Internships:

Good internships are prized by today's college students. This year some 80 percent of new college graduates will have completed one or more of these short-term work and learning experiences. When you intern, you apply what you've learned in school, test your interests, develop new strengths, social skills, and learn about new opportunities and career paths.

The experience you gain gives you an important edge in the competition for future professional employment and admission to graduate and professional schools. Internships are increasingly popular with employers as well. Firms that hire new college graduates now rank internships as their most effective source of new recruits. Last year, 25% of new full-time workers in the United States were recruited from internship programs.

Benefits of an Internship:

• Help you learn about a career field from the inside
• Help you decide if this is the right career field for you
• Enable you to work alongside a professional in your chosen career area
• Give you new skills and add to your knowledge base
• Give you confidence in your own abilities
• Let you apply some of the ideas you've learned in school
• Allow you to meet new people and practice your networking skills
• Provide evidence that you have initiative, are reliable and have a sense of responsibility
• Provide a bridge between school and the professional world
• Make a valuable addition to your resume
• Enhance your application to Graduate School

The Center for Global Understanding has partnered with The Washington Center (TWC) for Internships and Academic Seminars to provide placement, housing and financial assistance to Muslim American Students under a TWC-CFGU Internship Initiative.

The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars is an educational nonprofit organization serving hundreds of colleges and universities in the U.S. and other countries by providing selected students challenging opportunities to work and learn in Washington, D.C. for academic credit. The largest such program, The Washington Center, founded in 1975 has over 40,000 alumni and a staff of 70.