The Foreign Service Journal, January-February 2015

42 JANUARY FEBRUARY 2015 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL The virtual internship is a unique avenue for students to gain experience in a particular field. BY AHVA SADEGH I Ahva Sadeghi is a senior studying philosophy, poli- tics, economics and law at the University of Arizona. She was a summer 2014 intern with the AFSA Labor Management o ce. As a participant in the 2013- 2014 State Department Virtual Student Foreign Ser- vice Internship Program, she worked with the O ce to Combat andMonitor Tra cking in Persons, performing 20 + hours of research a week to contribute to the 2014 TIP Report. She has continued her engagement with the VSFS for the 2014-2015 academic year and is nowworking for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor to help prepare the 2014 Human Rights Report on the Middle East. In addi- tion to her work with the VSFS Internship Program, Sadeghi has taught English in Korea, founded the University of Arizona’s rst human rights club and is a cellist in the UA Philharmonic Orchestra. How to Intern at StateWithout Leaving Home FEATURE A high grade-point average and a degree are not enough anymore. In the increasingly competitive job mar- ket for young people, there is a new trend that is now a “must-have” on a resume. It is an internship, more often than not, unpaid. is new require- ment can be a very rude awakening for many poor college students. After all, internships are not just competitive; they are also extremely costly. Students have to pay for transportation, housing, profes- sional clothes, food and more, to work for free. However, with the tools of globalization, students can cir- cumvent the burdensome costs of an internship by undertak- ing a virtual internship. e Department of State has designed the Virtual Student Foreign Service to allow American students the opportunity to intern for di erent agencies and posts abroad without leaving home. Although there are many opponents of this type of intern- ship, I can personally vouch for its e ectiveness. After having interned in the o ces of the Peace Corps, Colibri Center for Human Rights, Southwest Research Center and the Depart- ment of State, I could be considered something of an intern- ship expert. At rst, I was quite skeptical about an online internship and how much I could gain from it. I know that my experience with online classes has not measured up to in-class lectures. However, as a student studying in Arizona, a virtual internship was an exciting opportunity. I could work for the State Depart- ment while I was studying at my home institution thousands of miles away! ere were more than 300 di erent internship jobs posted for VSFS when I applied in June 2013, so students are bound