The ILAR Summer Fellowship was established in 2012 to assist GPS in conducting high-caliber summer internships related to international law and regulation. ILAR helps fund two to four students each year for work broadly related to careers and research in international law and regulation. Awards range from partial to full support, evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
Summer Internship: Stimson Center, Southeast Asia / Sustainability
"This internship will bring me closer to my goal of integrating environmental science and policy professionally. The deliverable (the remote sensing application) will serve as a lasting example of the work that I aspire to continue to accomplish in sustainable development. Although the internship will be remote, it will bring future opportunities to network within the think tank and research spaces in Washington, D.C."
Summer Internship: Global Mangrove Trust
"The internship will allow me an entry point into working on environmental and conservation issues, an industry I'd like to break into. The internship will also allow me to work on a mix of emerging technologies and enhance these technical skills that I hope to grow and develop in my future career, including blockchain, remote sensing and distributed ledgers for making financial flows transparent for impact investing. Finally, the internship will also give me experience in working with reputable transnational climate change leaders, such as the Climate Policy Initiative."
Summer Internship: JG Global Advisory
"This internship will give me exposure to and experience in the consulting industry, which I can apply to my future career objective of working in the consulting sector."
Summer Internship: United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Bonn, Germany
"This summer I interned in the Communication Office of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat. Working for a tightknit and focused department of 10, I was able to support a variety of strategic communication projects. I wrote rapid response articles from the UNFCCC, managed the UN Climate Change social media platforms, helped to develop multiple strategic messaging initiatives leading up to the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco, Calif. and the annual UN Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP 24) in Poland and even researched and drafted a few speeches for Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa."
Krueger graduated from UC Berkeley with a major in political science and society and the
Leila Ahlstrom pursued a master’s degree in international affairs with a focus in international development, nonprofit management and international environmental policy. Her regional concentration was in Latin America. During summer 2014, Ahlstrom worked in Malawi, Africa, for the Millennium Challenge Corp., whose mission is advancing U.S. values and interests by reducing global poverty through economic growth and focusing on policy reforms that deliver tangible results. She worked closely with the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA)—Malawi on the development of modalities for the Shire River Basin Management Trust and the related payment for ecosystems services approach. To do this, she worked directly with MCA-Malawi staff to assess the state of development, using the Trust Feasibility Study and consultation with stakeholders. This work helped serve as an initial exposure to the energy sector, preparing her for a career in development.
Firas Ayyad pursued a master's in international affairs with a focus on international economics and a regional concentration in Latin America. He spent 14 weeks as a protection mainstreaming intern at the U.N. Relief and Works Agency in Jerusalem, analyzing and projecting proposals for needs of Palestinian refugees in the the West Bank. Possessing a native fluency in Arabic, he frequently visited refugee camps to assess health, education, safety and other service needs, which he then articulated in proposals aimed at addressing the identified issues. Ayyad hopes to use this experience to advance a career in economic development, both in the Middle East and Latin American regions.
Elaine Chen pursued a master’s degree in international affairs with a focus in international politics and a regional concentration in Latin America. She spent summer 2014 as an intern at the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean office in Washington, D.C. Her duties included research and data collection on trade trends and social responsibility, drafting reports and assisting in document distribution, and producing daily news clips and briefings. Engaging in this type of economic analysis helped in her overall career goals of advancing social and economic development of developing countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. While at GPS, Chen served as president the Pacific and International Affairs Student Organization.
Gregory Lekich pursued a master’s degree in international affairs with a focus international politics and a regional concentration in China and Japan. His summer 2014 internship was in Tokyo with the Mitsubishi Research Institute, Japan’s largest privately funded think tank. Lekich helped research the development of an international legal regime to govern data transmission across national boundaries, including laws related to taxing cross-border electronic transactions, protecting personal data and intellectual property rights, and supporting arbitration mechanisms. He intends to apply this experience to a career in the public sector related to international trade.
Renata Pinedo was pursued a master’s degree in public policy with a regional focus on Latin America. She interned at the Human Development Network of the World Bank as part of the Education Resilience Approaches Program team. As part of her internship, she analyzed data related to risks and resilience in education communities facing adversity. The project seeks to contribute evidence-based policy advice and program design for countries in conflict situations so that education can remain uninterrupted for young generations despite a hostile environment. Pinedo hopes to use her experience to enhance her knowledge on program design and evaluation, as well as the processes by which policy is shaped and implemented.
Manish Sharma pursued a master’s degree in international affairs with a focus in international politics and a regional concentration in Southeast Asia. Sharma attended a weeklong session with the U.N. Intensive Summer Program hosted at the School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University. There, Sharma attended official sessions at the U.N. headquarters in New York City, including meetings of the current Security Council. During the week, Sharma also participated in a series of seminars led by U.N. officials on a range of global issues, including peacekeeping and disarmament, human rights and refugees, the status of women and children, the role of civil society in the private sector, U.N. reform, and the environment and development.
Dawson Tang earned a master's of pacific international affairs, focusing on international politics as it pertains to China and Southeast Asia. He interned with the Department of Commerce, specifically the National Telecommunications and Information Administration in Washington, D.C. While there, he worked with the Office of International Affairs in preparation for upcoming technology policy conferences held by the International Telecommunications Union to address issues such as global internet governance, spectrum allocation and data privacy. Eager to contribute to telecommunications policies that will make for more efficient and effective use of technology, Tang intends to pursue a career in technology policy in the public or private sector.