By Shannon Raymond This week marks the thirty-fifth anniversary of the invasion of Kuwait by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. The invasion provoked outrage in the international community, prompting the United Nations Security Council to institute a worldwide ban on trade with Iraq with the stated goal of forcing Iraq’s withdrawal from Kuwait. Even after […]
Category: Interns
EPIC WELCOMES SUMMER 2022 INTERNS
At least once a year, EPIC welcomes a new cohort of interns – young professionals seeking to add practical experience to their academic backgrounds in humanitarian affairs, international relations, security studies, political science, public relations, and beyond. We are grateful for their contributions to our research, action, and advocacy, and for the opportunity to connect […]
EPIC’s Field Office Welcomes Summer 2021 Interns
EPIC field office in Iraq welcomes a new cohort of interns – young professionals seeking to add practical experience to their academic backgrounds in humanitarian affairs, international relations, security studies, political science, public relations, and beyond. We are grateful for their contributions to our research, action, and advocacy, and for the opportunity for them to […]
How Education and the Empowerment of Women Has Played a Pivotal Role in My Life
Unfortunately, women and children typically face more setbacks and trauma in times of conflict. Even during times of peace, many women and girls still endure gender and structural violence. All individuals have the right to live their lives without fear, conflict, or threat of violence. Thus, my decision to pursue a career that focuses on […]
A Life in Service
My name is Tanesha Singletary, and I am a second year Masters candidate in International Affairs at American University’s School of International Service (SIS). At SIS, I am a part of the Comparative and Regional Studies program with a regional focus on the Middle East. My interests in the field range from nationalism, identity, and […]
A Different Outlook
When I was little, I loved solving puzzles. There was very little more satisfying than finally figuring out a riddle, or solving a logic problem, or beating a particularly tricky computer game. As I got older, the puzzles got bigger, more complicated, and infinitely more interesting. The harder a puzzle was to figure out, […]
Do You Speak English?
“Do you speak English?” was a favorite phrase of mine for the first two weeks of my three-month experience in Amman, Jordan this past summer. Living my life according to the adage, “Adventure is the best way to learn,” I took off for the journey with only four brief semesters of beginning Arabic experience and […]
The Great Escape
My mom bought me my first pair of tap shoes when I was five so that I could release my pent-up energy in a productive, artistic manner instead of banging pots with a spatula in my kitchen. Fast-forward to the present, the nascent stage of my adult life, and I still find myself in a […]
From South Africa to Iraq: Investing in the Lives of Children
My name is John Chisholm, and I am a rising senior at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). As an International Studies major, I study the history, culture and politics of many different countries. As my second year of college came to a close, many of my classmates and counselors encouraged me explore study abroad […]
Passion Sparked by Gap Year
My name is Tarai Zemba, and I am a rising junior at Scripps College in Claremont, California (though I am originally from Rhode Island). I am a politics and international relations major with a minor in Spanish, and I first became fascinated by international development while abroad on a gap year program called Thinking Beyond […]