Deadline: July 31, 2020
The Virtual Student Federal Service is the largest virtual internship program in the world. It is a U.S. Department of State-run program to harness technology and a commitment to global service among young people to facilitate new forms of engagement. Working from home or college and university campuses in the United States and throughout the world, Virtual Interns are partnered with our U.S. diplomatic posts and domestic federal offices to conduct digital diplomacy that reflects the realities of our networked world.
Students work remotely on projects up to 10 hours per week from September to May, and can have a flexible schedule during the school year. This allows students to meet both their academic and virtual internship goals.
Virtual Intern duties and responsibilities vary according to the needs of the sponsoring office. Projects may be research-based, reporting on human rights, economics or the environment, for example. Or they may be technology-oriented, designing web pages or coding. Past projects include:
- Conduct research using economic data, and prepare informational material for a U.S. Embassy website;
- Create a system to gather and analyze media coverage on a set of topics including environment, health, and trade;
- Research IT-based interventions that have been successful in higher education, particularly in teacher training;
- Write and contribute biweekly articles to a U.S. Embassy’s Facebook page on topics such as internet technologies, computer science/technology, history, and literature;
- Develop a series of professional instructional video clips for a U.S. Embassy;
- Survey social media efforts of U.S. diplomatic posts, NGOs, and private companies around the world to help establish best practices in a U.S. Embassy’s social media outreach business plan;
- Develop and implement public relations campaigns using social media sites to communicate with youth audiences.