- By Leigh DuPuy

Photocopying, answering phones, spending hours reorganizing files – these may be the tasks most think of when envisioning the typical internship. However, if you are completing an internship as a graduate student in the Program in Women in Politics and Public Policy, your typical day would include a very different "to do" list, ranging from policy work and nonprofit advocacy to working with local and national leaders as your mentors.

The internship is an integral part of the one-year certificate program for women seeking to make a transition into careers or advanced graduate study in public policy, law, government, and public advocacy. To provide students with invaluable hands-on experience, networking opportunities, and skill development, the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy (CWPPP) helps connect their students with opportunities that offer directed and substantive public policy work in both the public and private sectors.

CWPPP has matched interns with opportunities working for the offices of Senator Susan Fargo and Diane Wilkerson, the Department of Health and Human Services, Boston Municipal Court, Commonwealth Coalition, and the Executive Office of Public Safety, to name a few.

"We work hard to match our interns, their work schedules, and their interests," explains Jain Ruvidich-Higgins, assistant director of the program.

"Jain really helped me out a lot – she gave me tons of leads and contacts," says Liz Goodwin, who is working with Marie Turley at the Boston Women's Commission (BWC). Not only will Goodwin take part in the initiative to create the Boston Women's Memorial 2003, she will help to create curriculum and outreach for Women's History Month and Take Your Daughter to Work Day events. "This internship is definitely giving me the experience in politics and public policy that will help me get a job in a non-profit or government agency."

To ensure that any opportunity doesn't downgrade into a photocopying internship, CWPPP works with students to draft an agreement that spells out the terms, conditions, and expectations of the opportunity. Students are required to work a minimum of 250 hours in their host agency.

With many of their students working full-time, the center's focus on matching schedules, hours, and locations is key to their students' success. Katherine Griswold has been able to balance working her full-time job for Project Bread with an internship with Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International. Pursuing her interest in stem cell research policy, Griswold works with a local mentor and a mentor at the New York office of the Joslin Research Center. "I am really interested in how policy works and what kinds of communication strategies can be used," she said. As with many others, her internship is interrelated to her work now in non-profit advocacy.

At the end of the semester, students write a reflective, analytical paper about the experience. The six credits they earn is just one part of the program. "Our students are required to earn six credits in each area of academic theory, research, and practice," explains Ruvidich-Higgins.

For more information, visit www.mccormack.umb.edu/cwppp/education.