“I don’t want to say mind-blowing, but I can’t think of another word to describe the experience,” reflected Rumbidzai Masango (MPA ’15) on her summer with the Open Society Internship for Rights and Governance (OSIRG). This past summer, five School of Public Policy (SPP) students participated in OSIRG, a highly competitive program that allows selected students from top public policy schools to undertake six- to eight-week internships at policy- and rights-oriented NGOs around the world.
Prior to starting their internships, OSIRG participants came to Budapest to attend a 10-day seminar at SPP on relevant topics in rights and governance. Yuxin Wang (MPA ’15) commented, “The seminar was an amazing chance to meet smart students from all over.” Participants represented global public policy schools including the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and the University of Pretoria Centre for Human Rights.
Through OSIRG, SPP students interned at diverse organizations including the Center for Applied Legal Research at the Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV) in Sao Paulo and the International Crisis Group in Brussels. “I wasn’t sure how the internship would be,” noted Bashir Ahmad (MPA ’15). “But it ended up being a positive experience that allowed me to work on a substantive research project.”
“OSIRG is a good way to explore what you want to do,” Dragana Marinkovic (MPA ’15) highlighted. For a number of students, this internship confirmed their interest in working in fields of human rights and civil society after graduation. “After working on several research projects at a legal think tank this summer, I have a stronger sense of the kind of work I’d like to do next year,” Radka Pudilova (MPA ’15) said.
The OSIRG participants from SPP this past summer were:
- Bashir Ahmad, International Crisis Group (Brussels, Belgium)
- Dragana Marinkovic, West Africa Civil Society Institute (Accra, Ghana)
- Rumbidzai Masango, International Service for Human Rights (Geneva, Switzerland)
- Radka Pudilova, Center for Applied Legal Research at the Fundação Getulio Vargas (Sao Paulo, Brazil)
- Yuxin Wang, International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (Brussels, Belgium)