Wednesday, September 02, 2026
This summer, four UT Austin students traveled to North Macedonia through the UT Embedded Scholars Program and interned for the National Democratic Institute in Skopje, gaining firsthand experience in strengthening democratic institutions, civic participation, transparency, and good governance. The Fellows—Ellie Alford, Rebekah Besserman, Sid Dasari, and Jackson Nichols—moved beyond the classroom and into the field to engage directly with policymakers, civil society leaders, researchers, and young people on some of the most pressing challenges facing North Macedonia’s democracy.
Rebekah Besserman, a senior majoring in Plan II Honors and Government, was placed with the Integrity Driven Communities project at NDI, where she worked to strengthen anti-corruption measures at local levels in the country. She writes about her work in her recent blog post Exploring Democracy and Civic Engagement in North Macedonia.
Notably, Rebekah and Sid Dasari, a sophomore majoring in Plan II Honors and International Relations and Global Studies, were able to collaborate on an independent project for NDI, which examined barriers to youth participation and explored citizen engagement mechanisms used in other European democracies that could potentially be adapted to North Macedonia. Their work led them into conversations with government officials, civil society organizations, and local leaders.
“It has been incredible to learn from so many different people and organizations across the city and the country—from government officials to civil society leaders to professors—they have all offered a different and unique perspective that has helped to shape our understanding of local civic engagement and anti-corruption,” Rebekah writes.
According to Sid, his work at NDI and interacting with public officials and citizens of Macedonia has “fundamentally reshaped the way I think about public service.”
“Watching the people at NDI showed me that democracy is not sustained by sweeping reforms alone,” he writes in his blog post Finding Resilience in North Macedonia. “It advances because ordinary people choose, day after day, to keep showing up.”
Jackson Nichols, a senior majoring in Government and Sociology, similarly focused his research on youth participation, examining North Macedonia’s youth councils and the challenge of “brain drain” as young people leave the country after completing their education, which he writes about in his blog post Youth Participation in North Macedonian Democracy.
This summer, Jackson joined a Youth Caravan event, organized by NDI and the Assembly of North Macedonia to take Members of Parliament on the road to meet constituents in their communities. There, students questioned the MPs about emigration, opportunity, and political participation. The experience spurred Jackson to develop a research project exploring the disconnect between young people and political leaders. With NDI’s support, he met with members of the National Youth Council of Macedonia, MPs from the Youth Caucus, and youth political organizations while developing recommendations for strengthening youth engagement in politics.
“My greatest hope is that my research and work give back to NDI even a fraction of what this experience has given me,” Jackson writes about his work in North Macedonia. “I am forever indebted to the people of North Macedonia for welcoming me into their country, not as an outsider looking in, but as someone worthy of understanding it from within.”
Ellie Alford’s work centered on democratic institutions and electoral integrity. As part of NDI’s Parliamentary Support Program, she studied the North Macedonian Assembly’s efforts to become more transparent, accountable, and independent. She also researched “non-contestant campaigning”—meaning, independent political spending by organizations or individuals—and compared North Macedonia’s regulatory framework with approaches in other democracies. Her work resulted in a comparative analysis, threat assessment, and recommendations tailored to North Macedonia’s current political and legal environment.
“While my contribution was only a small piece of a much larger effort, I hope the work I completed can support conversations on an issue that will become increasingly salient in North Macedonia and in democracies around the world,” writes Ellie in her blog post Eating Tomatoes and Supporting Democracy in North Macedonia.
The Embedded Scholars program provides internships for graduate and undergraduate students from UT Austin to work in democratic and constitutional development abroad. Current opportunities allow students to work with CID Gallup and International IDEA in Latin America and with International IDEA, the National Democratic Institute, and Transparency International in Europe and Eurasia.
Applications for the 2027 summer cohort are open and will be accepted through October 15, 2026. Join us for an Embedded Scholars Info Session on September 10, 2026.
To read more reflections from this year’s fellows interning in countries across Latin America and Europe, visit the Embedded Scholars blog.