The paid U.S. Foreign Service Internship Program (USFSIP) is merit and need-based for students with financial need or who have faced adversity with a cumulative 3.2 GPA or higher. The program provides two paid internships over two consecutive summers (1 domestic, 1 overseas) at the U.S. Department of State. Sophomores and rising juniors may apply for programs during their junior and senior years. Applications will open soon and due in August.
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This program offers U.S. citizen undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to participate in paid internships offer an intensive educational and experiential learning experience, which provides professional experience and personal growth and development within a foreign affairs environment.
Applicants can continue to use the “U.S. Department of State Internship Program” brochure on careers.state.gov for basic information about the program, and information about bureaus and offices in the Department of State. Individual references to paid internships are no longer valid. Opportunities under the Student Experience Program are unpaid.
The U.S. Department of State is the lead U.S. foreign affairs agency responsible for advancing freedom for the benefit of the American people and the international community. The Department’s employees, Foreign Service Officers and Specialists, Civil Service professionals and Foreign Service Nationals work at over 265 locations overseas, and throughout the United States. Together, they help to build and sustain a more democratic, secure, and prosperous world composed of well-governed states that respond to the needs of their people, reduce widespread poverty, and act responsibly within the international system.
The U.S. Department of State Student Internship is an unpaid, intensive internship offering U.S. citizen undergraduate and graduate students a chance to participate in the formulation and implementation of U.S. foreign policy, working closely with representatives of the U.S. Department of State’s Foreign and Civil Services. The program is both professionally and academically beneficial, providing participants with hands-on experience and insight into the substance and daily operations of U.S. foreign policy.
About half of U.S. Department of State Student Experience participants serve in Washington, D.C., with a limited number of opportunities available at Department field offices and facilities in other cities in the United States. Approximately half of these opportunities are offered in many of the over 265 U.S. embassies, consulates and missions to international organizations around the world. The U.S. Department of State Student Experience is also the only program within the agency that offers U.S. citizen undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to work at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate overseas.
Applicants are allowed to select two bureaus or overseas posts in which they would like to work. Student Internship Programs are full-time opportunities, and generally last 10 weeks.
The U.S. Department of State Student Internship is NOT part of the Pathways Program. Unpaid internships in the U.S. Department of State Student Internship program cannot be non-competitively converted to Pathways Internship appointments, nor can they be non-competitively converted to career positions in the U.S. Department of State’s Foreign or Civil Services.
KEY REQUIREMENTS
• Must be enrolled as a degree-seeking student
• Must be taking at least half-time academic course load
• Must be at least a college Junior.
• Position subject to pre-employment background investigation
• Cumulative GPA 2.5 or higher