ÌÇÐÄvlog¹ÙÍø

The Harvard Center for International Development's Global Internship Program offers students a unique opportunity to engage with international development organizations in a meaningful way. Through hands-on professional experiences across diverse contexts, interns gain practical skills while exploring potential career paths. The stories below highlight the transformative impact of these student internships, showcasing how real-world interactions and research drive meaningful change. Each narrative reflects the commitment of interns to not only understand complex issues, but also to actively contribute to solutions that resonate with local communities. Read more about our interns and their inspiring journeys, each one a testament to the spirit of collaboration and innovation that defines our shared mission.

Policy Work as a Way of Life 

Kate Ravenscroft (Harvard College, 2026) at Morocco Innovation and Evaluation Lab in Rabat, Morocco

The answer always came to me in the form of a human conversation—reminding me that while bureaucracy is king in the logistics of policy work, it is the people who are inspired to instill change who truly move the dial. The researchers and policy students that have devoted their lives to bettering their country are the spirit of the office, and of the work both the Morocco Innovation and Evaluation Lab (MEL) and CID aim to accomplish. Dialogue with these constituents made it clear to me that policy work is not a desk job, it's a way of life. It isn’t going into the office, coding a stat model, sending an email to a government official, etc.—rather, it is defined by the sense of mission individuals feel toward their community. Many of my colleagues would leave the office at 6:00 or 7:00 in the evening and go home to work on their own policy projects or personal research. Casual social conversations with coworkers in the car on the way to and from work ranged from in-depth analysis of the cultural importance of the informal sector in Morocco, to evidence-based methods of improving educational access to young girls living in rural areas.  

Education Beyond Gender and Age

Rahul Yates (Harvard College, 2027) at Agastya International Foundation, India

Agastya’s innovative experiential learning style is very different from how most Indian government school classes are conducted, which means that when students have the opportunity to participate in an Agastya learning session, they are extremely eager to engage with the materials. I saw firsthand how students’ eyes lit up when they successfully completed an experiment or connected the dots between two concepts.

Having a strong understanding of programs was key for my project this summer, as I analyzed data collected from over forty thousand students from regions across India. One of my key findings was that differences in learning achievement between students is rarely correlated with gender, age, or the type of Agastya program that they are participating in. Rather, it is other variables, such as the type of school the student goes to, that creates a difference in pre-session and post-session outcomes. 

Over the course of two months, I learned a great deal about Indian society and culture, much more than I ever would have known without this experience, even as an Indian-American. Now, I feel much more confident in my abilities to live and work abroad, and I am already searching for opportunities in India for next summer!

Collaboration and Analysis for Lasting Impact

Andrea Cuellar Medina (Harvard Graduate School of Education, 2024) at UNESCO in Santiago, Chile

One of the key highlights of my internship at was supporting an award for innovative inclusive education, which recognized schools and teachers implementing transformative practices for students with disabilities. We worked closely with a donor organization to understand their priorities for the award and developed its terms and conditions. Along with another intern, we designed a rubric for evaluating submissions and created the foundation for a mentoring program that would support the award winners. This collaboration underscored the importance of building strong partnerships to drive innovation in the education sector. It was not just about recognizing excellence but about ensuring that students with special needs have access to high-quality education and that successful practices can be replicated across the region. It was inspiring to see how collaboration between international organizations, local stakeholders, and donors can make a tangible difference in education.

Throughout my internship, I gained invaluable insights into the inner workings of international organizations and the critical role of cross-sector collaboration in achieving lasting impact. Being immersed in UNESCO's mission-driven environment allowed me to witness how global challenges can be addressed through coordinated, inclusive efforts. I had the privilege of learning from experts in the field, gaining a more nuanced understanding of the region’s educational policies, and expanding my own expertise in educational policy and analysis. This experience has deepened my understanding of the complexity of the issues facing the region and the strategies needed to address them effectively.

Cultural Nuances in Care: A Global Lens on Gender Politics 

Stephanie Hsu (Harvard College, 2026) at Khazanah Research Institute, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

My research experience at pushed me to see the world through multiple lenses. In my work, I needed to thoroughly examine care-related policies of different countries through literature review and consider the different characteristics of each country’s government and people. While each country faced similar challenges in striving to close the gender gap and keeping women in the workforce, they had very different approaches in working towards solving them.

I learned about the nuance involved in developing effective economic policies, and worked to better understand how culture, history, and demographics shaped each country’s care economy landscape. Towards the end of my internship, I had the exciting chance to present my findings to all of KRI, explaining the trends I found among regions, particularly interesting policies to highlight, and considerations for what may be feasible next steps to advance Malaysia’s care economy. I learned so much from the feedback of more experienced researchers and all the discussions which followed, and used it to broaden my perspectives and research even more! 

Bridging Perspectives into India’s Education Landscape

Shu Xin Ho (Harvard College, 2027) and Sofia Santos de Oliveira (Harvard College, 2026) at Agastya International Foundation, India

From our first week, we immersed ourselves in studying the National Education Policy (NEP), eager to go beyond the written document to understand on-the-ground perspectives. To gain a comprehensive view of Agastya International Foundation's operations and its extensive reach across 23 states in India, we organized meetings with staff members leading various programs such as the Mobile Science Lab and Young Instructor Leaders, as well as initiatives like teacher quality assurance and gender equality policies. These conversations helped inform us of Agastya’s impact and gaps, while providing invaluable insights into the realities of India’s education system and landscape, allowing us to draw parallels with our home countries, Brazil and Malaysia.

We are grateful for the opportunity to bridge the gap between policy and practice, going beyond any government or economics class we have taken at Harvard. While the NEP may seem like a theoretical policy framework which does not directly impact students’ lives, we hope our work at Agastya has contributed to aligning its programs with NEP principles, highlighting areas where it is ahead of the curve, and identifying gaps while providing actionable suggestions for their current programs and new initiatives.

Validating Assessments for Children in Crisis 

Stephane Ndayishimiye (Harvard Graduate School Of Education, 2024) at Save the Children US

My project with consisted of using qualitative and statistical methods to assess the validity of educational assessment tools designed to measure a range of skills including literacy, numeracy, or social and emotional learning for children in emergency contexts. These assessments aim to inform care providers on the educational needs required by vulnerable children. Analyzing the validity of such tools is important because as tests are deployed in diverse cultural settings, there is a risk that question items might be interpreted differently and therefore measure skills with different precision. Ideally, educators want to ensure assessment tools are valid and reliable to accurately measure skill levels in the places where they are used. 

CID's Global Interns receive funding from a variety of sources, including the Mignone Center for Career Services at Harvard College and the Harvard Center for International Development.