 Why The Washington Center?BackgroundThe mission of The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars is to provide an integrated academic and work experience to prepare college students and professionals for lives of achievement and civic engagement. An independent nonprofit educational organization that enables students to earn college credit for full-time internship-centered academic terms and one- to two-week academic seminars, it is selected by more colleges and universities as their Washington partner than any other organization. Since its founding in 1975 by William and Sheila Burke of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, The Washington Center has provided more than 40,000 students, in all majors, with professional career experiences and course work.
The Washington Center also offers programs combining short-term seminars in Washington, D.C. with internships and academic courses abroad. Students may participate in one of three ten-week programs in predominantly English-speaking settings: London, England; Oxford, England, and Sydney, Australia. In addition to its semester- or term-long internship program, The Washington Center offers a variety of one- and two-week-long academic seminars that expose students to national and world issues through interaction with policy-makers and leaders in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Every four years, special academic seminars are also offered on-site at both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. The Washington Center offers cost-effective, high-quality educational services designed to extend and complement other on- and off-campus programs of higher education institutions. More than 1,000 colleges and universities, large and small, public and private, have taken advantage of these services. The Washington Center's 140 professional staff, associated faculty and resident assistants provide students with services customarily available on their campus as well as educational experiences that utilize the wealth of resources in the nation's capital and other locations. Funding is derived primarily from program and housing fees paid by institutions, students or scholarship-providing entities. This past year, we raised and distributed to our students approximately $5 million in financial assistance. On average, about 75 percent of Washington Center students receive some form of financial assistance. Business offices are currently located at 1333 16th Street, N.W., just five blocks north of the White House and one block north of Scott Circle. Our administrative headquarters building is a turn-of-the-century mansion acquired in 2006 with the generous assistance of the Goldman Sachs Foundation. Our Academic Center, containing five well-equipped classrooms, is adjacent. Student housing facilities are located in professional-style apartment buildings in suburban Maryland, the Arlington and Alexandria areas of Northern Virginia and (beginning in summer 2010) the District of Columbia.
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Students are placed, according to their interests, in substantive, supervised internships in the government, for-profit or nonprofit sectors as well as in international organizations. They also participate in one of a dozen thematically organized programs (for example, Political Leadership, Science and Policy Program, or Advocacy, Service and Arts); they take an academic course—chosen from among 35 to 50 offered; and they attend and take part in a range of events within the Leadership Forum, including the President’s Lecture Series, Public Policy Dialogues on Capitol Hill, panel discussions, briefings, tours, workshops and other special activities.