A spring semester visit by Eastern Mennonite University students, history professors Mark Metzler Sawin, Mary Sprunger and Ji Eun Kim, and career services director Kimberly Phillips highlighted internship opportunities in policy and advocacy through the Washington Community Scholars’ Center (WCSC).
Through its strategic location in Washington D.C. and over 40 years of relationship-building with local organizations, WCSC is well-situated to provide impactful learning and internship experiences for all students, including those in EMU’s new political studies and global studies majors. Political studies students will have a semester at WCSC built into their program.
Learn more about majors in political science and global studies.
During the visit, students majoring in history, peacebuilding and development, and global studies learned how their studies might apply to different types of positions and professions.
The day began at the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Washington Office. After a tour, the group settled in for a discussion about MCC’s initiatives. MCC staff described how their office brings policy points from the organization’s worldwide peacebuilding and humanitarian projects back to Washington to inform politicians at the national level and advocate for justice issues.
“MCC’s D.C. office provides students [with the opportunity] to learn the nuts-and-bolts of advocacy work from within a pragmatic but also deeply Anabaptist setting,” said history professor Mark Metzler Sawin.
Members of the Capital Area Anabaptist Network, a local group that includes several EMU and WCSC program alums, joined the conversation for lunch. Pastors discussed how they have worked to reconcile and bridge the divide between the political overlay of DC and local populations that remain underserved and underrepresented.
Discussion of this local landscape offered context for the group’s next stop at Organizing Neighborhood Equity (ONE) DC, which engages in community organizing for equity and local housing rights. Here they joined current WCSC students for a special seminar with the organization’s leaders and with intern Kamran Mamedovi, a second-year graduate student at EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding. Mamedovi and another fellow graduate student are completing a required semester-long practicum while living in community with WCSC students.
The last stop before heading to the WCSC Nelson Good House for dinner was with Climate Nexus, a communications non-profit focusing on climate change. The group met with Senior Research Associate Nathan Kauffman ‘10, who participated in the WCSC program during his junior year.
The visit helped students and professors alike to see the variety of organizations and methods of engaging in policy work that students can explore. “These internships help students gain professional experience and distinguish themselves to potential employers,” Schmidt said.