Cultural Vistas is pleased to announce the 2021 class of Edmund S. Muskie Interns. This group of participants will be the seventh cohort since the program’s start in 2014.
The Edmund S. Muskie Internship Program is a summer internship program funded by the U.S. Department of State. It provides emerging leaders from Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia with the opportunity to gain real-world experience complementing and enriching their graduate studies in the United States.
Since 1992, the U.S. Department of State has provided thousands of graduate school fellowships for students from across Eurasia to build democracies, strengthen the transition to market economies, and establish strong civil societies. Cultural Vistas has built upon that foundation by providing hands-on, professional skill-building opportunities across the United States for nearly 300 graduate students over the last seven years.
“Every year, the Muskie Program brings together people who are very similar and at the same so different. We are all from post-Soviet countries, decades ago bounded by some utopian ideas and then separated by numerous political, economic, and legislative conflicts. What unites us today is the passion for future success and positive changes that we are to bring to the modern world – the world that certainly needs a new generation of empowered leaders with nontrivial ideas for the sustainable development of our society,” said Anton Boltachka, a 2021 Muskie Intern from Belarus working with the World Bank Group over the summer.
The 2021 program cohort brings together 37 current graduate students studying in the United States through the Fulbright Foreign Student Program. Our interns hail from all 12 countries in the region: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.
The Muskie Internship Program holds a partnership with a multitude of host organizations that are at the forefront of bringing innovative talent to the U.S. workplace and play a critical role in fostering mutual understanding. The organizations hosting this summer’s interns span various fields and industries. They include the United States Institute of Peace, Future Earth, Wisconsin Watch, Georgetown University Medical Center, Birds Nest Foundation, Council Rock, Inc., and the Wilson Center. This year the Muskie program is happy to continue collaborating with numerous host companies from previous years and establish new partnerships with organizations. These new partners include the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, and the American Councils for International Education.
For more information please visit www.culturalvistas.org