Name: Sara Monaghan

Class Year: 2016

Internship Placement: Women’s Campaign International in Philadelphia, PA

What’s happening? We’d love to hear how your internship is going!

My internship is going great! This summer I am interning at Women’s Campaign International in Philadelphia. Specializing in transitional states and post-conflict regions around the world, Women’s Campaign International is a nonprofit NGO that works to help women develop tangible skills in political leadership, conflict mitigation, economic empowerment, and civic engagement. For the past six weeks, I’ve been helping create and edit grant proposals that WCI creates for the State Department and other funding organizations, such as USAID. Recently, WCI submitted a grant application for a political participation program designed to help more Haitian women political leaders successfully run for office. In Haiti currently, while both men and women vote equally, there is very little political representation in the Haitian government. Through this proposal, WCI aims to teach female candidates to conduct successful campaigns and educate the public on female candidates’ platforms. This grant was really fascinating to work on, because I did a lot of background research on gender issues in Haiti and learned a lot about the country, as well as the process of submitting grant proposals for nonprofit aid.

How I heard about my internship:

I heard about Women’s Campaign International through Zoe Fisher (Class of 2015) who was a former social media intern there.

Why I applied for my internship:

I was really drawn to working at a local nonprofit that focused on women’s empowerment, because I love international studies and hope to learn more about women’s rights issues on a global scale. After I graduate, I hope to attend law school and study international law. Through Women’s Campaign International, I believe that I will gain a comprehensive exposure to gender issues on a macro-level, which will help me later on in the study of international law.