Accomplishments
In 1975, William and Sheila Burke set out to create an organization that would provide college students from all backgrounds and income levels with an opportunity to take their classroom learning into a professional internship setting. The organization they created is The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars.
Thirty-five years later, The Washington Center is the largest academic internship program in the country and in the world. Today, college students are immersed in a uniquely intense and productive living, working, and learning program. The transformational effect that this experience has on students remains the same as it was once envisioned by the Burkes.
More than 50,000 students have benefited from our numerous internship programs and academic seminars. Alumni agree that their TWC experience helped them develop job skills, discover their passion, make invaluable professional and personal connections, gain access, set a plan for the future and strengthen their desire to give back to their communities.
The Washington Center Today
- More than 35 years of leadership
- 140 professional staff, associate faculty and Alumni in Residence staff
- 1,600 interns plus several hundred seminar participants each year
- Several thousand internship sites
- More than 50,000 alumni
- 98% of current interns say the program significantly strengthens their career prospects
- Students have come from all 50 states and 35 countries
- Nearly 500 affiliated colleges and universities
- Supported by corporations, foundations, state legislatures, federal agencies, alumni, and individual donors
- Residential and Academic Facility with 95 units, classrooms, computer lab, fitness center, office space, and an auditorium.
