Contact Information
Phone: 401.865.1968
Location: Howley Hall 310
Faculty
Faculty Paul Herron, Ph.D., Program Director
The Program
The College offers an opportunity for students in any major to spend a semester in the Washington Semester Program. This program combines academic study and related internship in Washington.
Students can choose one of eight concentrations: American politics; foreign policy; global economics and business; public health; sustainable development; international law and organizations; justice and law; and, journalism and new media. Each concentration includes two required elements: a two-course seminar that features academic professors and professional policymakers and a related three-day-per-week internship. Internship opportunities are many and varied, and range from the Office of the Vice President of the United States to the director of the National Smithsonian Museums Network, and numerous interest groups, associations, and nonprofits.
Admission to the program is available on a competitive basis to ten Providence College students per academic year. A Providence College committee composed of faculty and administrators selects each year’s participants. The application deadline is normally February 1 of the current academic year for participation in the following academic year’s program. The application consists of a cover letter addressed to the committee expressing the reasons for interest in the program; a current transcript; a completed Projected Studies Plan form that charts course work through the senior year; and, a writing sample of 1000 words or less from any class at the College.
Descriptions of the programs, as well as all forms and applications, may be obtained from the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate and Graduate Studies, the Career Education Center, and the Washington Semester Program faculty director. Interested students may also check the program website at www.american.edu/spexs/washingtonsemester.
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