Samantha Garst ’15, an international relations major with a concentration in global business, and Lydia Delamatta ’15, an international relations with a double minor in Spanish and French, both participated in the Washington Semester this past fall.
Samantha interned at the Sierra Nevada Corporation, a privately-owned defense company that specializes in innovative engineering and electronic technologies in support of the warfighter. Within the International Trade Compliance Office, she was educated in export licensing, enterprise compliance, and trade policy. She worked with project managers across the company to draft, write, and submit export license proposals to the Department of State; attended policy meetings in support of business agendas; and analyzed in-office procedures and policies for overall effectiveness.
During her internship, the most important thing that she learned was that you are never too young or inexperienced to provide colleagues with feedback, ideas, and comments. Her opinion was always taken into account.
LCWS provided her with the tools and access to have an incredible internship experience. She was able to work every day of the week, even if she had to leave work early for their weekly field trips (which were always interesting). The administrators at LCWS were willing to work with, support, and accomodate her in every circumstance. All in all, Samantha had a wonderful semester in D.C.
Lydia worked as a fundraising intern at a political action committee called EMILY’s List, which stands for Early Money Is Like Yeast. She conducted research on current or potential major donors is constant work, so she always had a project. She performed a variety of tasks including completing donor research on current and prospective donors, updating donor profiles, assisting the Major Gifts coordinator with event outreach, attending event briefings for president, and calling time preparation. These were just some of her many duties.
The most important thing that Lydia learned was to always say yes to any opportunity because you never know who you will meet or what they will teach you. “The LCWS team is incredible and always there to help you in any way they can, and it is inspiring the amount of work and time they put aside for us,” she said.
