Internship
2020 Summer Internship
Beom June Kim, Georgetown University
My name is Beom June Kim, and I am currently an undergraduate junior at Georgetown University, majoring in International Politics at the School of Foreign Service.
Interning at the East Asia Institute for the past five months has been my biggest pleasure of this summer, an experience which truly changed my perspective about international politics and gave me a valuable work experience I could have never achieved elsewhere. As I applied during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and I was only an undergraduate sophomore, I thought I would be rejected from the get-go. Instead, I was instead greeted with a warm welcome.
During my internship, I was involved in various tasks such as translating EAI’s working papers and articles, conducting research related to North Korean security issues and the Asian Democratic Research Network, supporting various events such as Webinars and the Korean Identity project (한국인의 정체성 행사), working on Webinar transcripts, and various other duties as necessary.
Working at EAI helped me understand the complex role that think tanks play in global policy research, and how many different actors - whether civilian, academic, or government - affect and analyze outcomes of global events and policy changes. As someone who has never worked in the field but aspire to continue working in the field, I was more than thrilled to learn from professionals and gain a thorough understanding about the field of work that I am really passionate about.
I would sincerely like to thank everyone I met at EAI, and especially my internship program managers, Ms. Sea Young Kim and Ms. Younghyun Lee. I was blessed to work in a work environment which values and truly cares for each other. If anyone asks me if they should apply for an internship at EAI, I would definitely say yes without hesitation.
