Join the Challenge
Support a Summer Internship Opportunity
Through their desire to give back, many IR/PS alumni have come forward to donate to our Summer Internship Program, and asked how they could help create a buzz and challenge their fellow alumni. You are going to hear directly from your fellow alumni asking you to make a difference.
This is a time of unprecedented growth for our School. With this increase in student enrollment combined with severe budgetary challenges, one of our greatest needs, and where you can make a difference, is to support the IR/PS Summer Internship Fund. A gift of any size can help fund an IR/PS student internship. A special thank you to the 36 IR/PS alumni and friends who have given and/or pledged $24,125 to support the IR/PS Summer Internship Fund. We are striving to fill the $60,000 gap in funding this year and therefore hope to raise an additional $36,000. We need your help now in order to make an impact on the funding we can award this summer to current students.
Help us keep this vital program alive for current and future students. Make your donation online today or for more information, please contact Ivan Shin.
Thank you.
New $10,000 Matching Donation Pledge
We are pleased to announce that the Otonashi family will donate up to $10,000 in matching IR/PS Alumni Summer Internship Fund donations.
In 2006, to honor Taro Otonashi (MPIA 1995), who passed away in 2005, his fellow IR/PS classmates and parents raised $10,000 and created the Taro Otonashi Summer Internship Fund. To date, the Fund has supported five global internships.
When Professor Takeo Hoshi visited Mr. and Mrs. Otonashi earlier this year, they indicated their wish to continue the internship legacy to honor Taro and were pleased to hear that our alumni were taking a major step in giving back to support internship opportunities. Help us make this match a reality and make your donation today.
Taro Otonashi Summer Internship Fund
Over the past five years, the Taro Otonashi Fund has supported internships for:
- Zi-Shan Peng, MPIA 2008: Office of Counselor Akihiro Nishimura in Tokyo, Japan
- Yujia Wu, MPIA 2010: United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok, Thailand
- Krystal Beckham, MPIA 2011: U.S. State Department, U.S. Embassy in Lusaka, Zambia
- Gary Clubb, MPIA 2011: Dezan Shira in Dalian, China
- Hallie Stohler, MPIA 2011: Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights in Santiago, Chile
Yujia Wu’s Story
Yujia Wu, MPIA 2010, was awarded Otonashi funding in support of her internship during the summer of 2009, when she worked in Thailand with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. After graduating, Yujia was offered a job with the same UN agency in Korea.
Yujia’s main responsibility during her internship was to conduct supporting studies on regional/sub-regional cooperation, highlighting climate change and development. In addition, she researched eco-efficiency indicators and overall trends of the green industry and their contribution to job creation and carbon dependence reduction. The results found were presented in the 4th Policy Forum of the Seoul Initiative Network on Green Growth.
Mark’s Story
Dear Fellow Alumni,
The IR/PS Summer Internship Fund was instrumental to my career development. Because of the program, I was able to take an unpaid internship at the U.S. Department of Commerce at the U.S. Consulate in Auckland, New Zealand.
Through my internship, I developed the network that landed my first job after graduate school at a venture capital fund, which subsequently gave me the experience needed to get a job in the renewable energy industry, which I am still working in today.
Thank you IR/PS for such a fantastic program! It really was transformative to my career path and I am happy to be able to give back today with a $1,000 pledge. And, I also plan to continue giving back my time by meeting with students for career and internship advice, and when possible looking for opportunities through Fotowatio Renewable Ventures.
Best regards,
Mark Higgins, MPIA 2004, San Francisco, CA
Ed and David’s Story
Dear Fellow Alumni,
The summer after my first year I landed a modestly paid internship in Japan at a branch of McCann-Erickson, one of the "Big Five" global advertisers. This internship abroad gave me invaluable experience that really kick-started my career in marketing leadership. Funds were tight at the time and I was struggling with how to pay my way over there; fortunately, I received a $500 stipend from IR/PS to cover my airfare.
I've wanted to "payback" the generosity I received and last year I finally did something about it. I decided to provide a few qualified current students the same kind of opportunity I had to work abroad. I figured $1,000 should be able to cover airfare these days across the Pacific. Then I had an even better idea. Why not persuade one or more friends to help me bear the burden, double the impact, and make a multiyear commitment.
The first person I called was my friend, and fellow alum, David Freitas and he immediately got the concept. We decided to each contribute $500 a year for three years to give the concept a chance to gel. Our first award recipient was Jenny Hoang (MPIA 2011), a highly qualified student focused on Japan whose experience proved to be an excellent test case for the concept.
We are hopeful that others will like the impact a modest financial contribution can have and, hopefully, one or two more alumni will join the party. Then, we as alumni can help even more students "kick-start" their careers with professional internships abroad.
Best regards,
Ed Gallagher, MPIA 1996, Colorado Springs, CO
David Freitas, MPIA 1997, Fort Myers, FL
Jenny Hoang, MPIA 2011
I interned at the U.S. State Department’s consulate in Nagoya Japan in the summer of 2010. This office is responsible for keeping Washington, D.C. informed about local politics, economic conditions, and public opinion of Japanese citizens in the Chubu region of Japan. My internship provided a wonderful experience of what the Foreign Service is like. I was also very fortunate that the principal officer at the consulate was always willing to give me advice and insights into the job. Thanks to the generosity of Ed Gallagher of David Freitas, two IR/PS alumni who helped to fund my internship, I now have a better understanding of the process of how foreign policy is actually applied abroad. It is important to know how that policy is made, but it is equally important to see how it is delivered and its impact on the country for which it was meant. Click here to read more about her internship as well as other current students’ experiences.
-Jenny Hoang
Shannon's Story
Dear Fellow Alumni,
In the summer of 2008, I was given an incredible opportunity to intern with a start-up NGO called Warm Heart Worldwide in rural northern Thailand. The hurdle to accepting this internship of course, was the cost involved – the plane ticket to/from Bangkok alone was going to cost $1300, a small fortune to a grad student.
IR/PS Career Services was able to grant me a $2,000 stipend to offset the costs of my internship. Without that funding, working for an NGO in Southeast Asia would not have been a possibility for me. I am sure that many of you have similar stories – the IR/PS summer internship is often a defining experience in our time at school.
I have come to think of the funding I received as more of a loan than a gift. In the present economy, donations to cover these stipends are becoming harder and harder to come by. In fact, current projections estimate a $66,000 shortfall in internship funding for this summer alone. Now, as a working professional, I believe it is my duty to repay that “loan” to the current class of IR/PS students.
Of course, my salary is not high enough to justify a full donation equal to the amount I reserved. So I am pledging a 5 year repayment plan with increasing contributions each year as I am better able to afford them:
Year 1: $200
Year 2: $300
Year 3: $400
Year 4: $500
Year 5: $600
Over these 5 years my contributions can be combined with those of other alumni, like you, to fund a current student’s internship. At the least, it will help to offset their costs and allow students to continue to take unpaid internships in pursuit of their career goals. Please join me in this effort and consider a similar pledge, on whatever timetable you can best afford, to repay your “loan” to the IR/PS community.
Best Regards,
Shannon Pallone, MPIA 2009, International Environmental Policy & Southeast Asia
