College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences > Academics > International Studies > Student Resources > Careers and Internships

Careers and Internships

Fulbright
What is a fellowship?
Fellowships are usually short-term opportunities (a few months to a couple years) offered to students, recent graduates, and young professionals and accompanied by a living stipend. Fellowships offer a significant amount of experience and professional development in a short amount of time, so they are excellent pathways to future career opportunities. Fellowship activities vary, but can include teaching, research, and project development/implementation. The fellowships below may be of particular interest to students in international studies.

Fellowship Listing

APSA Minority Fellows Program
The APSA Minority Fellows program provides financial support to minority (or underrepresented) students applying to enter a doctoral program in political science.

Ashoka Fellows
Ashoka sponsors fellows who want to pursue an innovative solution or approach to a social problem in the areas of civic engagement, economic development, environment, health, human rights, and education.

Asmus Policy Entrepreneurs Fellowship
The Amus fellowships supports emerging leaders who have a clearly articulated policy project that will address an important foreign or economic policy issue and will advance transatlantic cooperation. Applicants must be American or European citizens under the age of 40.

Boren Fellowships and Scholarships
Boren Scholarships and Fellowships provide money to undergraduate and graduate students interested in studying langauges and areas that are critical to US interests. Languages include Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Swahili, among others.

Echoing Green Fellowship
Echoing Greens two-year Fellowship program provides more than $2 million in seed funding to a diverse group of promising social entrepreneurs. From thousands of applicants, typically fewer than one percent are ultimately selected. Those selected receive funding to help launch new organizations; leadership development opportunities; and one-to-one support.

Emerson National Hunger Fellows Program
Emerson Fellows gain experience fighting hunger in this 12 month program through their field placesments with community-based organizations across the country and  in Washington DC with national policy organizations. Living stipend and health insurance provided. Applicants must have completed a Bachelor's degree.

The Fulbright Program 
The Fulbright Program provides grants to implement projects, study, and teach in over 155 countries. The Fellowships open to recent graduates include the Fulbright U.S. Student Program and the Fulbright English Teaching Assistantships (ETA) Program.

Global Health Corps
Global Health Corps provides a yearlong paid fellowship for young professionals from diverse backgrounds to work on the frontlines of the fight for global health equity at existing health organizations and government agencies. Fellows are currently working in Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Malawi, Zambia and the United States.

The Herbert Scoville Jr. Peace Fellowship
The Herbert Scoville Jr. Peace Fellowship is a national fellowship program that provides recent college and grad school graduates with the opportunity to gain a Washington perspective on key issues of peace and security. Supported by a salary, the fellows serve as full-time junior staff members at the participating organization of their choice.

Human Rights Watch Finberg Fellowship
HRW Fellows monitor human rights developments in various countries, conduct on-site investigations, draft reports on human rights conditions, and engage in advocacy and media outreach aimed at publicizing and curtailing human rights violations. Applicants must be recent graduates from a Masters program.

The Institute of Current World Affairs Fellowship
The ICWA fellowship program aims to nurture deep expertise in foreign countries and cultures by supporting a Fellow who carries out a program of self-designed, independent study abroad for a minimum of two years.

Leland International Hunger Fellows Program​ 
The Mickey Leland International Hunger Fellows Program is a two-year program that places 12-15 fellows with international development organizations that include international and local NGOs, U.S. government agencies and multilateral organizations. Fellows work on a variety of food security issues, such as agricultural development, nutrition, natural resource management, agribusiness development and womens empowerment. Applicants must have completed a graduate-level degree.

Rotary Peace Fellowships
Rotary offers fellowships to recent graduates from a BA program to earn a Masters degree at premier universities in fields related to peace and conflict resolution and prevention. Programs last 15 - 24 months and require a practical internship of 23 months during the academic break.

The Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship
The Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship Programs provide funding to participants as they are prepared academically and professionally to enter the United States Department of State Foreign Service. Undergraduate applicants must be current juniors. For the graduate fellowship, students should apply when they are planning to enter a master's program in the following fall.

What is an internship? 

Internships are temporary positions designed to provide on-the-job training. They may be unpaid or paid, full-time or part-time. Internships are an important way for students to gain work experience and can also be useful for recent graduates trying to get into a particular field or improve their resumes. Below are some organizations that often offer internship opportunities.

Organizational Listing

American Refugee Committee
ARC is an international nonprofit that provides opportunities and expertise to refugees, displaced people and host communities. We help people survive conflict and crisis and rebuild lives of dignity, health, security and self-sufficiency.

Amnesty International Midwestern Office​
Amnesty International is an international organization of people fighting injustice and promoting human rights. A variety of unpaid internships are available out of the Chicago office. Intern projects include direct grassroots activism and organizing, research, graphic design, social media and blogging, journalism/newsletter production, event coordination and planning, database upkeep, and human rights violation inquiry response.

Council on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations Internship Program offers outstanding (unpaid) volunteer opportunities for college students, graduate students, and graduates focusing on international relations and who are pursuing a career in foreign policy or a related field.

Public Allies
Public Allies is a national organization (with a Chicago office) dedicated to advancing new leadership to strengthen communities, nonprofits and civic participation. Applicants to the program go through a rigorous application process and, if selected, are placed with a local nonprofit organization and participate in a full-time, paid apprenticeship for 10 months.

InterAction
InterAction is an alliance organization in Washington, D.C. of U.S.-based international organizations. Our members, more than 180 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), work around the world. Internships are unpaid and require a minimum 20 hours per week

In These Times
In These Times is an independent, non-profit newsmagazine and website based in Chicago. Interns participate fully in the editorial process and gain insight into every step of the production of an award-winning monthly magazine and website. Former In These Times interns have gone on to write for or work at The Nation, The Huffington Post, The American Prospect, Truthout, Buzzfeed, Salon, Yahoo! News and many other publications.

RefugeeOne
RefugeeOne serves refugees who are brought to the United States through the U.S. State Department and sent to Chicago for resettlement. Unpaid internships and volunteer opportunities are available in tutoring, mentoring, job readiness, and case management.

Witness for Peace
Witness for Peace (WFP) is a politically independent, nationwide grassroots organization of people committed to supporting peace, justice and sustainable economies in the Americas by changing U.S. policies and corporate practices that contribute to poverty and oppression in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Womens Global Education Project
Women's Global Education Project is a Chicago-based non-profit working with girls education and community initiatives in rural Kenya and Senegal towards sustainable development. WGEP offers unpaid internship opportunities to undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate students in the Chicago area who want to learn more about nonprofit management, the issues of global poverty and girls education, and the Chicago global development community.

World Relief
World relief engages churches to leverage their energy and resources in service to the most vulnerable people around the world. US-based (including in the Chicago office) and international unpaid internships are available in many areas of relief and development work.

Exploring career and education opportunities after finishing your degree at DePaul can be both exciting and daunting. Whether you want to work abroad, stay in Chicago, or go on to a MA or PhD program, the International Studies Department is here to help!

Below you will find a few search engines and other resources that can help you get an idea of what careers are available. In the tabs at the top of this page, you can find listings of fellowships and internsh​ips that may be of particular interest to students in International Studies.

Career Centers and Search Tools

Idealist
Idealist specializes in the non-profit sector and careers that have a positive societal impact. You can search job and internship listings, and sign up for Email Alerts to receive a daily digest of new opportunities that match your criteria.

Going Global
Going Global provides country-specific career and employment information. Search for jobs and internships in more than 30 countries and over 50 USA metropolitan areas. View country career guides, get news on H-1B Visa employers and more. Campus Connection login and password required.

University of California at Berkeley Career Center 
UC Berkeley's Career Center is one of the most comprehensive collections of information on jobs, internships, fellowships and career information.  It is not specifically geared toward international relations or international affairs, but they have a large "Career Exploration" section that includes a wide variety of job and volunteer options.

DePaul's Career Center 
DePaul's career center offers workshops and one-on-one asssitance with resumes and job or internship searches.

Sample Student Resume​

Need resume help?

Check out a sample resume from a graduate of the INT program.