Central Asian Fellows Develop Critical Business Skills Through D.C. Internships

Last quarter, American Councils and the U.S.-Central Asia Education Foundation (US-CAEF) welcomed six of its first international internship fellows to Washington D.C. Overseen by American Councils, US-CAEF provides full scholarships to undergraduates at leading universities in Central Asia to strengthen business education in the region. After graduation, select US-CAEF scholarship recipients spend four months interning at companies in Washington, D.C. as international internship fellows gaining valuable professional skills and building their international business networks.

With full scholarship support from the US-CAEF Student Fellowship program, the students earned their bachelors degrees from American University of Central Asia (AUCA) in Kyrgyzstan and the Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics, and Strategic Research (KIMEP). Hailing from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, the graduates will intern in the fields of investment, international trade logistics, and public policy research. When they return home after their internships, the fellows will use their degrees and new professional skills to become leaders in the fields of business administration and economics.

When asked about her goals for the internship program, a current US-CAEF fellow, Maria Tsvetkova, reflected, "when I studied the theory of business at my university, I was skeptical about all the rules and procedures described in books... One of the goals for my internship is to experience all of these theories in practice."

American Councils for International Education partners with the Washington Center, a D.C.-based internship provider, to offer participants an integrated, experiential learning program. This program consists of a competitively placed internship, academic courses on business strategy and entrepreneurship, and relevant professional development events. In addition to the importance of career-based internships, participants gain significant international cultural understanding that will benefit them in their future careers.

For more information on US-CAEF, visit http://www.us-caef.americancouncilsnetwork.org/.