Internship Opportunities
The Center for Comparative Education offers graduate students opportunities to gain first-hand practical experience working in areas that allow them to apply theoretical knowledge gained from coursework in Comparative and International Education. Students can gain from three to six credit hours for a supervised internship. Such opportunities fall into three general categories: 1) summer internship with an international organization in Washington, DC, 2) teaching Comparative Education at a partner university in a developing country, and 3) working with a community organization in an area requiring the application of professional knowledge. Doing an internship is entirely voluntary; a student can choose to do an internship if he/she has the required resources, time, and inclination.
This 10-week summer internship, arranged through The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Programs (TWC), focuses on the making and execution of policy in the international arena. The program ordinarily consists of three components:
| 1) A four and one half day supervised internship with a government or non-governmental organization in Washington, DC; |
| 2) An academic course, chosen by the student in consultation with the Loyola liaison, that meets once per week for approximately three hours, in which a research paper relating to the international context of education, supervised and graded by a Loyola faculty member; |
| 3) A scheduled series of program activities, known as the Washington Forum, to include, but not limited to: a lecture series, breakfast meetings on Capitol Hill with members of Congress, site visits, informational interviews, small group discussion meetings, and other activities arranged by TWC. |
The program yields six semester hours of Loyola graduate credit: three credit hours associated with the academic course and research paper and three hours associated with the successful completion of the internship and participation in the Washington Forum (internship and Washington Forum to be certified by TWC). Three credit hours apply toward satisfying the depth area requirement in comparative education and three credit hours is taken as an elective.
As an example of this type of internship, Josefina DiGiovanna, a Graduate Student Associate of the Center, did her work at the Embassy of Mexico on matters relating to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Her work involved interviews with experts in cultural and educational policy at the Academy for Educational Development, the World Bank, the Organization of American States, and the Pan American Health Organization.
This internship involves teaching Comparative Education at a partner institution in a developing country and is supervised by a Loyola Faculty Associate in the Center for Comparative Education. The course is taught in the language of the country, so interns must be reasonably fluent in that language. The internship yields course credit, three hours of which may be applied to the student’s depth area.
As an example of this type of internship, Isaías Rivera, a Graduate Student Associate of the Center, taught Comparative Education at the Universidad San Pedro in Chimbote, Peru. Mr. Rivera, who holds Mexican citizenship, imparted the nature and value of Comparative Education to Peruvian students, and also learned much about the challenges of teaching at a developing university in a developing country. For more information on the this teaching experience, please click on the following link to the CCE Newsletter.
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Working with a Community Organization
This internship involves the application of Comparative Education knowledge to help achieve the objectives of a community organization. It is done under the supervision of a Loyola Faculty Associate and requires doing research relating to the organization’s work. It yields course credit, three hours of which may be applied to the student’s depth area.
As an example of this type of internship, Reiko Kakuyama worked with the Heartland Alliance, a Chicago area service-based human rights organization. Her focus was on refugee resettlement, and she was placed with the organization’s English language training services team. She provided English lessons and cultural adjustment classes to refugees and immigrants coming to Chicago from across the globe.