Nuruddin Ahmed, Bangladesh
MPA Candidate, Class of 2016
OSIRG Intern, Sunlight Foundation, Washington DC
Ahmed has been spending his summer interning at the Sunlight Foundation, a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that uses technology to make the U.S. government and U.S. politics more accountable and transparent.
As a member of the policy team, Ahmed has provided quantitative and qualitative analysis and prepared a report based on a newly released data set on Money, Politics and Transparency. Ahmed has also written a couple of blog posts on innovative uses of technology, and contributed to another research project on online voting. “It’s been busy,” he says.
Ahmed reports that his summer internship has been an invaluable experience. “I have been able to take my policy analysis skills to a whole new level thanks to guidance from my mentors here at the Starlight Foundation,” says Ahmed. Colleagues have also introduced him to some interesting organizations: 18F (“a government agency which works like a start up!”), New America Foundation, (“great talks”), the Open Government Partnership (“interesting open consultation meeting”), etc.
The highlight of Ahmed’s summer internship was being able to participate in a small workshop with transparency activists and professionals from a dozen countries. “I witnessed a very lively debate about political financing issues. All of the participants had extensive experience and raised interesting questions about transparency that caused me to look at this issue in a completely different and more nuanced way.”
Ahmed says that his summer has also provided him with lots of chances to network. “I hope to be able to use these connections to advance shorob.com, the nonprofit startup that I founded in Bangladesh,” he says.