for college credit – that prepares students for lives of leadership, civic engagement and professional achievement. Mike joined The Washington Center in 1976 when a staff of six served 300 students from 30 colleges, annually. Today, The Washington Center serves over 2,000 students, annually, from the U.S. and 28 countries, with a staff of 80. Fall Semester 2012 will marked a significant milestone: 50,000 Alumni have attended The Washington Center program. Mike has served in various capacities within the organization, including director of student services, vice president of administration and student life, vice president of operations, senior vice president, and executive vice president and chief operating officer, before his appointment as president.

Under Mike’s leadership and in collaboration with his 80 colleagues at The Washington Center, enrollment has grown by over 15% over the past six years. Over 50% of The Washington Center’s enrollments are women, over 22% are students of diverse backgrounds and 17% are international.

In 2010, The Washington Center completed construction of a $38 million Academic and Residential Facility near Capitol Hill that includes apartments, classrooms, a computer lounge, fitness center and an auditorium. The Washington Center provides over $1.5 million of financial assistance to its students annually. Over the past six years, corporate, foundation and individual contributions and pledges to The Washington Center’s comprehensive campaign totaled more than $16.8 million exceeding a goal of $15 million. State-funded scholarships and federal grants and stipends reached $5.5 million in additional aid transferred annually to students.

Recently, Mike and Board Chairman, Ambassador Alan Blinken have worked to add several distinguished new members to The Washington Center’s Board of Directors: former Congressman, House Majority Leader and presidential candidate Dick Gephardt; Dr. Michelle Cooper, president of the Institute for Higher Education Policy and TWC Alumna; and Irene Hirano Inouye, president of the U.S.-Japan Council and chair, Ford Foundation have joined 25 other Directors in serving on The Washington Center’s governing board. Additionally, former Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska also served on TWC's governing board until he was confirmed as the U.S. Secretary of Defense in 2013.

Prior to joining The Washington Center, Mike worked for five years as a student counselor/resource teacher in the Norwood, Massachusetts public schools. He also served in the armed services and is a Vietnam veteran of the U.S. Navy (1969-71). He received his master's degree in education from the University of Massachusetts-Boston, his bachelor's degree in history from Ohio Northern University and an associate's degree from Dean College. He received an honorary doctorate in public service from Ohio Northern University in 2010.

An active alumnus of Ohio Northern University, Mike has served on the College of Arts and Sciences Board of Advisors since 1989. In 2011, Mike received Dean College’s outstanding Alumni Award. Mike also serves on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the NoMA Business Improvement District in Washington, D.C., where the Center’s new Residential and Academic Facility is located. NoMA is Washington’s newest neighborhood; adjacent to Capitol Hill, and over $3 billion in private funding has been invested in the area.  Mike received the Private Sector Leadership Award from NoMA in 2012.  Mike and his wife, Barbara, reside in Washington, D.C. and have two grown children, both alumni of The Washington Center.

Eugene J. Alpert, Ph.D.

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Senior Vice President

Eugene J. Alpert has been with The Washington Center since 1993. As senior vice president, Gene oversees the academic seminars and the more than forty associate faculty, who teach the courses required of students in the internship program. This includes the new partnership with C-SPAN and the distance-learning course taught by Steve Scully of C-SPAN, which brings in highly visible experts on the political process to students in the Political Leadership Program. He oversees the administration of the Alan K. Simpson-Norman Y. Mineta Leaders Series and various other short term programs. He also works closely with The Washington Center’s campus liaisons, including those on the National Liaison Advisory Board who provide assistance and advice for specific TWC internship programs and academic seminars.

Every four years, Gene continues the tradition he started in 1984, when The Washington Center offered its first National Political Convention Program. This prestigious program, which is currently approaching its eighth convention cycle, will bring 250 students to Tampa and Charlotte for the 2012 Republican and Democratic national conventions and over 300 students and faculty to Washington for the 2013 presidential inauguration.

As the chief academic affairs executive for the organization, Gene developed critical programs to put The Washington Center’s name on the map of service learning and experiential education landscape. He helped implement the portfolio system of evaluation to develop a meaningful way for campuses to assess the progress of their students’ internship experience for academic credit. He developed the annual Academic Affairs Awards Luncheon to spotlight the network of university and internship partners that promote the students’ experience. In addition to the convention programs, he led the development of short-term seminars, such the Politics and the Media, Congress and the Presidency, Leaders on Leadership and the “Top Secret” national security seminars, among others.

Before joining TWC, Gene was an associate professor of political science at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. A faculty member for 17 years, he was chairman of the political science department, director of the master of liberal arts program, director of the TCU Washington Internship Program, and director of the university's self-study for SACS re-accreditation. He is the author of numerous articles pertaining to experiential education and the political process including "Conventional Wisdom: A Television Viewer's Guide to the Democratic and Republican National Conventions," published by C-SPAN, as well as the Contextual Statement for the CAS Standards for Internship Programs.

Gene Alpert holds a Ph.D. and M.A. degree in political science from Michigan State University and a B.A. from the University of Rochester. In 1982, Alpert served as an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow, working in the area of media communications for the House and Senate leadership. He is a member of numerous professional associations and advisory committees, including the National Society for Experiential Education (past president); National Capital Area Political Science Association (former council member); American Political Science Association, the National Collegiate Honors Council and the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (alternate director).

He has received awards of recognition for his contributions in experiential education from the National Society for Experiential Education, Furman University, the National Collegiate Honors Council and, before joining the organization, The Washington Center. In 2011, he received the Leadership and Service Award from Loyola Marymount University’s Institute for Leadership Studies.

David M. Anderson, Ph.D.

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Senior Vice President, Government and Strategic Initiatives

David leads The Washington Center's Government and Strategic Initiatives Department. Over the past eight years, David and his team have raised over $15 million from twenty one states interested in supporting their students’ education and their state’s workforce development. David also oversees The Washington Center’s role in its partnership with Elon University School of Law. The Washington Center-Elon University School of Law Legal Externship Program is a consortium of law schools which welcomes law students from ABA accredited law schools during the fall, spring, and summer semesters.

Anderson works with the Advanced Leadership and International Programs Department creating new initiatives, especially with Canadian provinces. He also works with the Federal Relations Department creating new initiatives with U.S. federal agencies. David has also taken the lead creating the SUNY Integrated Science Policy Internship Program with SUNY Geneseo, which welcomes science majors from all SUNY campuses. David also played a key role creating the The Washington Center’s Public Policy Dialogues on Capitol Hill Program, which enables 1,500 college students a year to participate in small group meetings with their U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator, or staff.

Anderson was Executive Director of Youth04 when he joined The Washington Center in August 2004. Youth04 was a joint project of the Center for Democracy and Technology, The Johns Hopkins University Washington Center for the Study of American Government, and The Washington Center. He was previously the Task Force Director of the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet at The George Washington University, which was funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts.

Anderson is the author of Youth04: Young Voters, the Internet, and Political Power (W.W. Norton & Company, 2004), and co-editor (with Michael Cornfield) of The Civic Web: Online Politics and Democratic Values (Rowman and Littlefield, 2003). He has written numerous articles and book chapters and has also written over 40 op-eds, most for Roll Call, The Hill, The Gazette (Maryland, Weekend Edition), and The Baltimore Sun. Anderson taught political ethics at The Graduate School of Political Management at The George Washington University from 1995 to 2006. He has also taught in the philosophy departments at The George Washington University, University of Cincinnati, Trident Technical College, and College of Charleston. He received his B.A. in philosophy from The George Washington University in 1981 and his Ph.D. in philosophy from The University of Michigan in 1990.

Kelly Eaton, Ph.D.

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Senior Vice President, Chief Academic Officer

Kelly Eaton is The Washington Center's Chief Academic Officer. She oversees The Washington Center's curriculum and program performance. She is also the lead representative to the academic community.

Originally from California, she comes to TWC from Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, Nebraska where she was Assistant Provost for Experiential Learning and Student Success. Kelly has worked in all areas of experiential learning including international education, internships, service learning and undergraduate research. She was also the chair of the Political Science department and taught courses on China, Europe, international security and law.

Kelly was a Fulbright grantee to Taiwan and was awarded the CASE/Carnegie Professor of the Year for her state in 2003. She has taught in universities on the east and west coast, as well as in Taiwan and China.

Her Ph.D. in Political Science and her M.A. in International Affairs are from The George Washington University.

Joseph Johnston, Ph.D.

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Senior Vice President

Joseph S. Johnston is Senior Vice President and leads the Institutional Relations department of The Washington Center. His responsibility is to develop and maintain relationships with colleges and universities using or considering TWC's services. He directs a staff responsible for the overall student recruitment and enrollment services work of the organization. Joe also oversees The Washington Center's Intern Abroad Programs in London and Sydney.

Before joining TWC, Joe worked for 17 years with the Association of American Colleges and Universities. As AACU's Vice President for Programs, and then as Vice President for Education and Global Initiatives, he led a succession of multi-institutional initiatives to strengthen undergraduate education. Before joining AACU, he served as Assistant to the President at Bryn Mawr College.

Joe Johnston is the author of several books on international education and the integration of liberal and professional education, as well as several scholarly and professional articles. He has served on the boards of the National Humanities Alliance and the National Security Education Program and the Board of Visitors of the University of North Carolina at Asheville. He also served for 15 years on the board of trustees of Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina.

A native of Virginia, Joe Johnston earned a B.A. (with Phi Beta Kappa honors) in English literature from Randolph-Macon College and an M.A. and Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Chicago. He also has an M.B.A. in finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Donald H. Kandel, M.B.A.

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Vice President, Administration and Chief Financial Officer

Donald H. Kandel, Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Administration, joined The Washington Center in June 2007. Don’s daily responsibilities include the recording and reporting of The Washington Center’s financial operations while also managing IT, Risk Management and Student Services. Don oversaw the construction of TWC’s Residential and Academic Facility and is responsible for the oversight of that building as well as TWC’s Headquarters, which is a 100 year old mansion located on 16th Street NW.

Moving here from Philadelphia, Don worked for an international federation in Alexandria, Virginia before joining TWC. In Philadelphia, he worked for the majority of his career in the nonprofit industry, with United Cerebral Palsy Association, The Private Industry Council of Philadelphia, and the Crime Prevention Association.  He also worked for Dow Jones and Company in Princeton, New Jersey in the 1980’s.

Don earned a B.A. from Franklin and Marshall College and an M.B.A. from The Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland in College Park. He has also completed post-graduate work at Drexel University and LaSalle University.

Don has served on several boards of both for-profit and nonprofit companies. He remains active in several youth initiatives including a high school exchange program between the U.S. and Bulgaria.

Carmenchu Mendiola-Fernández, M.A.

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Vice President, CommunicationsCarmenchu Mendiola-Fernández has more than 13 years of experience in corporate identity, brand management, strategic marketing and online strategy. She manages The Washington Center's institutional brand, and assists TWC's leadership in the development and execution of integrated marketing campaigns for a diverse group of audiences. She is also responsible for managing TWC's PR/Media efforts, the institutional website, and social media presence.

Carmenchu led a full rebranding strategy for TWC in 2007 that included research, positioning and a complete overhaul of TWC's visual identity. Carmenchu is also a pro bono consultant for the Taproot Foundation, helping other nonprofits achieve their marketing and communications goals.

Additionally, she is an alumna of TWC's Internship Program and received an M.A. in Strategic Marketing, as well as a B.A. in Communications. Carmenchu is originally from Mexico and lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband Gerardo and their four-year old son Santiago.

Carmenchu's Expertise Includes:

• Branding Strategy
• Corporate Identity
• Public Relations
• Online and Social Media Strategy
• Marketing Materials and Publications
• Integrated Communications Strategies

Pilar Mendiola-Fernández, M.A.

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Chief International Officer and Senior Vice President for Advanced Leadership Programs

Pilar Mendiola-Fernández serves as Chief International Officer and Senior Vice President for Advanced Leadership Programs and is responsible for setting the strategic direction of the international division at TWC. Pilar is responsible for overseeing current and new internship programs for international students, developing strategies to raise funds for international student scholarships, implementing advanced leadership training initiatives like tailored leadership seminars and workshops for high profile international government leaders, and forging strong ties with international organizations based in Washington, D.C., and around the world.

Pilar has 15 years of experience and has been responsible for creating and growing the international division and for designing and implementing major initiatives for TWC. In 1996, Pilar launched the NAFTA Leaders Internship Program that has received considerable recognition throughout North America as the only academic internship program to focus on the tri-lateral relationship and for bringing students from the three countries.

In 2000, Pilar established the Governor’s Internship Program and has partnered with more than 80% of Mexican states to fund their students’ participation in Washington Center Programs. In 2003, she helped launch the prestigious Bush-Mulroney-Salinas Graduate Fellowships in NAFTA studies and The Miguel Aleman Valdes Fellowship in Mexico’s Regional Development. Pilar continues to lead TWC's groundbreaking international programs, and today more than 2,000 international participants from more than 45 countries in all continents have attended one of The Washington Center’s internship programs.

Pilar graduated with honors from the University of Americas-Puebla in Mexico. Pilar was born in Veracruz, Mexico and resides in Washington, D.C.

Lori Smedley

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Senior Vice President, Institutional Advancement

Lori Smedley is The Washington Center’s Senior Vice President of Institutional Advancement, responsible for meeting TWC’s ambitious goals for growth in funding from private sector partners—a fourfold increase by 2016—through relationships with individuals, foundations, and corporations.

Before joining TWC in February 2012, Lori spent five years raising funds for global health for children at the GAVI Campaign (the U.S.-based fundraising arm of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization), first as Director of Individual Giving and then as Deputy Executive Director. While at GAVI, she was instrumental in designing and establishing the GAVI Matching Fund, a $130 million joint challenge grant issued by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the U.K.’s Department for International Development intended to drastically increase the involvement of foundations and corporations in funding global health work.

Prior to her work at GAVI, Lori served fundraising roles for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, WHYY (Philadelphia’s dual-affiliate NPR/PBS station), Community Women’s Education Project (community-based adult and family learning), and the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. She volunteers as an advisor to the Lee Montessori Public Charter School as it navigates the charter school application process in the District of Columbia. She is a graduate of St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland.