2019 여름학기
Julia Eunjee Kwak, 스탠포드대학교 외교학과

Through my internship at the East Asia Institute, I was able to experience firsthand how a think tank operates and what sort of research projects are conducted. I became especially interested in the connections between foreign and public policy through my work with EAI's Myanmar project. As a research assistant, I worked with seven other civil society organizations in Yangon, Myanmar to gain more tangible insight on the current state of public goods development such as their water distribution, street light, and market regulation systems. Alongside professors and graduate students, I provided support on survey methodology as well as policy recommendations. One of the major projects I completed was the Myanmar Democracy Research Network Databook in which we formatted all of the data collected from the seven partner organizations to be presented formally. I found it interesting to see how EAI was modeled after a U.S. think tank, and how EAI continues this chain of influence to the other Myanmar organizations it partners with. I was also able to stay very up to date on Myanmar society by collecting daily articles to be sent to my supervisor and a weekly organization publications list of the partner organizations.

The most significant contributions I made to my host organization were my grammar/writing structure editing skills, the MDRN databook as mentioned above, and event-planning for the Korea Friendship workshop series. I edited many articles, brochures, final reports, and more from each of the research associates as many of them release both Korean and English versions of their work. Additionally, I edited many final data reports/conclusions from each of the seven Myanmar organizations for grammar mistakes, sentence structure, and conciseness. The second contribution I made was being in charge of the MDRN databook, in which we formatted each of the data graphs, tables, and slides from every question the survey included. The surveys were released by the seven partner organizations and there were over 100 questions/data sets we had to format. I believe that the Myanmar civil society organizations will continue to use this as both a reference and a means of presentation. Finally, all of the interns were a large part of making sure the Korea Friendship workshops ran smoothly. We were in charge of contacting speakers, foreign residents living in Korea who would attend, and foreign exchange university students living in Korea as well. We also made sure the weekend trip to the DMZ was well organized, and set up the event each time we had a workshop. There were over 40 attendees, and we also got to learn a lot about Korean culture, politics, and society through the speakers' lectures.

Now that I have reached the end of my internship, looking back on these past two months has made me realize how much I have learned and accomplished. One of my goals before I started was to make sure I would be able to tell a friend or classmate about at least two relevant domestic/international issues. Through the Japan-South Korea situation, I really got to see how politically active Korean citizens are through protests and events. Additionally, it was really interesting to learn the diverse range of opinions people have regarding Trump opening up diplomatic relations with North Korea. Furthermore, another one of my goals was to sit in on at least two public policy conferences and engage with the material. Through the Korea Friendship workshops, I was able to attend lectures done by university professors from Yonsei, Seoul National University, and even CEOs of different companies. It was very interesting and insightful, and I really enjoyed discussing our thoughts later with my fellow interns and supervisors. Through my EAI internship I have gained so much academically and personally. I am very grateful for the experiences I had with my mentors and fellow interns, and I hope to take and apply all the lessons I have learned as I continue to pursue my career in international relations.