Two 2026 Embedded Scholars spent their summer internships supporting democracy programs with the National Democratic Institute in Tirana, Albania. Their summer work focused on democratic research in transparency and anti-corruption initiatives, as well as the relationship between civic education and public participation in democratic institutions.
Elizabeth Donaway (a UT Government PhD student) and Trinity Elkins (a graduate student at UT’s LBJ School of Public Affairs) recently completed their summer internships with the National Democratic Institute in Albania. Both fellows wrote about their experiences on the UT Embedded Scholars blog.
For Elizabeth Donaway, her work focused on civic education programming—specifically how the Albanian government can help to engage and teach youth about democratic processes and how to participate.
“Through this work, I came to appreciate that democracy assistance is not only about elections, parties, or formal institutional reform,” Elizabeth writes in her blog post, Civic Education and Prospects for Democracy: Reflections from Albania. “It is also about helping citizens understand that democratic institutions belong to them and helping institutions create meaningful ways for citizens to participate.”
Through her research and policy analysis, she ultimately recommended creation of a youth policy and research council within the country’s Parliamentary Institute, an institution within the Albanian Parliament that helps Albanian members of Parliament through research, library services, and civic education programming. “Such a council would allow young people to identify issues affecting their lives, consult peers across the country, work with nonpartisan research staff, and present evidence-based recommendations to parliamentary committees.”
Reflecting on her internship, Elizabeth writes, “My time with NDI in Albania showed me that democracy is sustained not through constitutional rules or electoral competition, but also through the everyday relationships between citizens and institutions.”
Trinity Elkins also focused on the Albanian Parliament but examined how legislatures could use audit reports to hold the executive accountable and explored ways to strengthen parliamentary oversight institutions to result in more meaningful reforms. In her work with NDI, she sat in on meetings with municipal council members, the Albanian Parliament subcommittee on public sector finance, the Albanian Ministry of Finance and Economy, representatives from the European Parliament, and the Albanian Supreme Audit Institution.
“One key takeaway throughout my internship was that strong oversight institutions alone are not enough to combat corruption,” Trinity writes in her piece Witnessing History in Albania. “Audit reports only have value if governments are willing to implement the recommendations, making political will and institutional cooperation just as important as the oversight process itself.”
Trinity further reflects on her time as an Embedded Scholar, writing, “I have learned so much about not only Albania and democracy over the course of this summer, but I’ve also learned so much about myself, professionally and personally, for which I will be forever grateful that I had the opportunity.”
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.