Swasono with Homi Kharas of Brookings Institution
I’m grateful to have a chance to finish my summer internship at the Brookings Institution, one of the most prestigious think tanks in the world. I worked at the Global Economy and Development Program with Dr. Homi Kharas (Interim Vice President and Director of the program). During my internship, I researched the global middle class and assisted Dr. Kharas preparing his upcoming book on the subject. In his book, Dr. Kharas aims to inform readers about the impact of the emerging middle class from various perspectives, such as business and innovation, gender politics and social stability, environment, climate change, and democracy.
My internship was very relevant to my study at Sanford. I am working toward a Master of International Development Policy (MIDP), and my internship was in international development research–so I think it fairly matches! During the internship, I wrote a paper every week, so it reminded me very much of my assignments on campus and I felt very prepared. The difference is, on campus we usually wrote a 15 pages paper for the mid-term or final exam, but during my internship, I had to do the same amount of work every single week. It was very challenging yet enjoyable.
The opportunity to do an internship at Brookings was a great experience. I worked for a government institution before coming to the US, so working at a top global think tank is really a treasurable new opportunity that I’m thankful for.
This internship opportunity also matched with my expectations. In our program on campus, the faculty and career adviser told us to use the internship experience to think about and refine the topics that we want to take on for our final Master’s project (MP). I’m happy to say that I found my topic while I was doing my internship. In addition to discovering my topic and some initial readings for my master’s project, I also found my academic adviser. I’m excited that Dr. Indermit Gill has agreed to be will be my MP adviser.
The DCID staff were also very helpful in the preparation of my internship, they even put on a special breakfast for interns and their supervisors in Washington, D.C. A special thanks go to Dr. Gill who recommended me to do an internship at Brookings, and to Caroline Korda Poole who helped me during the preparation of my internship application.
I’m so glad that DCID has built this partnership with the Brookings Institution this year. I hope this partnership, especially partnership in the internship program, will continue in the next years so that more MIDP fellows will have the opportunity I have had.
– Ardhi Swasono, MIDP Candidate
