New Democracy Internships at Gallup, IDEA, NDI, and TI

UT’s Embedded Scholars program—led by UT Government faculty members Zachary Elkins and Ashley Moran—doubled in size this year to offer internships in more countries with more international organizations working in democratic development abroad.

Started three years ago as a partnership with International IDEA and the Comparative Constitutions Project in Latin America, the program combines in-depth classroom training in the spring with summer internships in democracy assistance abroad. This year, the program continued its work in Panama and Chile, and expanded to additional countries—Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, North Macedonia, and Sweden—as well as additional international organizations—CID Gallup, International IDEA’s Democracy Assessment team, the National Democratic Institute, and Transparency International.

Balkans and Eurasia

Thanks to new funding from Texas Global for internships in the Balkans and Eurasia this year, the program expanded to offer internships at International IDEA headquarters in Sweden, at the National Democratic Institute in North Macedonia, and at Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The program is thrilled to partner with these leading international organizations in the field of democracy assistance and good governance. Below is just a glimpse of some of the students’ experiences at these organizations that they’ll be writing about more this summer on the Embedded Scholars blog.

Embedded Scholars Avin French and Emma Niewald, North Macedonia Minister of Digital Transformation Stefan Andonovski, and Embedded Scholars Arion Moore and Alexander Dominiak meet in Skopje, North Macedonia to discuss the scholars’ research at NDI this summer assessing anticorruption efforts in North Macedonia.
Embedded Scholar Grace Morris (on the left) outside International IDEA in Stockholm, Sweden, where she interned with IDEA’s Democracy Assessment team, and Embedded Scholar Ella Ponthier (on the right) in Transparency International’s press room in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, where she researched state capture.
Embedded Scholar Arion Moore speaking with youth in Tetovo, North Macedonia at a mobile caravan organized by the National Democratic Institute and the Assembly of North Macedonia to facilitate MP meetings with constituents across the country.
Embedded Scholars from across Europe convened in Kosovo (on the back row), meeting here with (from left to right on the front row) the Constitutional Court of Kosovo Secretary General Veton Dula, Embedded Scholars Co-Director Ashley Moran, Constitutional Court Judge Remzije Istrefi-Peci, and Constitutional Court Senior Legal Advisor Sevdail Kastrati.

Latin America

Thanks to additional new funding from Texas Global and the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies for internships across Latin America this year, the program continued internships at International IDEA in Chile and Panama and expanded to offer new internships at CID Gallup in Colombia and Panama.

Embedded Scholars in a focus group room at CID Gallup in Panama City, Panama. From left to right on the front row: CID Gallup CEO (and UT Government alumnus!) Carlos Denton; Embedded Scholars Siyona Nayampally, Olivia Drew, and Douglas Ramirez; CID Gallup Director Ana Patricia Alfonso; and Embedded Scholar Salomé Valdivieso. From left to right on the back row: Embedded Scholars Mitchel McCormick and Lucas Elkins, and Embedded Scholars Co-Director Zachary Elkins.
Two CID Gallup staff members and Embedded Scholars Douglas Ramirez, Olivia Drew, and Siyona Nayampally conducting interviews with migrants in Panama City, Panama.
Embedded Scholar Zack Frailey Escobar, IDEA Chile staff members Oscar Francisco Pizarro and Alejandra Sepulveda, IDEA Latin America Regional Director Marcela Ríos Tobar and consultant Ana Maria Campos Martinez, IDEA Chile Programme Officer Ricardo Mena, Embedded Scholar Isabella Thomas, and IDEA consultant Marcelo Vera Alvarez at the International IDEA office in Santiago, Chile.
Embedded Scholars Allyson Dean and Allison Andrade (on the left) on their way to work at International IDEA’s Panama Country Office and its Latin America Regional Office, both located in Panama City, Panama. Embedded Scholars Salomé Valdivieso and Mitchel McCormick (foreground on the right) at CID Gallup in Bogotá, Colombia conducting a focus group with migrants.

Read more about the internships and the work of these fantastic institutions in blogs the students are posting all summer on the Embedded Scholars blog.